Lockheed Martin March 1st Visit

Earlier this month, students had the great opportunity to learn more about careers in cybersecurity from Lockheed Martin’s Kevin Mckenna. McKenna spoke about his own winding cyber journey, and how varied jobs in the field can be. 

Over the course of his career, McKenna has worn many hats. He carries a bachelors in musical theory from The Catholic University of America, and a masters in Information Technology from the University of Maryland. McKenna began his career as a systems administrator with the United States Department of Defense. After a period of years, McKenna then started at Lockheed in 2018, where he worked his way up from cyber intel analyst, to cyber system section engineer manager. McKenna has done valuable work through his leadership roles at Lockheed. In his current role, he works with a large team consisting of cyber architects and security managers, working primarily with radar systems. A large part of his job is communication to and from his team, working to balance the needs of the team and the needs of Lockheed at large. 

McKenna states that because he may not have had the most stereotypical jaunt through cybersecurity, students shouldn’t be hung up on the “ideal”, or even typical, career path to their dream job. “Over the course of my career, I’ve been able to see different tech and career paths outside of the general business network protections, definitely stuff you wouldn’t see in your first jobs out of college. There’s so much variety in what you can end up doing, and each thing you can do will build with the next role you take,” says McKenna. 

McKenna listed some various sub-fields one can find within the massive cybersecurity space. They include: 

• Engineering
• Architecture
• Vulnerability scanning
• Governance and compliance
• Penetration testing
• Red team
• Blue team 
• Dev Sec Ops
• Incident responses
• Forensics
• Cyber threat intelligence
• Cyberspace operations

“Cyber allows for movement between specificities over a career, which in turn provides new college hires the ability to learn and grow without needing to settle,” says McKenna.

Lockheed Martin offers several cybersecurity related positions at its campus, such as: 

• Cyber Intel Analyst
• Cyber Architect
• Cyber Systems Security Engineer
• Cyber Software Developer
• Cyber Test and Evaluation
• Cyber Governance Risk & Compliance

McKenna recommended several cybersecurity certifications employers are on the lookout for, such as Security+. This certification specifically is very appealing for entry level positions, as it covers a lot of the work done in those fresh-out-of-college jobs. Other recommended certifications are Linux+, RedHat, and Boon2, as they tell the employer your understanding of operating systems sits on a deeper level. 

Rowan University’s cybersecurity community is very grateful that McKenna took the time out of his busy schedule to speak to our students. For more information about careers at Lockheed Martin, click here.