Hanscom engineer joins senior level, assumes new role

  • Published
  • By K. Houston Waters
  • 66th Air Base Group Public Affairs

HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE, Mass. – A Hanscom engineer received recognition for his promotion to the senior level career service during a recent ceremony at the Collaborative Nerve Center here.   

Brian Kropa also assumed the role as of technical advisor, Advanced Cyber Technology, here March 28.

During the ceremony, Jacqueline Janning-Lask, director of engineering and technical management and chief engineer, Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, discussed what Kropa brings to his new rank, his support to the Air Force Materiel Command’s Digital Campaign, and his efforts to expand the Air Force network to support teleworking during the start of the pandemic.

"We're very proud of Brian. He's a tremendous asset,” she said. “But what's important is the technology piece that he brings to the table, which ensures our Air Force stays ahead of our peers."

Kropa has 16 years of civil service, which includes roles as an engineer and computer scientist in multiple divisions of the Command, Control, Communications, Intelligence and Networks Directorate. During his time as chief engineer for the Enterprise IT and Cyberspace Infrastructure Division, or HNI, he supported an array of complex IT architecture and systems.

Of his time in HNI, Kropa said he could not have asked for a better team and organization to be part of.

"Over the past three and a half years, we built a great team in HNI,” he said. “From Zero Trust to the Integrated Warfighter Network, Joint All-Domain Command and Control and the Advanced Battle Management System, whether it’s networks or the Cloud, our HNI engineers weren't just a part of it, we were in the thick of it. And that’s probably what I’m most proud of.”

Kropa was also directly involved in supporting the Secretary of the Air Force’s operational imperatives. Kropa believes there is still a lot of work to be done in this area.

“There is a tall task ahead of us, but from a cyber security perspective, we need to do as much as we can. In this new position, I will look to focus on the hardest cyber challenges the Air Force faces and I'm looking forward to that the most."

Before coming to Hanscom, Kropa was an in-house researcher and computer scientist in offensive and defensive cyber operations for the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Information Directorate, headquartered in Rome, New York.  

In addition to his promotion, Kropa also received the Meritorious Civilian Service Award for his work as a chief engineer at Hanscom from September 2018 through March 2022.