USMC Chief Engineer and Deputy to the Commander Tim Gramp reflects on engineering experience, future goals for MCSC
By MCSC Office of Public Affairs and Communication
Editor’s Note: In April 2022, Mr. Tim Gramp took the helm as the Marine Corps’ chief engineer and Marine Corps Systems Command’s Deputy to the Commander, Systems Engineering and Acquisition Logistics. Gramp recently took a moment to share his thoughts about his career, his goals for MCSC, and his advice for future engineers.
Can you talk about your role as Chief Engineer and Deputy to the Commander, Systems Engineering and Acquisition Logistics? What does this role entail?
These are really two separate and complementary roles with impacts both internal to Marine Corps Systems Command and external across the Marine Corps. As Chief Engineer, I look at the system-of-systems across the Marine Corps and Department of Navy to ensure integration and interoperability of capabilities that depend on individual programs or portfolios. From a technical authority perspective, I oversee our efforts to manage risk appropriately within our systems development and properly inform decision-making by our portfolio and program managers. As DC SEAL, I bring together our SYSCOM engineering and logistics competencies to support the full product lifecycle. We focus on delivering well-designed capabilities with proper planning for supportability, post-deployment mission success, and lifecycle cost management.
What inspired you to pursue this line of work?
Growing up, I was not a particularly artistic individual in terms of drawing, painting, sculpting — any of the traditional arts. But, I had an artistic interest that I found I was able to express through engineering. As an engineer, I can turn imagination into reality, not with a chisel or brush, but with models and analysis. It’s challenging and rewarding to define stakeholder requirements, design a solution, and eventually create the product or capability I had envisioned.
Early in my career, I was a software engineer; that discipline really appealed to me. I found that through a software language, you could create a nearly infinite number of solutions to complex problems, and the tools needed were just text. So for me, the inspiration was that ability to create and to make things that did not exist previously to solve people’s problems.
What advice would you give others looking to become a part of the engineering/MCSC workforce?
Be curious. I have a 10-year-old son, and he forever wants to know how everything works. So we take things apart, try to understand how they operate, and try to apply that knowledge when we create new things. I think that fearless curiosity is a really key factor in becoming an engineer.
By applying that mentality to different disciplines — mechanical, electrical, software, or systems engineering for example — the possibilities are endless. But it starts with just being curious and having no fear to ask questions and to explore and experiment. Now, sometimes you will find you may break things in the exploration process, which is okay too. So I’d say, develop a healthy curiosity, don’t fear asking questions, and be experimental. Just make sure you’re learning from every question and especially the failures.
During your time in this role, what have been some of the biggest challenges and highlights?
We need to move faster as we adapt to an increasingly complex and dynamic world. Our traditional engineering processes may be limiting our abilities to innovate and respond with speed to new threats in areas like cyberspace. Fortunately, I have seen the Department of Navy making tremendous progress in these areas with the adoption of agile engineering methodologies and a culture that embraces the integration of development and operations with security — DevSecOps. In the era of software-defined everything, our ability to apply automation to our fielding, testing, and deployment of new capability in a continuous manner will be our greatest advantage in overcoming these challenges.
Are there any particulars you are excited or passionate about that are upcoming in the near future?
There’s been a lot of excitement over the last several years around what started as model-based systems engineering, which has evolved into a broader digital engineering approach. Our traditional engineering processes, which are often stove piped, rely on a lot of handoffs from one phase of system development to the next. In each of those handoffs, you’re relying on the other engineers across the lifecycle to fully understand the system and its requirements in exactly the same way. I think that’s one of the factors that slows us down.
With the digital transformation, we are moving towards the idea of an authoritative source of truth — a central information repository — for all aspects of a system. Then, that central information can be shared and collaborated on amongst developers. Engineers or developers can review, comment, and provide timely and relevant feedback to a designer or tester regarding the parameters of that system data. The central information repository can be updated and maintained in real time, so changes in requirements or design are instantly available to all stakeholders in the product lifecycle. All of this increasingly lends itself to further automation.
I think digital transformation is really providing a significant improvement to our speed and the accuracy of the data that’s informing the systems development process. It’s allowing us to evaluate changes to a system before we’ve even built a prototype to test; we can actually do much of the evaluation and analysis fully digitally. So, I’m most excited about this idea of digital engineering, digital transformation, and the way that it’s bringing engineers together to collaborate on authoritative data to deliver capability more quickly.
What does it mean to you to work for Marine Corps Systems Command?
Coming from the Navy, SYSCOM gives me a better understanding of the real challenges in achieving fully integrated Naval systems to deliver warfighting capability. The Marine Corps has unique requirements across several warfighting domains, and joining this singular team of acquisition professionals charged with meeting those requirements is exciting. Speaking just of my early observations of Marine Corps culture, it’s been really impressive. Throughout my career, I’ve seen several different organizations and perspectives on acquisition. There definitely is a unique Marine Corps culture of agility and responsiveness that inspires me to bring my best. It’s exciting to think about the part SYSCOM plays in equipping and making our Marines more capable, ensuring they successfully complete their missions and return home safely.
As an experienced engineer and a leader, what are some of your most memorable career moments?
Well, I had an opportunity a few years ago to do some afloat experimentation with command and control capabilities. I was able to get underway for a week on a guided-missile destroyer. I really valued having that proximity to the fleet, to be able to sit with Sailors while they were working through the challenges of the mission. Seeing first-hand the experiences they’re having with the systems we build and deliver was an incredibly powerful experience. We also had the opportunity to experiment with new capabilities and tactics that have not been previously employed on a Navy ship. To expose these Sailors to an entirely new set of warfighting options in the future was just really powerful. Being able to demonstrate what was previously not possible while shoulder-to-shoulder with the Sailors who may depend on that gear in the future — that was something I’ll never forget.
What are some of your hobbies? What do you like to do in your free time?
I enjoy woodworking, and I like to do general home renovation projects. From furniture to bathroom vanities, and a solid oak Dutch door. I like working with my hands. I’ve recently gutted and remodeled our current house, and while it’s not perfect it’s given me an incredible satisfaction and new sense of ownership.
When we moved into our house, one of the first things we had to do was cut down this big pine tree in the front yard that was leaning over quite a bit. I felt bad when we cut it down because our kids loved climbing and playing in it. So, I told them I’d make them a playhouse. My wife, who’s very creative, got involved in designing this playhouse, so I ended up building this beautiful little 8x8 miniature home for the kids. People have teased me about putting it on AirBnB, and that, at least in California, it might actually be valuable real estate someday!
As the Marine Corps chief engineer, do you have a message to MARCORSYSCOM’s workforce?
A core value that’s really important to me is to engage in continuous learning. As a software Information Technology engineer, I know that the technical domain is constantly evolving. So, you have to adopt a continuous learning mindset; you’ve always got to be bringing in new knowledge and building new skills. So, that’s one aspect of continuous learning.
Another aspect, though, is that we have to have a culture that is willing to embrace experimentation and accept failure that leads to new learning. If your initial effort doesn’t yield the expected result, adapt, adjust your design and redeliver the next iteration of capability quickly. So, continuous learning, both in gaining new knowledge, but also trying, failing fast, and adapting is critical to our ability to meet the constantly evolving challenges we face today.
Gramp, a member of the Senior Executive Service, is the Marine Corps Chief Engineer and Marine Corps Systems Command’s Deputy to the Commander for Systems Engineering and Acquisition Logistics. He is responsible for directing enterprise-level systems engineering in support of command product lines and lifecycles to ensure MCSC provides end-to-end integrated, interoperable and certified warfighting capabilities. He lives with his wife, Amy, and three children, Tim Jr. “TJ”, Gilbert “Gil”, and Lucille “Lulu” in San Diego, California.
