Age: 32
Years in Aviation: 8
Jake Dickson is an industrial engineer assigned to 402d Aircraft Maintenance Group (402 AMXG), Robins AFB. He was nominated by Cayatana Palumbo, Robins Air Force Base. Currently he is a production flight chief responsible for managing programmed depot maintenance of C-130 aircraft.
“Jake doesn’t just do his job – he is all in, giving 200 percent in everything he does,” Palumbo says. “When there is an issue or constraint he immerses himself in the problem. He is simply the best and personifies all that is exceptional about our civilian workforce.”
Dickson’s first few years in the industry were hands-on and covered a variety of challenges that kept him engaged and excited. He has held many positions at Robins Air Force Base where he started his career: facility and equipment design engineer, C-130 service program office engineer, safety management system lead, and lead industrial engineer. He has a Bachelor’s and Master’s of Science in mechanical engineering from Mercer University.
Robin Hamsley is his mentor and has provided invaluable insight and advice as his career has progressed from engineering into production.
He gives back to the industry by teaching his coworkers the importance of creating a safe work environment that fosters process improvement and process discipline. Innovative solutions are critical to success within the industry but well-defined processes and performance indicators are key to sustaining those process improvements and solutions.
As for the future, he’d like to manage aircraft maintenance at the squadron and group levels in preparation for one day leading and guiding government transformation as a member of the Senior Executive Service (SES).
