Summary
Charles O'connor is a senior systems engineer with over three decades of defense and naval systems experience and eight years in his current industry role focused on digital engineering. He leads F-35 digital engineering initiatives and has stood up hardware-accurate digital twin ecosystems that integrate simulation, emulation, co-simulation and physical hardware for development, test, certification and sustainment. His career spans technical and leadership roles across NAVSEA, OPNAV, Naval Surface Warfare Center and Huntington Ingalls, with hands-on work in shipboard combat system training for multiple carrier and surface combatant classes. A collaborative integrator by philosophy, he emphasizes that systems succeed only when people and processes are integrated as well as the technology. He holds a BS in Computer Science/Psychology and an MS in Software-Intensive Systems Engineering, combining technical depth with human-centered systems thinking. Now based in Chesapeake, VA, he brings rare institutional knowledge of naval interoperability and certification to next-generation digital engineering challenges.
8 years of coding experience
2 years of employment as a software developer
Bachelor's, Computer Science/Psychology, Bachelor's, Computer Science/Psychology at University of Maine, Orono, ME
MSWE, Software Intensive Systems Engineering, MSWE, Software Intensive Systems Engineering at University of Maryland Global Campus