Before Maysam Tawasha led one of SAIC’s largest business portfolios, she captained both her high school and college basketball teams. She says the discipline, resilience and shared purpose she learned on the court still shape how she leads today.
Across 26 years at SAIC, Tawasha has taken on increasingly broad roles in strategy, operations and growth, including leadership of the company’s Navy business. Now senior vice president for its Army Navy business group, she oversees a $700 million-plus C5ISR portfolio and a workforce of more than 2,000, while focusing on connecting systems and getting information to warfighters faster.
In this Q&A, she discusses that work, the people behind it and how her roles on two San Diego boards help her engage with the region’s talent and innovation community.
Can you provide a brief overview of your professional background and career progression?
Over the course of my 26-year long career, I have supported the transformation, development, and growth of complex defense and technology businesses – taking on progressively broader leadership responsibilities within SAIC across strategy, operations, growth, customer success, talent development, and innovation.
Prior to my current role, I served as a Vice President within SAIC’s Navy Business Group where I oversaw strategy, P&L, operations, and growth. Earlier this year, SAIC reorganized to bring together the Army and Navy Business Groups, and today, as Senior Vice President, I lead the Command, Control, Computers, Cyber, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (C5ISR) market across both Business Groups, which is one of the company’s largest business portfolios. Those experiences brought together mission understanding, business leadership, technology, and execution, all of which are central to the work I lead today.
Why was this the path you chose, and how influential was it to your career?
What has kept me on this career path at SAIC has been the opportunity to make a meaningful impact through the combination of mission, technology, and people. Throughout my career, I’ve focused on building determined teams, driving accountability, and helping translate innovation into results for our customers.
That focus has shaped how I lead today. Technology is important, but delivering meaningful outcomes also requires strong collaboration and the ability to execute against the mission.
Do you have a personal connection to the current mission you support?
For me, the connection comes from seeing the impact our work can have on the people and customers carrying out the mission. Turning complex requirements into capabilities that warfighters can use in battlefield scenarios gives the work a very real sense of purpose.
I’m incredibly proud of the teams I lead and the commitment they bring to strengthening our nation’s defense. Seeing that focused determination translate into tangible results for the mission is what makes this work meaningful to me.
What are your current top priorities and responsibilities? How do these relate to your company’s overall mission/growth strategy?
My top priority is accelerating C5ISR mission execution and helping our customers achieve greater warfighting efficiency and information advantage. As Senior Vice President for SAIC’s C5ISR market, I’m responsible for the portfolio’s growth strategy, operational performance, customer success, talent development, innovation, and strategic execution.
A primary focus is helping the Army, Navy, and joint force connect existing and new capabilities across increasingly complex mission environments. That aligns directly with SAIC’s overarching enterprise growth strategy – understand the mission, bring together the right technology and expertise, and help customers modernize in ways that deliver measurable operational value.
Where do you and your team see growth opportunities and what do you anticipate to be your customers’ top pain points?
Our customers are being asked to connect more systems and information across increasingly complex operational environments, while fielding new capabilities faster. As the Department of War advances all-domain warfighting and Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control (CJADC2), the challenge is ensuring information can move securely across platforms and reach the people who need it when they need it to make critical decisions.
SAIC’s C5ISR modernization efforts, secure transport and data management systems, operational AI solutions, and digital engineering offerings directly address those needs.
How are you and your team planning to address/prepare for these opportunities?
We’re engaging directly with the Department of War and acquisition leaders to understand their highest-priority mission needs and where technology can make the greatest operational difference. We then bring together SAIC expertise with proven capabilities from across the technology ecosystem to help transition innovation into operational environments.
The focus is on practical integration and disciplined execution so customers can field and scale capabilities faster.
How important is mentorship & networking in GovCon? Were they influential to your career?
Relationships are essential in an industry where the challenges are too complex for any one organization or individual to solve alone. Building connections across industry, government, and academia creates opportunities to exchange perspectives, develop talent, and bring different capabilities together around the mission.
I serve on the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation Board of Directors and the San Diego State University College of Engineering Dean’s Advisory Board, which provide opportunities to engage with the broader innovation and talent ecosystem. As a leader, I see creating opportunities for people to grow, take on new challenges, and contribute at a higher level as an important part of building strong teams.
What is something most people don’t know about you personally?
I served as captain of both my high school and college basketball teams. Those experiences taught me discipline, resilience, and the value of working toward a shared goal, lessons that continue to influence how I lead today.