Boeing Technical Fellowship
The Boeing Technical Fellowship program is a highly selective technical leadership career path[1][2] at The Boeing Company, similar in nature to the IBM Fellows program. Established in 1989, the role of the engineers and scientists serving as Technical Fellows is to set technical direction for Boeing, and to resolve issues that arise when the company creates new products.[3] There are three levels in the Boeing Technical Fellowship program, each level reflecting varying degrees of impact within the company and in the industry at large: Associate Technical Fellow, Technical Fellow, and Senior Technical Fellow. In addition to Senior Technical Fellows, who are the director level, in 2019 Boeing added the level of Principal Technical Fellow, at the senior director level, and Distinguished Technical Fellow, at the vice president level.[4]
Election into the Technical Fellowship follows a formal process. Prospective Technical Fellows are nominated by management, and evaluated by the program based on five criteria:[1]
- technical knowledge and judgment
- creative problem solving and innovation
- technical leadership, advising and consulting
- capability as a teacher and mentor
- technical vision.
If the candidate shows strength in these areas, the candidate is then interviewed by a board. If the results of the interview are positive, the candidate advances to the Chief technology officer's office, for review and approval. As a result of the vetting process, the program includes only approximately 1.5% of Boeing’s workforce and represents “some of the best engineering and scientific minds at Boeing and in the industry.”[1]
Notable people
This is a partial list of Boeing Associate Technical Fellows (ATF), Boeing Technical Fellows (BTF) or Boeing Senior Technical Fellow (BSTF).
- Michael Drake (BSTF) - Boeing's Domain Lead for Aircraft Configuration Design.[5]
- Don Farr (BSTF) - Boeing Research & Technology (BR&T) in the Systems, Support, and Analytics Integrated Technology Team.[6]
- Nia Jetter (2017, BTF) - Boeing’s Domain Lead for artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and data science. Jetter is the first African-American woman BTF.[7]
- Anne Kao (BSTF) - Boeing Research and Technology. Developed Part Name Discovery Analytics (PANDA), a tool associated to data analytics.[8]
- Janice Karty (2006, BTF) - Boeing' Domain expert in the theory, analysis and application of electromagnetics.[9]
- Samuel Pedigo (2021, ATF) - Boeing Research and Technology. Boeing designated expert (BDE) in robotics. Developed robotic systems for aerospace composites manufacturing.[10]
References
- "The Go To Gang". Boeing Frontiers, November 2009.
- "Command Performance". Boeing Frontiers, May 2012.
- "Crucial Boeing talent nearing retirement". Everett Herald
- "Good Fellows". Boeing Frontiers, April 2004.
- "AA294 Seminar: Case Studies in Aircraft Design". stanford.edu. Spring 2011. Retrieved September 26, 2020.
- "Donald Farr". cimdata.com. Retrieved September 26, 2020.
- "Boeing: Nia Jetter Uses More Than Math to Underpin AI and Data Science". diversityinc.com. January 29, 2020. Retrieved September 26, 2020.
- New, Joshua (November 19, 2019). "5 Q's for Anne Kao, Senior Technical Fellow at Boeing Research and Technology". datainnovation.org. Retrieved September 26, 2020.
- "Engineers receive annual achievement awards". wustl.edu. April 23, 2012. Retrieved September 26, 2020.
- "Spotlight magazine". speea.org. February 2021. Retrieved February 4, 2021.