Margarita Howard Built HX5 for This Contractor Shift

Federal agencies lost far more employees than they hired last year, and the gap is reshaping who the Department of Defense turns to for technical work. Margarita Howard founded HX5 in 2004 with a focus on the kind of embedded, cleared technical services that outlast any single administration’s staffing plans, and that focus now looks well timed.

HX5 has grown to roughly 1,000 employees across more than 20 states and about 70 government locations, supporting the Department of Defense and NASA. The work requires security clearances and long term program knowledge, the type of continuity that comes from being inside a program rather than parachuted in to review it.

A Government Short on Hands

In 2025, 348,219 federal employees departed across all agencies while only 116,912 were hired, a net loss running nearly three to one. Within the Department of Defense alone, 61,600 civilian employees left through a deferred resignation program. Engineers, housing managers, and facilities officers took years of site specific knowledge with them when they went.

A federal employee averages 11.8 years of agency experience, and that number hides how much is lost at the senior end. Program managers with two or three decades on the job carry institutional memory that a hiring pipeline cannot replicate quickly. Dale Marks, an assistant secretary of defense, has told Senate committee members the department is preparing investments to rebuild its skilled trades workforce through partnerships with universities and trade schools.

Policy Cuts the Other Way

At the same time, a May 2025 memorandum required deputy secretary approval for new advisory and consulting contracts above one million dollars, aimed at reducing reliance on outside management consultants. Contracts tied to weapon systems, major acquisition support, and sustainment work were excluded.

Margarita Howard has said adaptability has defined the company at every stage. “We could pivot very quickly and adapt to client needs, where large companies very often do not,” she said. With the civilian workforce shrinking faster than agencies can rebuild it, that kind of flexibility carries real weight.

Federal agencies lost far more employees than they hired last year, and the gap is reshaping who the Department of Defense turns to for technical work. Margarita Howard founded HX5 in 2004 with a focus on the kind of embedded, cleared technical services that outlast any single administration’s staffing plans, and that focus now looks…