Jessica Jessup

Jessica Jessup serves as a key procurement lead within the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Aerospace Systems Division, supporting the Department of Defense’s mission to advance next-generation air and space dominance through cutting-edge research and development. She manages complex acquisitions for operationally relevant artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, and integrated simulation frameworks, ensuring technical solutions align with mission-critical aerospace platforms. Her work bridges high-performance computing, digital design methodologies, and extreme-environment validation, focusing on procurements that enable explainable autonomy and decision-making under uncertainty. Jessup plays a central role in translating technical requirements from R&D teams into contract actions that accelerate innovation cycles while maintaining rigorous compliance with federal acquisition regulations. Her contractor relationships are primarily with engineering services firms and R&D contractors possessing deep expertise in aerospace systems, AI/ML algorithm development, and high-fidelity modeling and simulation. She collaborates with a broad ecosystem of defense contractors, including specialized small and mid-tier firms capable of delivering rapid prototyping and classified system integration. While no single vendor dominates her portfolio, she consistently engages vendors with proven track records in DoD aerospace programs, emphasizing technical agility, security clearance readiness, and domain-specific experience in autonomy and digital twin technologies. Jessup’s contracting activity is entirely non-set-aside, with 100% of awards issued under full and open competition. This reflects the highly specialized, classified, and time-sensitive nature of the research she supports, where proprietary technical capabilities and national security requirements often preclude socioeconomic set-asides. While small business participation is not formally prioritized through set-asides, her procurement strategy still encourages competition from qualified small entities capable of meeting stringent technical and security thresholds. Her primary NAICS focus is on Engineering Services (541330) and Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (541715), reflecting her core procurement of advanced aerospace systems, AI-enabled decision aids, and mission-driven digital design tools. She routinely sources services involving real-time sensor fusion, autonomous flight control architectures, and validated simulation environments for hypersonic and contested-domain operations.