The COVID-19 pandemic has affected businesses around the world in many different ways. As Maxar moved to a work-from-home posture in March, we had to rapidly move our new hire orientation program online and decide whether we could effectively execute our annual summer intern program at locations around the United States. New employees have since provided positive survey feedback that the virtual onboarding program has gone smoothly and put them on the right footing to begin their journey with Maxar. I am also pleased to report that not only will Maxar continue its intern program this summer, but it will be the largest intern class in our company’s history.
New hires and interns are joining Maxar at an incredibly exciting time for the company. We’re currently building our next-generation WorldView Legion imaging satellites that will revolutionize how our government and commercial customers see the world. We were recently chosen by NASA to be part of a team building one of the Human Landing System spacecraft that will return U.S. astronauts to the surface of the moon in 2024. And our unclassified Earth Intelligence capabilities are allowing U.S. Government workers to continue supporting national security missions while they work from home.
Last year we welcomed 105 college and university students who worked on projects that included calculating satellite collision avoidance, planning for the 2020 budget and using machine learning to classify objects in our satellite images. This summer we will be joined by—and pay—152 students who will support our operations in Colorado, California, Virginia, Missouri, Michigan and Florida. These interns all bring impressive backgrounds in software development, geospatial analysis, aerospace and mechanical engineering and robotics, as well as new perspectives that we will benefit from.
Working from home will certainly make this year’s intern experience different, but our incoming class has expressed tremendous excitement and a willingness to be flexible. Because so much of Maxar’s business relies on geographically distributed teams and virtual connectivity tools, we are confident that our interns will have a formative experience that prepares them for careers in space and intelligence organizations. Maxar benefits from the program as well, having converted more than 40 percent of last year’s interns to full-time employees.
Meanwhile, the pandemic has not slowed down Maxar’s full-time hiring across the country either. We have brought on 430 new team members this year and are on pace to fill 1,000 roles by the year’s end. We have many career opportunities in engineering (aerospace, mechanical, electrical, systems, software), information technology, finance and geospatial intelligence analysis. To browse the 150 open positions that we’re currently seeking to fill, visit our Maxar Careers page.