Engineer Spotlight: Meet Michael Gatson

What is your role at Amentum?

I am responsible for the Reliability, Infrared Drone, and Cost Savings programs

Describe a typical workday at Amentum for you (Day in The Life):

My typical day starts with approving cost savings projects submitted from our many commercial client sites.  I also spend time reviewing root cause analysis (RCA) investigation projects and training personnel on the various Reliability processes.  Sometimes I visit our client sites to provide training and assistance on various reliability related equipment failures or to perform drone inspections of client buildings looking for water intrusion and energy efficiency losses. 

What do you enjoy about working for Amentum and what do you find most rewarding?

I enjoy working with the Amentum Program team and value the diversity of technical capabilities they bring to the program. It is truly impressive to see the depth of expertise and commitment to success the team demonstrates daily in support of our customer’s mission needs. We recently completed two major data center hosting upgrades that required months of careful planning and staging. Being part of that team and successfully delivering the project was a true champagne moment. 

What inspired you to pursue a career in engineering, and how has it shaped your journey at Amentum?

I find two things to be the most rewarding about working for Amentum.  First, I get to work with a great team at the corporate level who are experts at their jobs and have great attitudes.  The second major reward is the variety of technical challenges I get to assist with.  With nearly 100 client locations and 10’s of thousands of different assets there is always a new reliability engineering challenge to face.

Any insights or perspectives you gained working for Amentum that you didn’t expect?

After 8 years in the U.S. Navy as a Nuclear Reactor Operator on submarines, I discovered that I enjoyed understanding how machines work and not only how to fix them, but how to proactively find and prevent a failure from coming back. This led me to pursue Reliability Engineering. My career with Amentum has allowed me to expand my knowledge and share my experience and training with others.