Our employee spotlight shines a light on one employee at a time. We value diversity and inclusion and welcome diverse thinking. It takes a village — through collaboration, living safely and driving innovation we realize our goals and help our clients achieve mission success. Our mantra is people first, mission always. In September, we’ll focus on Hispanic Heritage Month. Today’s Q&A is with Catalina Molina, SVP Financial Strategy.
How did you come to join Amentum?
I joined Amentum nearly 12 years ago on the recommendation of my neighbor who worked for the company at the time.
What is your professional and personal background?
I was born and raised in Colombia. I started as an industrial engineer and transitioned into business school when I moved to the U.S. more than 20 years ago.
Describe the work you do and how you think it makes a positive impact.
Leading the Financial Strategy organization for Amentum, I am responsible for setting the financial planning, forecasting, reporting and analysis for the entire Amentum portfolio. I am also responsible for the Pricing organization. I impact our business by looking after the financial health of our portfolio of programs in a variety of ways. From ensuring we have adequate and competitive rates to win new work, to projecting our future revenue and profit streams, to helping identify potential gaps from growth objectives, and empowering our executive team with the right leading indicators to enable them to make informed decisions for our business, etc.
What are some of your accomplishments and/or what has been your proudest career moment?
I am definitely proud of being a key player in the transformation and growth of Amentum over the years. I joined the company in 2011 to help integrate a portfolio of nearly $100M of intelligence contracts into what was at the time under AECOM’s $1B portfolio of government contracts. In 2012, I was given the opportunity to build FP&A for AECOM Government Services and I have been with this portfolio ever since, building practices from the ground up and scaling them accordingly as we grow. From the acquisition of URS in 2014, to the spin-out from AECOM to Amentum in 2019, the acquisition of DI in 2020 and then PAE in 2021, to now being a portfolio of approximately $9B in revenue. I feel very proud of the journey and the challenges faced and overcome along the way.
What do you enjoy about working for Amentum?
First and foremost, I enjoy the team of people I work with. My team is my family away from home! Second, I am facing new challenges every day and every year. I feel like I have a new job without having to change jobs — all because of the nature of our business and how fast the company has grown!
What are you passionate about?
Solving problems. Creating high quality products. Delivering on commitments and exceeding expectations!
What’s your career advice?
Always do the right thing regardless of who is watching. Never care too much about impressing anyone. Whoever is worth impressing will be impressed when you are least expecting or planning it.
What does safety mean to you or do you have a favorite safety tip?
In my day-to-day, the emotional safety for my team is a lot more relevant than physical safety when it comes to showing up to work. Personally, it means I want to feel safe to challenge others and to speak my mind. I want my team to always feel safe to speak their minds and to disagree with me. When we leave the meeting, there are no hard feelings.
What’s the best invention in the world and why?
Music. It can change my mood in a matter of seconds. Music communicates so much with just sounds. And, when lyrics are involved, it becomes so much more powerful — making your whole body move and it becomes dancing!!!!
Anything else you would like to share from a personal or professional perspective?
Going back to the topic of this month’s celebration — I am very proud of my heritage. I am certain many of my personality traits, including passion, perseverance, a strong work ethic and an entrepreneurial spirit, are a result of my heritage and upbringing. These traits have been extremely instrumental in my career!
What does Hispanic Heritage Month mean to you?
Hispanic Heritage Month is one of many opportunities we have during the year to acknowledge and celebrate the fact that being different makes us stronger because we can complement each other. The one thing we all have in common is that we are all different! It is also an opportunity to bring the Hispanic community together to rejoice on our commonalities and hopefully make new connections across the company.
