Carmen Marie Kuchta is a Program Manager Sr. and the new Open Innovation Lead in Advanced Programs at Sikorsky Innovations. Based out of the Greater New York Area, Carmen has led multiple R&D programs for our military customers and has a background in engineering, project management, and entrepreneurship. She works with small to medium sized innovators around the world, and tech scouts for the Open Innovation Portfolio.
Her career started at 15 years of age working for Chemical Engineering research labs and worked in the Energy industry while earning a Bachelor’s of Science in Engineering from the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, MI. She went on to work in Oil & Gas both internationally and domestically as one of the North America Project Managers and executed projects as the east coast Regional Engineer. With an interest in SOA technology and innovation, Carmen studied Strategic Decision Making and Risk Management at Stanford University in CA while working for a solar start-up in the Bay Area. Carmen has also worked in banking, manufacturing and small commercial businesses.
Today she has moved 22 times in her life and plans to pursue an MBA in the coming years while “Expanding the Innovations Network” at Lockheed Martin. Carmen has participated in business development, corporate strategy, and even started a new program in Innovations focusing on the company’s knowledge share, enabling employees to achieve their goals, and generating new markets.