May Guevara, BS, MBA

I attribute my success to my work in business management and consulting, focusing on operations, mission assurance, and compliance, particularly within the Aerospace SaaS sector. Building and implementing strategic solutions that drive performance and ensure regulatory excellence has been central to my achievements.

Stepping into competitive fields like aerospace, defense, engineering, or technology can be intimidating — especially for young women, women of color, and first-generation professionals who don’t often see themselves represented in boardrooms or engineering labs. I know this reality deeply, because I lived it.

My career wasn’t handed to me. I didn’t come from privilege or generational connections. I built it with grit, late nights, discipline, and a quiet confidence that grew over time. From engineering roles to leading Operations, Quality, Safety, Mission Assurance, and Compliance across regulated industries, and now as a woman CEO building an AI-powered compliance platform, I learned hard-won lessons that I want to pass on to the next generation of female leaders.

Here’s my best advice for women entering male-dominated industries, rooted in lived experience, not theory.

1. Don’t wait to feel “ready” — step in anyway.

In this industry, confidence often follows action, not the other way around. Women often feel they must be 100% prepared before raising their hand. In engineering, aerospace, or quality, that hesitation can cost you opportunities.

Confidence rarely comes first. It grows after you take action not perfection.

You belong in STEM, in aerospace engineering, in defense technology, and in any room you decide to walk into — even if you’re the youngest or the only woman there. You belong the second you decide you do. You grow the second you take the first step.

2. Lead with evidence, not emotion — but never lose your humanity.

Aerospace and defense are data-driven worlds. Quality, compliance, safety — these demand precision. But don’t let that discipline harden you.

Women often feel the need to be “twice as strong” to be taken seriously. The truth? Leaders who succeed long-term bring something more: empathy, humility, and emotional intelligence.

• You can lead with facts and empathy.
• You can be decisive and compassionate.
• You can be human and highly technical.

This blend is a superpower for women in aerospace, defense, and technology leadership.

3. Build a reputation that speaks before you enter the room.

In high-stakes industries like aerospace, aviation, and defense manufacturing, your credibility is everything.

People will remember:

• Your follow-through
• Your integrity
• Your professionalism
• Your attention to detail
• Your quality of work

Over time, your reputation becomes your strongest form of leverage.

• Your work ethic will become your shield.
• Your integrity will become your signature.
• Your follow-through will become your power.
• You don’t need to be the loudest voice in the room — just the most consistent.

In every job I held, in every program I led, people remembered me for three things:

• I did the work thoroughly and with integrity
• I never GIVE UP! (Try taking me down and I will come back stronger and rise higher every time!)
• I treated people with respect and compassion

This reputation opened doors long before I became a CEO.

4. Advocate for yourself — even when your voice shakes.

Self-advocacy is one of the biggest areas where women in STEM and leadership hesitate. Women are conditioned to “not rock the boat.” But in this industry, silence can cost you opportunities, promotions, and recognition. But first you must have proven records of successes and results, you can't advocate with emptiness.

You must learn to:

• Ask for the promotion and raise.
• Ask for the opportunity.
• Ask for the training.
• Ask for the seat at the table.
• And if they won’t give it to you?
• Build your own table. I did.

Your career won’t accelerate from silence or waiting to be noticed. Closed mouths don’t get fed — especially in male-dominated industries.

5. Protect your boundaries — your career longevity depends on it.

As women, especially as mothers, we are often expected to be everything to everyone, carrying invisible loads at work and at home.

Set boundaries early is not arrogance, it's leadership and self respect:

• Your time is valuable.
• Your energy is finite.
• Your peace is non-negotiable.
• You can be high performer without burning out.
• You can be dedicated without losing yourself.
• You can chase your dreams without sacrificing your well-being.
• You can be a leader without being available 24/7.

6. Seek mentors — but trust your own inner compass.

Mentorship matters, especially for women in engineering, quality, compliance, and aerospace leadership.

But mentors aren’t everything.

Your intuition, resilience, and lived experience will guide you more accurately than any textbook or training module ever will. I didn’t always have mentors who understood my path and ambitions. But I learned to take pieces of wisdom from everyone and filter it through my own intuition. Mentors can guide you. But only you can decide who you’re becoming.

7. Don’t shrink your ambition to make others comfortable.

Some people will be intimidated by your drive, your discipline, and your vision — especially in male-dominated industries.

That is not your problem.

Do not dim your drive. Do not minimize your dreams. Do not lower your standards.

This world needs more female CEOs, women founders, minority women leaders, and women in tech and AI shaping the future.

• Aim big anyways.
• Dream boldly anyways.
• Expand unapologetically anyways.
• Give yourself permission to outgrow environments that can’t hold your potential.

You owe it to the next generation of young women watching you — the ones who will walk through doors you kicked open.

8. Let your purpose be bigger than your fear.

Starting my own firm — Guevara Group LLC — wasn’t easy. Building an AI Next-Gen Agentic compliance platform from scratch wasn’t easy. Balancing entrepreneurship with marriage and motherhood wasn’t easy.

My Fear will always whisper:

• “You’re not ready.”
• “You’re not qualified enough.”
• “You might fail.”

But every step was fueled by Purpose:

• To create a better future for my children
• To support my family back home
• To bring integrity and innovation to an industry that impacts national security
• To show other women — especially immigrant daughters — that they can lead too

Courage isn’t the absence of fear. It’s choosing to move anyway. Whether it’s stepping into aerospace quality management, leading complex audits, entering defense contracting, or building your own AI compliance startup — choose purpose over fear every time.

9. Remember: your story is your superpower not your limitation.

As women — especially immigrant women, minority women, or first-gen professionals — we often feel we need to hide our story to “fit” into elite spaces. Where you come from is not your disadvantage. It’s your edge. Your background, your culture, your struggles, your resilience, your lived experience — all of it makes you a stronger leader in aerospace, defense, and tech. You don’t have to fit the mold. You can create a new one.

10. And lastly — remember why you started.

In aerospace, defense, and tech, the pressure can be intense. The standards are high. The expectations feel heavy. This journey can feel lonely sometimes. The doubts can feel loud. The days where you will have to pick up the pieces to rebuild yourself can be brutal. But always return to your “why.” You started this journey for a reason. Remember the girl who dreamed beyond her circumstances. Honor her and let her lead you forward.

• The industry needs more women like you.
• More leaders who are principled.
• More innovators who care about people.
• More voices that create change, not just follow it.

And if you ever question whether you belong here, let me tell you now:

Yes, you do. And the industry is brighter because you choose to step in.

In my world — aerospace, defense, and quality/compliance — the biggest challenges and opportunities right now are actually two sides of the same coin.

1. The industry is under pressure to ramp up… with a fragile foundation.

Globally, aerospace is trying to ramp production back up while still dealing with:

• Ongoing supply chain disruptions (raw materials like aluminum, titanium, specialized fasteners)
• Long lead times and bottlenecks for critical parts
• Labor and skills shortages in key technical roles

Recent industry reports highlight supply chain disruptions, talent shortages, and inflation as top challenges, especially for aviation and aerospace manufacturing. Another 2025 analysis shows that 65% of aerospace companies cite personnel shortages as a key barrier to ramp-up. For airlines alone, supply chain issues are projected to add over $11 billion in extra costs in 2025 — from older aircraft remaining in service longer, higher maintenance, leased engines, and stockpiled spares.

So, the pressure is real: “Build more, faster, cheaper — but don’t compromise safety or quality.” That tension defines the challenge in my field.

2. Quality and compliance are still managed in silos and spreadsheets.

This is the part that keeps me up at night — and the reason I’m building what I’m building.

Most aerospace and defense organizations are still running critical quality and compliance processes on disconnected tools: Excel, SharePoint folders, email chains, legacy QMS modules that don’t talk to PLM, ERP, MES, or engineering systems.

• Research shows that poor-quality data and fragmented systems in aerospace manufacturing drive delays, rework, compliance risk, and inefficiencies — costing companies millions.
• Cost of poor quality (COPQ) in complex industries like aerospace is often estimated at 8–15% of revenue, or around 10–15% of operating costs, when you add up scrap, rework, escapes, recalls, and lost business.
• Quality “escapes” (defects that make it out of the internal system) are a major cost driver for primes and suppliers.

On top of that, aerospace QMS requirements (AS9100/IA9100, regulatory, customer flowdowns) keep getting stricter and more complex. Papers and industry guides emphasize the need for robust QMS, process integration, and technology just to maintain compliance and competitiveness.

Yet most companies do not have an integrated “contract-to-compliance” platform.

They have fragments:

• One system for documents
• Another for CAPA / NCR
• Another for suppliers
• Another for training
• Excel for compliance matrices
• Email for everything else

That fragmentation is one of the biggest challenges — and also the biggest opportunity.

3. The biggest opportunity: integrated digital thread + AI-native QMS.

The opportunity I’m most excited about is connecting the dots:

from customer contract → design → suppliers → manufacturing → quality → audit readiness in a single, integrated digital thread.

Industry research is clear:

• Digital thread and model-based approaches in aerospace can improve efficiency, reduce unscheduled maintenance by up to 30%, and close the loop between operations, engineering, and suppliers.
• Modern MES and integrated supplier quality platforms are moving companies from reactive firefighting to proactive quality assurance, with better traceability and compliance.

But what’s largely missing — especially for small and mid-tier suppliers — is a truly integrated, AI-native QMS and compliance platform that:

• Starts at the contract/SOW level (reading the requirements, standards, and flowdowns)
• Translates them into actionable obligations for engineering, supply chain, and quality
• Maintains a live digital compliance matrix across the lifecycle
• Automatically ties evidence, records, and risk controls back to those obligations
• Keeps organizations audit-ready by design, not just the month before an external audit

That’s the gap I see every day:

We have world-class aircraft and spacecraft… running on 20th-century quality tools.

4. Where I personally see the future

So if I had to summarize:

• Biggest challenge:
• An industry under pressure to ramp up, with fragile supply chains, labor shortages, rising costs — and quality/compliance functions still operating in fragmented, manual ways that can’t keep up with the complexity.
• Biggest opportunity:
• Building integrated, AI-powered quality and compliance platforms that create a true digital thread — from contract to audit — reducing cost of poor quality, strengthening traceability, and letting humans focus on judgment, leadership, and problem-solving instead of chasing documents.

That’s the future I’m betting my career on — and the one I want the next generation of women in this field to help design, own, and lead.

Integrity, purpose, and impact guide both my professional and personal life. I am deeply committed to developing a fully integrated Compliance Intelligence Platform that streamlines operations and empowers organizations. I draw inspiration from my “why.” My passion and my family are at the heart of everything I do, and giving back is essential to me; I supported various charitable organizations as part of my mission to make a positive difference in the world.