Testing Digital Technologies to Protect Warfighters

For Victor Farmer, a day in the office usually involves interacting with a robotic dog programmed to find improvised explosive devices or a drone seeking an adversary’s cell phone.

His mission: equipping warfighters with tools that can mitigate a threat. As an associate at Booz Allen, Victor brings multiple aspects of his experience and life to his professional position—and it's a role that’s always growing.

Victor supports warfighting systems and human-machine teaming for Booz Allen’s Digital Battlespace Platform in many ways.

He uses his knowledge of military facilities and logistics to help research and development teams find places to test out their technologies. Then he draws from his collective 22 years of military service, technology training, and training team management skills to provide mission-critical feedback.

“I get to experience the latest technologies and provide my background as a former infantryman,” he says. “The next step is putting these technologies into soldiers’ hands and letting them work with it.”

Digital battlespace technologies complement and augment human capabilities and analysis, accelerate missions and training, and help troops make the most of the resources and situational awareness they already have. “I’m amazed at what these teams put together,” Victor says.

Most importantly, these tools protect soldiers and save lives, which is the biggest driver for Victor’s motivation. “I’m former military, I’ve lost friends in conflicts, and some of my friends’ children are now in the military. For me, it’s a personal thing,” he says.

Victor’s military connections helped lead him to Booz Allen. A leader with the firm’s Digital Battlespace business had served with him in Italy and another current colleague knew of Victor’s post-military work.

After transitioning from the military, Farmer first worked as a service trainer. “One of the things I loved most was training soldiers,” he says. “If you put effort into it and do it the right way, the soldiers really respect your approach.”

He served a decade at the Rapid Equipping Force, an organization that helped the military rapidly get capabilities into the field during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Victor worked in operations, logistics, and training. “I received a phone call one day,” he recalls. It was a contact from Booz Allen. “They told me, ‘I’ve got a place for you where you’d fit really well.’ “

Victor’s contact at Booz Allen proved to be right about fitting in. “I love working with the people here,” he says.

In addition to working as an operations and facility manager and talking to researchers and troops about new technologies, he’s branching out into new skills and areas like proposal writing and acquisitions.

“It can sometimes be information overload because it’s unfamiliar terms and not within my comfort zone,” he says. “But people across the firm have been phenomenal in explaining things to me whenever I need it. It means a lot when you come in and people are willing to take that time.”

“It’s a learning thing and I love it,” he says.