Aerospace and Defense Consulting Firms

Hey everyone - I was wondering if anyone knew of some A&D-focused consulting firms? I'm primarily looking in the DC area, but am open to other areas. I know of Avascent and Renaissance Strategic Advisors, but was wondering if there were any others. Primarily looking at strategy/transaction advisory, rather than government contracting practices.

I know there are similar threads for IB, but couldn't find one for consulting. Thanks in advance for all the help!

 

Booz Allen Hamilton does some work in that area. LeighFisher also does aerospace (but I think more airport infrastructure) but doesn't have a DC office (check other areas). As for defence, a lot of military companies have their in-house consulting teams that mainly do internal work and sometimes offer it to smaller players in the industry. To the best of my knowledge these are Lockheed Martin, Northrup Grumman, BAE Systems, Raytheon and General Dynamics. All of the bigger firms (MBBs, T2s and Accenture) also have A&D areas which you can express a heavy preference for. If you could pivot to Europe for work JLS Consulting is a very well known boutique but only UK based.

Some A&D-focused (but lesser known) boutiques are CSP Associates (US but no DC), Pacific Aerospace Consulting (US but no DC) and Hawksland Associates (UK based).

I think it's very hard to find many A&D focused ones (or even commerical aviation) simply because of the vast amount of government contracts however, see if any of the aforementioned ones work.

 

Thanks! I will definitely check out the companies you mentioned. I knew a lot of the big contractors had internal consulting groups, but I figured most would be IT focused - will definitely check again though.

I'll also check out the bigger firms, but coming from an MBA, wasn't sure how likely it would be that I could recruit into the A&D group.

Thanks again!

 

just my two cents as a former veteran; if my jargons aren't correct, its because I served at a foreign military.

TL;DR: If you want to do strategy, join a 'normal' consulting firm

Aero and Defense are very niche industries in their specific industry practices, operations, and outsourcing, but in terms of general strategy (5-10 year future plan, group reorganization, etc) and transaction advisory (I'm assuming you're talking about Commercial Due Diligence, Valuation and the sorts) of major companies (LMT, Boeing, Raytheon, GD, etc) will be advised by the typical management consultancy and investment bank.

That's because the nature of work and the framework/approach to solve client problems in a business function is translatable throughout industries and is different from the nut-and-bolt outsourcing work

Niche firms have an advantage only in contracting, outsourcing, and low-level operations where understanding day-to-day military operations out in the field matter and/or they have expertise in a certain area of operations.

 

Thanks! You bring up an excellent point that for the major companies, they are going to go to your typical MBB/Tier 2 firm to do their strategy and transaction advisory work. And yeah, when I say transaction advisory, I meant CDD/Valuation/etc.

I appreciate the insight and I'll be sure to broaden my search. Thanks again!

 
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Ex-KPMG (Management Consulting practice), now Deloitte S&O here. I was in the EXACT same predicament as you not too long ago and I took the Deloitte S&O offer. For me, the money, better title (S&O has a cachet that "Associate" does not), bigger network, more prestigious firm, etc... was a no brainer. Additionally, while doing my due diligence I heard that there is a lot of uncertainty with BAH right now (a lot of people are jumping ships, so it might not the best time). That being said, I have friends who left Deloitte for BAH and are happy; so I'd say your project will play a very important role.

If you're in the DMV area, send me a private message :)

Senior Consultant, S&O | Deloitte
 

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