Assured Information Technology Engineering President Jason Eddy said his company was founded on a “people-driven” growth model that provides value to the burgeoning information technology industry through its engineering talent.

Eddy’s foundational principles have paid off as AIT Engineering is the Orlando Sentinel’s 2024 Top Workplaces in Central Florida winner in small company category for the second consecutive year.

AIT Engineering, founded in 2010 by Eddy, works to create database and software development solutions for clients like the federal government — primarily the Department of Defense.

Eddy said placing the company’s focus on the quality of engineering talent coming in and work being done helped boost the morale of employees seeking a “well-respected team.”

“We’ve been able to grow as fast as we can recruit and retain top engineering talent,” he said. “Having our engineers know that they’re working with some of the best in their field has been the thing, at least in my perspective, that kind of keeps everybody happy.”

To keep things interesting, Eddy said AIT has employees work on various challenging projects rather than performing a static action or task that can be done in a monotonous routine each day.

“In traditional company roles, you have a job and then you do that job until you’re tired of doing that job,” he said. “We try to change that as the job changes several times a year where we rotate to new customers, new technologies, new growth opportunities.”

Feedback on employee satisfaction is welcome and encouraged at AIT Engineering, Eddy said, with multiple opportunities for employees to express their ideas about the positives and negatives of working for the company.

According to Eddy, AIT changes its benefits structure each year to better match the feedback it receives from its engineers.

Outside of changes at work, AIT helps cultivate an environment of community at the workplace by hosting quarterly company events in the form of a happy hour social or other outings to allow employees’ family and friends to meet each other.

The company also has access to suite tickets at Kia Center for employees to hang out with coworkers, friends or families and attend any of hundreds of events at the arena each year.

About half of the AIT Engineering’s 100 employees are veterans, according to Eddy, generating massive support for veterans-based organizations from within the company.

“We support a couple of major charities every year in the Boys & Girls Club and then a charity called Kick Off for Kids that feeds underprivileged school-age kids,” Eddy said. “Those are our two big charities that we support and then a large number of veteran-based organizations because we are a heavily veteran-based company.”

Eddy said AIT has a standard to maintain as a smaller company — building an environment of creative problem-solvers and enterprising engineers — but is always hiring and willing to turn ambition into excellence, especially within the workplace.

“The biggest thing for us is that we’re always looking for the right engineers,” he said. “Our growth is always limited by refusing to hire folks that aren’t good at their jobs. So that’s our marketing plug, but we’re always hiring.”