Stephanie Latham

Stephanie Latham serves as a key procurement professional responsible for managing complex acquisitions within the aerospace and defense sector, with a singular focus on aircraft manufacturing. Her work ensures the timely and compliant acquisition of advanced aviation systems, including airframes, propulsion components, and mission-critical avionics, aligning with national defense and operational readiness objectives. She oversees the full lifecycle of contract actions—from market research and solicitation development to award and performance management—ensuring adherence to federal acquisition regulations and technical specifications unique to aerospace systems. Her role is central to sustaining the agency’s capability to modernize and maintain its fleet infrastructure. Latham engages with a broad spectrum of prime contractors specializing in aircraft design, integration, and systems engineering, including established defense aerospace manufacturers and niche Tier 1 suppliers. While no single vendor dominates her portfolio, her contracting patterns reflect a preference for established industry leaders with proven track records in military and commercial aircraft production. She maintains collaborative, performance-driven relationships with vendors, emphasizing technical compliance, schedule reliability, and quality assurance throughout contract execution. Her procurement strategy shows no reliance on socioeconomic set-asides, with 100% of her acquisitions conducted under full and open competition. This reflects a deliberate focus on technical capability and mission-critical performance over socioeconomic preferences, consistent with the specialized nature of aircraft manufacturing requirements. She does not routinely utilize 8(a), HUBZone, or SDVOSB programs, instead prioritizing industry-wide competition to ensure access to the highest levels of engineering expertise and production capacity. Latham’s expertise is concentrated exclusively in NAICS 336411—Aircraft Manufacturing—encompassing the procurement of military and civilian aircraft, subsystems, and related support equipment. Her technical domain spans aerodynamic design, flight control systems, and certification-compliant manufacturing processes, requiring deep familiarity with FAA and DoD regulatory standards. She consistently sources from firms with certified production lines, AS9100 quality systems, and experience in low-observable or high-performance airframe technologies.