Sean Brandt
COMMAND/ORGANIZATION: Joint Program Executive Office for Armaments and Ammunition; Project Manager Close Combat Systems; Project Director Joint Ammunition and Weapons Systems
TITLE: Project management officer
YEARS OF SERVICE IN AAW WORKFORCE: 18
DAWIA CERTIFICATIONS: Advanced in program management; Practitioner in engineering and technical management; Foundational in life cycle logistics; and Foundational in test and evaluation
EDUCATION: MBA, Florida Institute of Technology; M.S. in mechanical engineering, Stevens Institute of Technology; B.S. in mechanical engineering, The Pennsylvania State University
MIND OVER MANAGEMENT
by Cheryl Marino
Discipline, focus and adaptability are just a few of the qualities that connect martial arts to everyday life. For project management officer and lifelong martial artist Sean Brandt, the parallels between his training on the mat and his work for Project Manager Close Combat Systems, Project Director Joint Ammunition and Weapons Systems under the office of Joint Program Executive Office for Armaments and Ammunition (JPEO A&A) are undeniable. He believes the mindset and skills gained through martial arts can be applied to any challenge, whether it’s staying calm under pressure or approaching problems strategically, the lessons go far beyond the training room.
“Training martial arts has helped me in every aspect of my life,” said Brandt, who earned three black belts (aikido, traditional Japanese jiu-jitsu and Brazilian jiu-jitsu) and is a full instructor in Sayoc Kali (a blade-focused martial art). He relates grappling, where success depends on reading your opponent, staying adaptable and maintaining control under pressure to his project management role where he navigates the complexities of cost, schedule, performance and risk across a tri-service (Army, Air Force, Navy) environment.
“What I find fascinating about grappling with someone, is that it requires a focus and attention in the moment that if you lose, you could get taken down or submitted,” he explained. A kind of moving meditation or physical chess; calculating moves ahead, while trying to simultaneously work offense and defense and take out the opponent’s king. “When you do this difficult thing, basically simulating fighting another person, you learn to fight [and focus] hard while controlling your breath and not panicking—you persevere.”
Brandt currently manages the general purpose and penetrator bomb portfolio that the JPEO A&A, Single Manager for Conventional Ammunition, procures for Air Force and Navy customers. This is a unique position within the Army where sister services are the design agents and configuration managers, using their own budget for requirements. Brandt’s work is funded by the Army, essentially providing this program management work for “free” to other services by using government owned, government operated facilities to load bombs at McAlester Army Ammunition Plant. A process critical to our national defense.
“The single biggest contribution I’ve made to the DOD is having delivered 40,000 MK 84 Tritonal 2,000-lb bombs [a legacy variant] to the U.S. Air Force to fulfill a 4X spike in demand, in half the time and at half the cost [of Insensitive Munition-filled variants],” Brandt said.
Many of the programs that Brandt worked on have been multi-service, from howitzers and mortar fuzes used by the Army and Marine Corps, to bombs used by the Air Force and Navy.
“Before I came to Picatinny, I met service members who also trained martial arts—and knowing that I’m doing my part for those who wear our nation’s cloth and head downrange while being a steward of taxpayer dollars—is just inherently a kind of pure endeavor,” he said.
Brandt and the Project Manager Close Combat Systems team were prevailing champions at the Picatinny 2024 Turkey Bowl (flag football), held in November 2024, at Picatinny Arsenal, New Jersey. (Photo courtesy of Sean Brandt)
Brandt’s first exposure to government-funded defense-related research was in the early 2000s, when he was an undergraduate working toward his mechanical engineering degree. “My advisor proposed a project to study non-lethal use of vibration to disperse crowds, an interesting intersection of psychology and engineering,” he said. He also did a summer internship at a defense contractor, Science Applications International Corporation, or SAIC, , on projectile analysis and testing work that was funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
“When I graduated, although I initially planned to go to graduate school, I opted for real-world experience instead. I worked at Intel Corp in Arizona briefly before moving to a small aerospace and defense company in Pennsylvania. Afterwards, I got in touch with an old college classmate, and he got my resume on someone’s desk at Picatinny, and when I came to interview—I knew this is where I wanted to be.”
Brandt’s first job as a mechanical engineer at Picatinny arsenal was working on the design and production of artillery weapon systems. “It was fascinating from a technical perspective, getting to work on ‘big guns,’ something relatively few people get to do, and is a kind of specialty within engineering that is not part of your typical bachelor’s degree program,” he said. It was also a great mix of analysis and hands-on work, getting to support the manufacturing at Rock Island Arsenal as well as testing at Yuma Proving Ground.
While pursuing his engineering master’s degree on-post, Brandt took courses on ballistics, propellants and explosives. “I felt like I was contributing to the greater good, motivated by supporting the Army’s mission, not devoid of concern for cost because of the responsibility to the taxpayer, but not driven by profit or shareholder value.”
Brandt said he also attends “lunch and learns,” hosted by JPEO A&A’s talent management team on various leadership and acquisition topics. “I am at the stage of my career where it requires more deliberate effort to maintain my Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act (DAWIA) certification, achieving 80 continuous learning points [CLPs] every two years,” he said, adding that he has come to appreciate these short, one-hour sessions. “I can slowly accumulate CLPs and stay on the CLP glidepath; I’ve found that when I’m responsible for cost, schedule, performance, risk and running programs, carving out an hour is much more doable than, say, an entire day or week of training.”
Brandt said he has not moved positions as often as the Army encourages, but he doesn’t regret his decisions. “I am happy with the choices I’ve made and proud to continue to contribute to the Army’s mission.” He said Army Acquisition Workforce personnel who aspire to climb quickly would probably be better served moving more frequently than he has. “A SES [senior executive service] once told me that five years in a position is too long; I’ve been in my position for about a decade. I’m now more open to considering trying other opportunities, now that my kids are older and my wife’s career has stabilized,” he said. “Find what you want to do, make a plan and work towards your goals.”
Outside of work, Brandt coaches youth wrestling for his town’s recreational team. “Wrestling, the world’s oldest sport, has been such a great experience for my kids,” he said. “They have also done Brazilian jiu-jitsu, but wrestling is, in my opinion, a far superior foundation. As one of my Sayoc teachers put it, if you look at a scale from 0 to 100%, you can give less than 100% and win, or you can give 100% and lose, so what matters more is putting forth the effort—that’s where true growth occurs.”
“Faces of the Force” highlights the success of the Army Acquisition Workforce through the power of individual stories. Profiles are produced by the Army AL&T magazine team, working closely with public affairs officers to feature Soldiers and civilians serving in various Army acquisition disciplines. For more information, or to nominate someone, go to https://asc.army.mil/web/submissions/.
