When it comes to career development, just do it. That’s what Thomas Ridley, a Propulsion Team lead and member of the NAVAIR Leadership Development Program (NLDP), believes. And, he did just that when he took on a challenging, fast-paced job rotation assignment with the H-53 Heavy Lift Helicopter Program (PMA-261) in 2013.

Job rotations, in which an employee performs temporary duties to acquire new skills or knowledge, most often outside their department or program, are a requirement for NLDP participants. Job rotations provide many benefits, according to NLDP Manager Stephanie Gleason, including cross-training, networking and gaining a greater perspective of NAVAIR as a whole.

In Ridley’s case, his rotation also benefited PMA-261 directly because he filled a critical acquisition position that would have been otherwise vacant for seven months.

“The entire PMA-261 team was a ‘forward leaning’ program of brilliant ideas and firsts, a group of out-of-the-box thinking professionals who focus on migrating the issues of tomorrow, today,” he said. “It was certainly a fast learning environment; right away, I knew it was going to be a sink or swim rotation, so I buckled up and caught the wave.”

He said he is most proud of working with the supportability team to keep the H-53K program moving toward its Milestone “C” certification, a five-year required certification that is part of the defense acquisition program process. Thanks to Ridley’s help, and bolstered by his 12 years of experience working on the H-53 from his former military career, the team received the certification.

“Mr. Ridley provided both coordination and the necessary leadership to assist the program through its five-year independent logistics assessment (ILA) recertification. The program gained from Mr. Ridley’s experience, and Mr. Ridley gained by seeing the ILA through the program office perspective,” said Robert Leavitt, the PMA-261 product support manager.

For Ridley, the job rotation gave him the opportunity to experience real concepts beyond the classroom. “The rotation in PMA-261 really illustrated to me how dynamic, complex and rewarding it can be working in a program office,” he said.

After the rotation, Ridley is applying his newfound skills of working with different types of employees in different envir