Natalia Findley: From Teaching to Defense

Most military kids move from base to base. Natalia Findley didn’t. Her father’s work in missiles kept the family in Knob Noster, Missouri, near Whiteman Air Force Base — the place she would spend her entire childhood.

“It’s rare in the military to stay in one school district,” she says. “But there weren’t many missile bases that my dad could be stationed at for his particular variant.” Whiteman would later become even more special — it’s where she met her husband, then on active duty.

education and early Career

Natalia’s path through education took a few unexpected turns. Her original plan to complete an elementary education degree was disrupted by both motherhood and her husband’s military transfer during her senior year of college.

“I literally had one semester of classes and one semester of student teaching to go when we got transferred,” she recalls. The move led Natalia to pivot to finding the quickest way to get a bachelor’s degree, which was in Liberal Studies.

After a stint as a stay-at-home mom and another move, Natalia taught for four years, working with students in a Title I school as a math intervention specialist. She also earned her Master of Science in Education with a focus on mathematics while she taught.

When her husband was relocated on military orders again during the summer, by the time she got the kids settled and started applying for work, there were no teaching jobs available. The lack of availability in her field, combined with feeling a little burnt out from teaching, prompted Natalia to shift gears.

Transition to defense contracting

Growing up in a military family gave Natalia a natural connection to the defense world. She began her contracting career at DCS Corporation as a senior administrator, supporting a captain in charge of the program office. This role helped her get her foot in the door of the defense industry as she moved into acquisition work, helping to secure contracts that provided products to the warfighter.

Natalia’s career took another turn when her husband deployed to Afghanistan for a year. She shifted into operations handling messaging, communications, and presentations, and even served as an executive assistant to an admiral as a gap-fill measure.

Later, she joined an advanced development team, work that sharpened her skills and positioned her for her next step: an opportunity at 2 Circle.

Working at 2 circle

Nearly a decade ago, Natalia was approached by 2 Circle about joining the team — and she’s never looked back.

“It was definitely a different environment, especially because most of the people were prior military themselves,” she says. Luckily, growing up in a military family and having a military husband exposed her to the culture.

Still, there were moments when she felt anxious that she might be treated as an outsider. “Everybody I worked with had callsigns, or they had previously flown, and here I was, a former teacher with no callsign,” she says. “But I was still included. We had that tight-knit squadron mentality, the happy hours just to blow off steam, meetings where you sit down and talk about vision and goals, where you’re going, and how the teams can improve. It was definitely different, but I would not go anywhere else.”

Now, Natalia is a Senior Program Analyst, though she calls herself a “jack of all trades” and “herder of cats,” often resulting in her customers seeking her out to tackle their most challenging problems. “If I don’t know how to do something, I will figure it out,” she explains.

Among other tasks, Natalia’s responsibilities range from developing schedules and spend plans, forecasting future activities, drafting acquisition documentation in coordination with multiple stakeholders, ensuring consistent strategic messaging on outgoing products, and even conducting analytics for budgeting and planning.

Lately, Natalia is learning the international side of program management — an experience she’s found energizing.

“My favorite aspect of the job is what I call ‘the stretching of my brain’ because I am learning so many new things, switching from domestic to international programs,” she says. “I get to apply things I had previously learned in different ways, and my customers are encouraging me to embrace the new functions of program management that I am helping with.”

Squadron Culture and Connection

After a decade at 2 Circle, Natalia says the reason she’s stayed is simple: the people and community.

“The best part of 2 Circle is that we’re treated like family,” Natalia says. Even as the company grows, the culture of connection remains strong. “We still send out welcome aboard emails, we have monthly get-togethers just to check in, and I know if anything happened in my personal life that affected my work, I could tell my manager and they’d say, ‘We got you. We’ll figure it out.’ That support is huge — it’s the squadron mentality carried over into our work.”

Looking Ahead

Natalia sees her future firmly rooted at 2 Circle, continuing to support the Department of Defense until the time comes for her and her husband to retire. Outside of work, she has plenty to look forward to as well — her first daughter’s upcoming wedding, her second daughter’s completion of her master’s (and on her way to becoming a teacher), and the chance to travel more of the world with her husband.

And if her past is any indication, she’ll keep embracing new challenges along the way — like the time she took up taekwondo during her husband’s deployment and earned a blue belt before a sparring injury sidelined her.

Her resilience, adaptability, and curiosity — qualities that once took her from teaching to defense — continue to shape how she approaches both life and work.

The story was written by Sarah Ludwig Rausch, a writer, editor, and storyteller.