Pros
People at UES are top-notch and all in all, a good place to work. Company comes from a strong "family" culture with events, socials, and small business feel created by our founder and former CEO. If you are looking to be a USAF civilian researcher, AFRL often recruits staff from our projects mid-contract. DoD research is our primary business, however, outside leadership was brought in two years ago to help breathe life back into the commercial products sector after a decade of stagnation. UES is working to come more in-line with it's more modern competitors in work/life balance, benefits, advancement options, and by addressing missing roles such as FSO, Marketing, Project Management, and departmental management.
Kontras
Over the past decade there has been a severe shift from the company's history as employee and customer focused to revenue-centric under the current CEO. UES's industry means 80%+ employees actually work at Wright-Patt Airforce Base for AFRL and not with corporate staff/leadership. The communication gap between these two groups is wide. The next 5 years will continue to be bumpy for employees as the remaining founding leaders of the company all retire leaving things to a less experienced executive staff during some substantial changes in the industry as a whole.