Amy Burns

Amy Burns serves as an Aerospace Engineer within the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Propulsion Directorate (AFRL/PZL), where she plays a critical technical and acquisition advisory role in advancing next-generation propulsion systems, hypersonic technologies, and high-performance materials. Her expertise bridges engineering analysis with procurement strategy, ensuring that R&D contracts align with mission-critical performance requirements for air and space dominance. She typically manages complex, science-driven acquisitions under the Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (NAICS 541712) category, focusing on prototype development, materials characterization, and adaptive flight control systems that require deep technical oversight. Burns maintains consistent working relationships with leading aerospace and propulsion contractors including UES INC, General Electric Company, DCS Corporation, Spirit Aerosystems Inc., and Advanced Thermoplastic Composites LLC. These partnerships are characterized by long-term, technically intensive collaborations on classified and unclassified R&D initiatives, often involving proprietary materials, computational fluid dynamics modeling, and advanced manufacturing processes. Her procurement approach emphasizes technical merit, innovation readiness, and systems integration capabilities over cost alone, fostering trusted vendor relationships grounded in shared engineering objectives. Her contracting portfolio exhibits a 100% preference for non-set-aside awards, reflecting the specialized, mission-critical nature of the work and the limited pool of vendors with the requisite clearance levels, technical infrastructure, and aerospace propulsion expertise. While small business participation is not formally prioritized through socioeconomic set-asides, she actively engages qualified small firms as subcontractors within larger prime contracts to ensure innovation infusion. Her primary technical focus lies in NAICS 541712, where she procures advanced propulsion components, hypersonic test hardware, high-temperature structural composites, and functional materials for extreme environments. Her domain expertise spans turbine engine design, scramjet integration, thermal protection systems, and additive manufacturing for aerospace applications, making her a key technical gatekeeper in the Air Force’s pursuit of next-generation propulsion capabilities.