Lockheed Martin sets hiring event for recent engineering graduates
If you have ever wanted to build a fighter plane — and you have the skills necessary to do so — Lockheed Martin Aeronautics may have a job for you.
The Fort Worth-based company, which builds the F-35 stealth fighter jet for the United States military and its allies, is hosting a “Home for the Holidays” job fair. About 200 recent college graduates or soon-to-be grads could be hired at the event, which will be 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Jan. 9 at the downtown Omni Fort Worth Hotel.
It’s the latest push by the company to bolster its work force and meet the growing demand for its stealthy aircraft.
A similar job fair was held about a year ago, and more than 1,000 college students and recent grads attended, said Kenneth Ross, Lockheed Martin spokesman.
“We ... made offers to more than 300 candidates and experienced an outstanding acceptance rate,” Ross said in an email. “For the January 2020 event, we are focused on recent and upcoming engineering graduates for full-time positions.”
Lockheed Martin is specifically looking for applicants graduating from college between January 2018 and August 2020, with majors in aeronautical, computer, electrical, mechanical, software and systems engineering.
Interested candidates are encouraged to text “LockheedMartin” to 97211 for event details.
Registration is not required, officials said. Those who wish to attend the “Home for the Holidays” hiring event should bring a hard copy of their resume.
Lockheed Martin is one of the largest employers in the North Texas region, with about 16,400 workers at the company’s fighter jet assembly plant in Fort Worth and another 3,500 employees at its Missile and Fire Control plant in Grand Prairie.
About 10,000 of those workers are in engineering and other high-tech fields.
At a time when Fort Worth-area leaders say there aren’t enough high-tech jobs on the western side of Dallas-Fort Worth, Lockheed Martin officials acknowledge that it’s a challenge to hire enough people to keep up with the demand for F-35s.
In addition to holding periodic job fairs to boost its ranks, Lockheed Martin also has launched a program known as Project Lead The Way, in which students with engineering prospects are identified in high school and offered internships — and, often, full-time jobs upon graduation.
Lockheed Martin has delivered 445 F-35s to the Air Force, Marines, Navy and a handful of U.S. allies. In all, the F-35 program calls for more than 3,200 aircraft to be built in the coming years.
F-35s cost about $79.2 million each, although Lockheed Martin is working to drive the cost down to $77.9 million.
This story was originally published January 2, 2020 at 5:30 AM.
