Murtaza Ahmed began his career with a broad focus in the GovCon world, supporting a variety of agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency, Transportation Security Administration, Social Security Administration and others.
Over time, he refined his expertise, leading strategy and modernization efforts in the federal health sector before widening his aperture again, as SAIC’s vice president and chief growth officer of the Civilian Business Group.
Today’s work “is much broader, especially when we include our state and local government clients as well,” Ahmed said. “I’m responsible for ensuring that our capabilities, innovation, and technical expertise are effectively leveraged to serve our civilian government clients. And the primary goal from that perspective is to help these clients achieve their mission, improving the lives of citizens.”
With a view across multiple civilian agencies, Ahmed connects the dots, finding new use cases for SAIC’s offerings. His current role “allows me to sit at a slightly higher level, to say: How can we take efficiencies and innovations that we are bringing in one agency and bring those across to a completely different agency?” he said.
For example, SAIC developed a strong capability around virtual training, and there are multiple organizations that could use that: Think health-related agencies that need to train surgeons, for instance.
Likewise, “we have a really excellent data analytics practice,” including the use of AI for predictive analytics, he said. Some federal service desks use this to identify and prioritize issues, and other agencies could leverage that same capability.
By the same token, “we are running enterprise IT for the Department of Transportation and the Department of State. We have cloud programs for Treasury and Air Force,” he said — and that IT management capability is broadly applicable. “We are always looking at how we can pick that up, package it, and take it to other agencies.”
All this creates new avenues for potential growth, and it helps the agencies meet their mission. “If I see that one agency has a certain need, and I know that one of my peers is providing very similar support to someone else, that solves the problem for the client and also helps us grow within that agency,” Ahmed said.
It requires a thoughtful approach to make this happen. “That’s where being close to the mission and understanding the mission becomes very important,” Ahmed said. “The culture that SAIC leadership brings around collaboration and the mission-driven focus really fosters a sense of purpose and community.”
With 20 years’ experience in the GovCon space, Ahmed said he is proud to be working in such an environment.
“I look forward to Mondays,” he said. “I always know we’re going to be doing something positive, not just for ourselves, but for the community that we actually live in. And everybody around me shares the same dedication to excellence and innovation.”
The work at SAIC “is very interesting, but deeply meaningful as well,” he said. “We are all collectively striving to make a difference. And it’s the culture that drives that sense of purpose.”
Ahmed recalls an early-career story to describe how that sense of purpose has always been his key driver.
“One of the very first projects that I supported was modernizing the disability-claim process. It was a very paper-based process: It used to take approximately two years for somebody to get a claim processed,” he said. By the time the modernization project was completed, that timeline had shrunk to less than three months.
“I was very proud of that. I would go around and tell people about it,” he said. And at SAIC, he expresses that same sense of pride. “The solutions we are bringing are really helping not just the government agencies, but the citizens. We are improving the quality of life for many people, and that’s incredibly fulfilling for me.”
Looking ahead, Ahmed said he is working to elevate SAIC as a mission integrator, to solidify its reputation by emphasizing the focus on three key areas: efficiency, innovation and delivering the best value. “Especially given the current environment, those three things are very important,” he said.
To keep that in focus for customers, he’s looking to strengthen relationships across SAIC’s client base. “We need to continue to understand what their mission and needs are and continue to show up with our innovative solutions when there is a need,” he said.
“Most importantly, when it’s being used and deployed, it needs to work. It’s all about operational excellence. We have to consistently meet or exceed our client expectations. That is what we do, and what we will continue to do,” he said.