Though the job primarily deals with the technological world behind our computer screens, AIT Engineering President Jason Eddy said the company’s employees are what make it successful.
“It’s basically a team of experts who are well-respected for what they do,” he said. “Having the organizational resources to do a good job for the Department of Defense is what we want people to strive to be happy about coming to work every day.
For dedication to their work — and the appreciation they receive in return from Eddy — AIT Engineering has been named the Orlando Sentinel’s 2025 Top Workplaces in Central Florida winner in the small business category for the third consecutive year.
Founded in 2010 by Eddy, AIT Engineering is a veteran-owned small business that provides cybersecurity, information technology and software development solutions for federal government clients, mainly the Department of Defense.
Assured Information Technology president Jason Eddy at work in his office at the IT company located in the Central Florida Research Park in Orlando, on Thursday, Sept. 4, 2023. (Rich Pope, Orlando Sentinel)
With 95 employees in Central Florida, Eddy said he’s been able to keep employees engaged by not limiting their development to one particular area of the company.
“We allow folks to basically learn and grow in new areas to prevent the pigeonhole effect,” he said. “Let’s just say an engineer is really good at something, but then he can only do that something because he’s the best at it. We’re all about letting people be good at things that are affecting their job, but we also want to foster the breadth of knowledge development.”
Quarterly all-hands meetings also keep spirits high, Eddy said, with large groups attending happy hour gatherings or various events, like basketball games and concerts at the Kia Center in downtown Orlando.
Assured Information Technology President Jason Eddy, left and AIT Director of IT Jared Herrle have an impromptu meeting at the IT company, located in the Central Florida Research Park in Orlando, on Thursday, Sept. 4, 2023. (Rich Pope, Orlando Sentinel)
Other perks include employees receiving their full PTO allotment at the beginning of the year to ensure maximum time off flexibility and milestone awards of service for long-term employees.
With about half of the company’s employees serving as veterans, AIT Engineering dedicates support to veteran-based organizations and provides community resources to other organizations in need across Central Florida.
“We do veterans’ outreach programs, we do the Boys & Girls Club charity, we do Kickoff for Kids, where they help feed kids in need — you name it,” he said. “We also try to hire as many veterans as we can. I’m a veteran, and most of our senior leadership is veterans, so we see the discipline in veterans just ultimately being a good fit for our organization.”
While keeping employees happy and fulfilled with their workplace is its own task, Eddy said bringing in new talent is among the most challenging aspects of running a successful workplace. Using a referral-based hiring system, he said, helps ensure quality candidates get brought on an integrated into the AIT Engineering culture.
“What we find is that when a person knows somebody that works here, their buy-in to the company culture and their commitment is much higher,” Eddy said. “We’re almost exclusively referral-only as we grow, and sometimes that slows us down a bit. But it also keeps our quality standards high by making sure we’ve got the right people, as our reputation is very important to us.”
Beyond cross-training efforts, workforce development, company outings and community outreach, Eddy said AIT Engineering is a top workplace because it keeps its focus on the company’s mission of becoming a premier cybersecurity organization by providing low-cost, practical approaches to IT and software development solutions for key government agencies.
“We’re all about supporting the war-fighting community and making sure our engineers have what they need, in both personnel and resources, to do that,” he said.
