Parsons Corporation (PSN) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

[Audio Gap] Fireside chat with Parsons. We are here with Carey Smith, Chair, President and CEO; and Matt Ofilos, CFO. Thank you for coming and joining us.

Thanks, Mariana.

Thanks, Mariana.

So just to start, and for people that might not be familiar with Parsons, do you want to do like a quick overview of what you do, what are the key end markets you are exposed to?

Certainly. So we have over 20,000 employees around the world who are working in 25 countries, all 50 states. Our company has been around since 1944, just celebrated our 80th year anniversary last year. And today when you look at us, we're about 56% Federal, 44% Critical Infrastructure. So within Federal, I'd like to say we have a purpose-built federal company. So back in the 2016 time frame, we really only had a missile defense business. So it was kind of the opportunity to create a new company from a clean sheet of paper. I've had 4 decades in national security, so kind of knowing where the world was headed and realizing that we had the need to outpace near peer threats, put together a company that I would say is very different. We're focused on end-to-end cyber solutions, electronic warfare, specific areas of space and still the missile defense. But how do we outpace near peer threats and have a company that's very agile, very entrepreneurial and can get solutions out to the warfighter as soon as possible? Critical Infrastructure side of the house, I must say, we went back to the future. So we kind of went back to our core roots, which are design engineering, program management and owners engineering, and that represents 44%. We also have 6 end markets, cyber and intelligence, space and missile defense, critical infrastructure protection, transportation, environmental remediation and urban development. And I'd say one thing exciting about those end markets is they're all growing between 5% to 12% compound annual growth rate.

Do you see any of those end markets growing faster than others that gets you more excited about?

Yes. So we have one large contract within our critical infrastructure protection group, and that surged last year. So if you exclude that contract out, all 4 of our profit and loss centers are going to be growing double digit as we go into this year. But if I pick specific parts of the market, I would say within cyber and intelligence, we're predominantly involved in offensive cyber. That represents 75% of our business, and defensive is 25%. So we do see very strong cyber growth. In fact, we've been over 25% growth there for the last couple of years. Within our critical infrastructure protection, several areas are growing, but army ammunition is one that I would highlight. So the U.S. has obviously expended a lot of munitions and ammunition in the wars. So there's an effort because our army plants are about 35 to 50 years old, that those need to go through a modernization effort. So we're involved at Radford as well as at Holston. Within our state business, I would say, protecting our embassies remains of critical importance. So when you look at areas like counter unmanned air systems, which are a high threat these days, how do we protect our 280 embassies and consulates all over the world and also from electronic security has been an increased focus there. On the Critical Infrastructure side of the house, I would just say unprecedented demand. We've won within North America our 6 largest contracts within the last 16 months. And then if you look at the Middle East for program management consult, we're the #1 in the Middle East region. We're the #1 in Saudi Arabia. We're in virtually every single Saudi Arabia giga project that's going on.

So sometimes for investors, it's difficult to discern between federal solutions providers and the same thing on the critical infrastructure side. What makes Parsons unique? What makes Parsons win those contracts?

Yes. So first, high level, we win or lose on technology, not on price, and that's in both the Federal Solutions as well as the Critical Infrastructure segment. But I'll kind of talk a little bit by market. So within cyber, I always encourage investors to ask a company, where do you play? If you look at cyber as a pyramid, the top of the pyramid and the hardest to play is offensive. The middle layer is defensive, the bottom layer is infrastructure and services. We're 75% at the top layer; 25%, the middle layer; 0 at the bottom layer. And at the top layer, we're one of the top providers. Within space and missile defense, we've been the #1 system engineering contractor for the Missile Defense Agency for 4 decades. We've only ever had one company even bid against us for that work. So we're in a very good position there. Missile defense is obviously going to get increased attention, particularly as we start to look at something like Golden Dome for America. And so we're looking forward to being able to help in that effort through our missile defense work. Within space, we do space ground systems. We've done over 170 different space ground systems. We also took that a step further which, I think, attractive to an administration that wants things done differently and quickly. We now sell satellite as a service. So if you look at command and control systems, we buy the infrastructure. Customers can come in and buy as a service from us. It's a win-win business model. It's better from us from a margin perspective, but it's better for customers because they don't have to buy that equipment themselves. Space domain awareness is another area that we excel. We're not only providing solutions for the past few decades for Department of Defense and the intelligence community, but we also won the civil mission. And we're currently expanding that to international allies, particularly here within region and around the world. And then assured position, navigation and timing is another area we differentiate. So if you lose your GPS signal, you still have to get location information. We've developed a packable -- a wearable version for an army soldier that basically you can get location information. We think we're at the leading edge there with our software-defined radio technologies. Within our critical infrastructure protection segment, we're the #1 provider of counter unmanned air systems for Department of State. We're the #1 provider of electronic security for Department of State, #1 with the Army. We're #3 provider of electronic security systems for the Air Force. And then we're uniquely positioned, when you think about that intersection on providing critical infrastructure protection, how do you protect a water company, a utility company, a transportation system from cyber threats? With our portfolio, we understand how all those operate but we also have the capabilities to provide cybersecurity. Transportation. We provide the FAA facilities work. So we have $1.8 billion contract with the FAA. We're excited about leveraging that into the aviation modernization, which is definitely needed to improve our aviation safety as we go forward. Also within transportation, we've designed and built over 10,000 miles of roads and highways across 6 continents, done over 450 airport programs, 450 rail and transit programs. Those are all over the world, including some of the biggest today like Dubai Metro or the Riyadh Metro, which we recently just opened. On environmental remediation, we're one of the leading players in mine reclamation, reclamating two of the world's largest abandoned mines up in Canada, Giant and Faro mine. And then PFOS/PFAS, I would say, is an emerging area. So we hold several patents in PFOS/PFAS. In fact, just acquired a company, ThermalRS, that enhances our position there. We have approved a patent that we think is going to be the first advanced destructive technology that actually eliminates the entire PFAS molecule. Typically, other technologies will take a PFAS molecule, they break it into smaller pieces that requires incineration. Our solution does not. And that, coupled with ThermalRS, we think, makes us a leader in what's a $40 billion addressable market for Parsons. And then finally, I'd say in urban development, when you look at all the infrastructure building going on in the world today, Middle East is growing the fastest. We were all excited about our $1.2 trillion, within the US, $550 billion in new funds. There's $1.5 trillion in the Middle East, 60% to 70% of that is new. So Parsons is the program manager for NEOM THE LINE, the city that's to be as tall as Empire State Building and as long as Long Island; we're the program manager for NEOM Oxagon, technology and logistics hub off the Red Sea; program manager for Qiddiya, which is the world's largest entertainment center; program manager for King Salman Park, 5x the size of Central Park; program manager for Riyadh rings and roads. We're doing the Riyadh traffic management to get Riyadh ready to be able to host the World Cup in 2030, the Expo in 2034. We're doing Al Soudah, a brand-new resort on the Southern part of Saudi Arabia. So pretty much everything within there, we touch. But I would also say the UAE, we differentiate, #1 program management consultant there. And what we're seeing is a resurgence of mixed-use development and residential housing. Fascinating. When you go over there, we're actually building manmade islands for people to live. So those are kind of all of our differentiation across our 6 markets. Really like our position. And I'll say that those markets were intentional because we looked at strategically where we can be top of the markets that we can be differentiated, one of the top players, markets that are going to be growing, markets that are going to be enduring and markets that are going to be profitable.

So touching base on that, how do you think about new opportunities? You think about them that you have a high chance to win. And probably discuss how has been your pipeline of opportunities and what is your win rate lately or book-to-bill for the last couple of years.

Yes. I'll start. Matt will add on to this point. But I would say overall, we are very pleased with our pipeline. For 6 consecutive quarters, we've been over $50 billion in terms of pipeline. We measure in terms of number of jobs greater than $100 million. Within there, we have 100 jobs greater than $100 million. We've also started looking now at jobs greater than $500 million because as our strategy has taken hold, we've moved up the value chain, been able to bid, win larger jobs. So now we have 15 jobs that are greater than $100 million. Our trailing 12-month book-to-bill, despite the fact that we've grown over $3 billion in the last few years, has consistently remained above 1.0 ever since our IPO. And so we're excited about that. And our Critical Infrastructure segment has had 17 consecutive quarters greater than 1.0.

Yes, I'd just add, Mariana, almost $9 billion worth of backlog and then another over $12 billion worth of awarded not booked, so almost $21 billion of work that's been awarded to Parsons. The $12.5 billion of awarded not booked are things that are single awards to Parsons that either you'll get through an option year or through a ceiling raise or whatever it may be, so things that we'll get over time. And so really, if you think about the challenges around the federal government right now, of course, and capacity to continue to do work, and I think we're in a great place to kind of provide an easy button where people can bring work to our existing IDIQs. If we can kind of continue to get extensions and ceiling raises on these contracts, we're in a really great position. But that $21 billion is almost, I guess, it's 70% more than it was just 3 years ago. And so the backlog and the awarded not booked are in a great position to continue the growth.

Perfect. And tying up these opportunities with the pace they could play out, how the new geopolitical environment plays a role, and probably touch base on both. The Middle East, and last year there were some concerns around rephasing on the investment and funding on some programs. And then we'll go back to the new administration in the U.S.

Yes. I would say in the Middle East, they are the fifth largest fund in the world, the public investment fund. So they're going to continue to fund projects. Now they are going to have to prioritize as they get closer to the World Cup and to the Expo on those projects, I think, around Riyadh that they have to have to be on the world stage for those events. We're fortunate that that's where our priorities have been as well. So if you think about NEOM, I'll use as an example, the part they want to get done now for NEOM is to be able to have a stadium for World Cup that's going to be 300 meters high in the air. That's the first priority rather than building a bunch of modules around the Diriyah Gate, which is a restoration of Saudi's history. It's just really impressive. That's come a long way. It's going to be again ready to be on the world stage. Qiddiya, the Six Flags amusement park, is expected to open as early as this year. So a lot of those projects that have to be ready, those will be ready. With the new administration, there's a good alignment with the Middle East because President Trump has great relations with both MBS within Saudi Arabia and MBC within the UAE. Geopolitically and kind of looking at the new administration, I would say, present some opportunities for Parsons. So if you look at if we get a settlement in Russia-Ukraine, we hope to be involved in the rebuild effort there. We have a directed energy laser system which has been approved for export to the Ukraine, which would be able to come in and do the demining. Over 40% that country today is covered in mines. So first, you would do the demining, then you would come in and do the environmental remediation, then you would start to rebuild. We're one of a few companies that were heavily involved in the Iraq rebuild. So we hope to play an effort there. Same with Israel-Gaza rebuild, that would be another area that we would see getting involved with. I would say the Sentinel program, the intercontinental ballistic program, presents an opportunity for Parsons. We were the architect and the engineer of record for every single intercontinental ballistic missile program up until Sentinel. So we did the Atlas, we did the Titan, we did the Peacekeeper and we did the Minuteman. So that's now going to go through a new procurement and be restructured. And so we hope to play a role on that. And then I touched upon earlier the Golden Dome for America, which will get a lot of spending. Parsons again has been with MDA, Missile Defense Agency, for 4 decades. And so that -- we anticipate that our work there will be expanded. And we've also done work like air-based air defense here in Europe, where we hold a contract for $1 billion ceiling. And we had to come up with a concept similar to what they're going to be looking for, for the Golden Dome for America: one that protects you from unmanned air systems, protects you from cruise missiles, protects you from hypersonic missiles, all the way up to intercontinental ballistic missile systems. So we look forward to applying our architecture experience that we have, protecting their bases here in Europe to the Golden Dome of America problem. And then I'd say another area would be border security that we're optimistic about. So border security is going to get increasing attention. We've done border security for a couple of decades all over the world: Jordan, Armenia, Georgia, Lebanon and other countries. Also closer to the U.S., the U.S.-Mexico border, we've been involved in helping Customs and Border Protection as well as Federal Aviation Administration. Then we've done land port of entry work, so biometrics capability, remote video surveillance capability, putting up towers, thinking about how you do a virtual wall type of scenario.

So when you think about how they plan to fund those initiatives, they're going to add to this 8% cuts every year and there's DOGE as well. Are you exposed to any of those agencies or programs that are actually, I don't know, understood as like inefficient? Or like what could happen there?

Yes. So to start with the budget. So for FY '26 and for the 5-year defense plan, there's going to be a realignment of funds. So to your point, Mariana, they will take $50 billion per year out of efforts that are not aligned with the new administration priorities, put those into the administration's priorities. The areas they're going to defocus on include climate change, areas of unnecessary bureaucracy and areas of diversity, equity and inclusion. Those are going to move to 17 areas that they say cannot be touched. So when you look at that, we're particularly excited because it aligns well to the Parsons' portfolio, areas like cybersecurity, space, missile defense, nuclear enterprise, munitions, modernization. How do you put more military construction out into INDOPACOM region, an area that we've been in for 3 decades. How do you support INDOPACOM cyber command, space command type of areas. So these 9 areas align very well with what our federal portfolio is. Relative to DOGE, their effort has been how do they reduce cost, how do they make the government more efficient and how do they deliver more mission capability to the warfighter for less dollar. We are a mission company so we're very much aligned with that and making sure we get as much capacity out to the warfighter quickly. DOGE has been focused on reductions in areas and with customers that we generally do not play with, so USAID, Veterans Affairs, the IRS, the FBI, Department of Education. These are not our customers. The other area they've looked to take funds away from are companies that do enterprise IT or IT consultants. We don't do enterprise IT and we're not an IT consultant. So for us, we actually applaud the efforts of getting more out to mission and more to warfighter because that's how our purpose-built federal portfolio was made.

Perfect. And then you have this one contract that is confidential, so you are limited to how much you can share. But like how should we think about that contract and getting impacted by the new administration?

Yes. So we have a confidential contract. It got -- a related contract got impacted by the executive order on foreign aid. Our contract has continued. But if you think about you have a mission of performing as 5 steps, and we do steps 1 through 4 and the other contract is step 5. You can't complete step 4 if step 5 has stopped. So we're awaiting the outcome of that, and it's an important mission. And we're just going to have to wait and see what happens, I think, in the CR and as things go forward.

Perfect. And do you want to touch base on how that contract could affect your guidance or your outlook for the year?

Yes. So midpoint of guide assume the contract that we negotiated and, call it, the December, January time frame. So the midpoint would be associated with that. At kind of a best case scenario, as Carey mentioned, it's a 10-year mission, so there's a scenario where theoretically you could crunch the mission and shorten the mission and get the work done quicker, which would kind of trend towards the higher end, if not above a lower end. Right now, we're kind of running at a lower, kind of keep the lights on, continue to work but not at the same pace that we had negotiated in the contract. So that would kind of trend towards the lower end. Hopefully, we're looking forward to getting kind of final decision on this, so we can move forward to kind of execute on the mission for 2025.

So now coming back to not just these missions and where the budget and funding is going to. But today, are you seeing any impact on awards or business or things like that, even payments? Have you seen any impact from this transition in the United States?

I should say the only change we've really seen is there have been more contract extensions and ceiling increases. So that's good for us. Matt talked earlier about the $12.4 billion that we have been awarded not booked. So half of that amount is follow-on option years, but the other half amount is ceiling value. So what we're seeing is they're driving more new work to contracts where we already hold ceiling.

Payments have been consistent, so no real impact on payments at all for us.

Okay. If anyone has any questions, just raise your hand and we'll have the mic. If not, I'll just keep up.

Got a question there.

I'm not very aware of your work with the Iron Dome or Gold Dome, whatever is the new name. Can you elaborate on what do you provide for it? And over the next 10 years, what kind of capability is needed to bring the Gold Dome into existence, if it's indeed going to come into existence?

Yes, certainly. So a program was originally called Iron Dome for America, but Iron Dome is the name of the Israel system. We're involved in a portion of that today in the David's Sling program. I mean, that's through our Missile Defense Agency work. What the goal is, is to protect the United States from any type of system that would be attacking the U.S. So from a lower end, that would be an unmanned air system. You could also have cruise missile systems. You can have hypersonic systems or all the way up to an intercontinental ballistic missile system. So what that requires is a layered architecture approach that can protect against any type of threat. Our engagement again has been through the Missile Defense Agency to come up with architectural solutions as well as our role in working with Israel on the Iron Dome system. MDA will play a role. Space Development Agency will also play a role because you're going to have a new space architecture and system in place, and we have a lot of work as well with Space Development Agency. And I mentioned our program that's here in Europe, which the air-based air defense program, where we were tasked to do a similar concept which was, how do you protect the air force bases in Europe from all those layers of defense? So that's what the program will be. There's funding that's already being put in. There are two senators that proposed billions of dollars towards that effort. We've responded already to request for information, about 6 of them. I think there were 3 for Missile Defense Agency, 3 from Space Development Agency due at the end of this month. .

Maybe if I can add, when I started my career on early warning radars, and so back 20-some-odd-years ago, you had this defined trajectory around early -- around -- intercontinental ballistic missiles. And so as things have evolved, whether it's through hypersonics or counter UAS, you have to evolve the solution, too. So you're not just going to have a space interceptor or kind of a lower level either. And so where you really have to get to is how does cyber effects impact this? How does EW? Obviously, you're not going to fire a missile at a $10,000 counter UAS system or UAS system. And so I think in the future, a lot of the technology will be around that cyber and EW, and so we have a lot of offerings there.

Following up on electronic warfare. And you mentioned the alternative position, navigation and timing solutions that you have. How do you think about incremental investments to actually be positioned to have the solutions of the future? Do you do it through R&D? Do you partner with the government in a contract? How's the usual way to go?

Yes. So we always look at kind of a build, buy or partner approach. We always prefer to build it organically through our internal research and development. I would say our effective solutions that we've done have generally come through internal investment, but we also acquired two companies that play in that space very heavily. Both BlackHorse and BlackSignal provide electronic warfare solutions, and so that's been a big focus of our investment. The United States government has realized that that's an area that's going to have to be continue to invest in. It's one that we had not invested as much as in the past as we're going to have to for the future to be able to outpace near peer threats.

And then the government hasn't been great buying software. And in a lot of cases, they bought or they have been buying software in a box. How do you see Parsons' position in a world way where they could actually start just buying the code and not the hardware?

Yes. We've tried to be pretty innovative, I mean -- and some of the companies that we bought sell software products and solutions on a license basis. I'd go all the way back to our space solutions business where we sell a lot of our space products. It's called the Ace software suite. So we're kind of familiar with how we do that. To your point, though, the government is just evolving. Pete Hegseth, in fact, sent out a memo and a directive with a new software development philosophy. We think that's going to help to be able to get software solutions out earlier, and we're complying with that software methodology. So we fully support that.

Perfect. And then you mentioned M&A. And how do you think about M&A in terms of what critical areas or technologies you like to be exposed to that you think the best way to go is M&A?

Yes. So to your point, M&A market this year will probably be interesting. I think the pipeline is really quite strong. We did close one acquisition in Q1, so the smaller -- the one TRS that Carey mentioned on the PFOS/PFAS side. The pipeline is still strong. We're meeting with a lot of companies, looking through details. Obviously, as multiples have contracted a bit within our business, I think the federal side, I think it will probably kind of come down a little bit on the purchase prices and the multiples that will be paid. And so we'll see. There's one theory that more folks will come to market because they don't want to deal with the chaos. But we're obviously focused on technology offerings within whether it's cyber, EW, space, so really critical areas within federal. On the infrastructure side, over the last couple of years, we've closed 3 acquisitions, I think, in the last 2 years within infrastructure. Historically, our focus on acquisitions has been on the federal side. But I think really kind of geography gaps and having technical offerings for our infrastructure customers as well has been important. So having exposure to Texas and Florida, kind of expanding our capabilities in those locations, so kind of a geography-based acquisition strategy around infrastructure. So all in all, the pipeline still remains strong. I think it will be an interesting market this year. We still plan to do 2 to 3, but it will kind of be a wait-and-see mode.

And I'd say BCC and BlackSignal, the two that we did recently, those are great examples of ones that fit in our sweet spot. So BlackSignal brought offensive cyber capabilities, some anti-satellite capability, space capabilities. They also brought the electronic warfare that we talked about earlier, so really in our sweet spot on federal. And then BCC made us the #1 consultant in South Florida and particularly around Miami region, which we're going to see particular growth, and doubled our presence within Georgia.

Something I'm really surprised about your company is when I go to the different symposiums, space symposium, the Air Force one, army, you guys are using the same technology on different applications. When you acquire a company, for how long you can actually keep extracting these revenue synergies, or from this software code, new applications through the relationships you have and stuff?

Yes. So I think we do a great job of bringing a company in and applying their capabilities throughout the business, to your point, Mariana. I'll use if we buy a company in cyber, that might sit within our defense and intelligence business. But we're also going to use cyber, for example, in our counter unmanned air systems within our critical infrastructure protection. We use it within our advanced traffic management system capability to be able to protect transportation systems. So we take our technologies, cyber -- artificial intelligence is another great one. AI, we apply across our entire business. So it's in -- if you look at our sales that are external, about 1/3 of our sales have an AI component. And we also use AI for internal cases. So synergies, we buy the company, we integrate very quickly within a year and then those synergies kind of stay for the future.

And Mariana, if I look back a couple of years. So last year, we announced that GSA FEDSIM win for $1.2 billion. When you look at that, those are really the culmination of 4 of the acquisitions that we had done plus kind of legacy Parsons capability. So program like that is just great evidence of our ability to kind of upscale as we kind of pull the companies together. I was in the Middle East back in November, and I saw our Xator folks meeting with the Middle East folks on, "Hey, for some of these mega projects, how do you think about counter UAS? How do you think about biometrics? How do you think about critical infrastructure protection?" And so -- and then just this week, we had our TRS team, so this new acquisition. They were meeting with our engineering fellows, so that the breadth of the company's engineering capability understands what we've acquired. And so it's great use of kind of that capability to kind of get those revenue synergies for an extended period.

Perfect. And M&A has also played a role in improving your margins. How is that going to play out with probably, I don't know, a period where M&A will slow down? And then how's the opportunity to pick up?

Yes. So to your point, Mariana, 2024 expanded margins by 50 basis points. So really, we planned and guided to 40 basis points of expansion and got to 50. So it was a great year for us. But M&A has contributed there. So when we acquire companies, we look at double-digit growth and double-digit margins. So that helps both the Federal and the CI side. This year, our focus really is on execution. We had some legacy programs that are wrapping up, and so we had some charges or write-downs last year. And we want to trend toward that double digits, so we've said 20 to 30 basis points per year of margin expansion at the company level. The majority of that will come from the infrastructure side, which experienced those write-downs. The Federal side, we're at north of 10%, and those kind of a growth in the Federal. So it's really mix related on the fixed price side. And so a really great job by the Federal group. But as we -- this year comes along, we see kind of faster growth in the cost plus. So we expect the margin to come down a bit on the Federal side, nothing performance-related at all, just kind of mix as we see a faster growth in cost plus. And then on the infrastructure side, we are expecting to go from just about a 7% margin last year to 8.8% to about 180 basis points of margin expansion there.

Perfect. And my last on M&A. How much of the founders stay with you when you acquire those companies? Because that usually keeps the culture stronger. And how you make sure that you can retain those profiles within Parsons?

Yes, I think we do two things, I'm going to say, very well on the M&A front. The first one is how we identify companies. We try and buy preemptively outside of an auction process. So we like to find companies that have a technology differentiation but also a mission focus, as we do across our company, whether it's national security or designing infrastructure and also the cultural fit with our company. Our company is agile. We're very innovative. We're a different nontraditional firm, particularly in the federal space. And then we've got the unique portfolio, which I think is very helpful for our company. On the other hand, on the integration side, it's very important to keep the founders. So we like to keep the founders. If you keep the founders, you keep the leadership team. And we try and acquiesce to what the founder desires to do. I mean, a good example, we had one founder that came to us who was the CEO. And he said, "I really like to go back to technology." So we said, "Fine. You can be the Chief Technology Officer." We have another founder that wanted to pick up some more additional work scope. So instead of taking some Parsons -- his programs moving them over to the Parsons portfolio, we actually took the Parsons portfolio and moved it over to his portfolio. Then when you look at my executive leadership team, 1/3 of our leaders came from acquisitions. So what this does in the industry, I think, it sends a signal that we're a preferred acquirer because people can see themselves as a destination employee at our company.

And then when you think about capital deployment, what are your priorities?

Yes. So traditionally, we've been heavily focused on M&A. I think we have a $100 million share buyback program, about $75 million of capacity left at the end of last year. I think given the kind of, call it, dislocation in the market, kind of I think share buyback will be a focus area for us this year. But still M&A kind of remains the priority. But I think you can see some uptick in share buyback as well.

We've looked at and passed on over 100 companies within the last 12 months. We're extremely active in the market and very happy that we have a really good pipeline of candidates. And Matt and I personally touch every acquisition before we make it to make sure it really is a good fit with the company.

Perfect. And then we touched base on the administration, but I'm curious if you see any impact to the infrastructure bill. How much is the infrastructure bill contributing right now to your revenues? And what is the pace of spending going forward?

Yes. So the infrastructure bill got passed November 2021, $1.2 trillion, total $550 billion of new funds. That is not going to peak until the 2028 time frame. And then you have about a 6- to 8-year tail after that. So the good news is the infrastructure bill has a long way to go. And as I mentioned, we won 6 of our largest contracts in the last 16 months in the history of the company, and that's what you're starting to see. I would also hit the Middle East infrastructure spend which, again, $1.5 trillion. That's not going to peak until the 2030 to 2032 time frame. So we have a lot of tailwinds within the infrastructure business.

Last year, middle of last year, they had said that 80% of the infrastructure funds have not been distributed yet. So if you think about that $1.1 trillion, there's still a long runway to go on that contract -- or on that act. So it's a great place to be.

And do you see any risk from this new administration reprioritizing that bill to some areas versus others, same with that bill or environmental remediation, PFAS/PFOS? How do you think about the new administration view or profile towards those?

Yes. So on the IIJA, the only areas they've indicated they may reprioritize would be electrification, broadband and climate change. We don't play there. And what they would do is shift that, it's roughly $25 billion of funds, they would shift that to what they call hard infrastructure which is roads and highways, bridges, rail and transit and airport, which is where we do play. So I don't see any impact on there. And I'm sorry, the second part of your question was?

No, just spending and impact from that. If anyone has any questions? I still have two more. Now I want to touch base on hiring. What attracts people to Parsons, how you make sure you attract the right people, retain the right people, and if clearances or finding the right profiles on these new activities and missions has been a challenge.

Yes. So hiring, we've done a very good job. Obviously, we've had over 20% organic growth for the last 2 years. And because we are mostly a labor workforce, that's been driven by both hiring as well as retention. So to me, it starts with the interns. We bring in hundreds of interns every year. Before they leave for the summer, if they've performed well, we give them an offer to come back the following summer. And then if they're graduating, we give them an offer to come back full time. So we really keep that as kind of our incoming talent pool. We also do -- to your point on clearances, we do need to go recruit people that have clearances. We have over 4,600 people that are cleared within our 20,000 person workforce. And we work very closely with different industry associations also on how we improve the clearance process. So we've been working -- coming up with a continuous vetting process and being able to get people cleared more easily because that would definitely help our business. I would say retention is equally as important. Our retention has improved year-over-year for the last 2 to 3 years. And I think a lot of that is because we are a different type of company. People come to work at Parsons because they have that passion for mission and that's what they do. But they also like our culture and the fact that we are fast, that we're entrepreneurial. And the fact that we're a large business, we have a lot of capabilities, we have a lot of breadth and depth, but we can still run like a small business is very attractive for employees.

And are there areas that is more difficult to hire? I don't know, you mentioned artificial intelligence. You are probably competing with a lot of companies on that arena. How you make sure you attract profiles there? Or what type of profiles are interested to come to Parsons if they are really experts on AI, for example?

Yes. I'd say the hardest area to hire still remains that cleared workforce and that we do pretty well besides that. People come to Parsons also because of technology. We're an advanced technology firm. So we've established a dual technical career path where people can go all the way up to like a Chief Technology Officer, which we have on the executive leadership team. We have 4 Chief Technology Officers for each of the businesses as well. We also have a technical fellows program that has over 70 members. And then every year, we nominate new technical fellows. Those technical fellows are given a stipend that they can spend on an area of interest that also ties back to the business, and then they help us on our new business efforts as well as our execution efforts. Really like that model because if you're a great engineer and you don't want to go to management, you can see yourself in a technical career path at Parsons.

And it's any different in the Middle East, hiring? Or it's easier to hire?

Middle East is easier to hire because we recruit from about 40 different countries around the world. So I would say when you look at it, the Middle East kind of are easiest to hire, then Critical Infrastructure in North America, then probably our Engineered Systems, part of our Federal business. Most difficult will always be the cleared personnel within the defense and intelligence.

And Mariana, to give you some numbers. The Middle East business has grown so quickly that we're going to hire about 200 people a month -- between 200 and 250 people per month. So very active over there. And again, these big projects that we've won are super exciting and able to attract a lot of great talent.

That's amazing. And when you think about exposure going forward beyond technologies, how do you think about regions that are not like the U.S. or the Middle East? Are you interested in getting an exposure to Europe? Are you interested in getting exposure -- like more exposure to Asia Pacific than you have some through INDOPACOM?

Yes. So we have less than 1% of our business in Europe. We actually do metro work in Paris as well as Marseille. But I would say our biggest focus is the INDOPACOM region. So there's over $9 billion of funds that have been put in for the INDOPACOM region, and then 1 of the 17 areas that Pete Hegseth had outlined in his memo is INDOPACOM military construction. We've been on Guam for 3 decades. We've been on Kwajalein now for nearly a decade. So on Guam, we do Critical Infrastructure business, supporting public works. On Kwajalein, we built the new airfield. We've won two housing contracts, one in 2018, one in 2024. We -- additionally, we have several hundred people that are working in Hawaii. They're supporting cyber and electronic warfare areas. So I'd say INDOPACOM our next big focus area.

Perfect. And then we're getting close to -- yes, we're on time, but I'm going to have one last question. I'm curious to know what are you most excited about? And also on the other side, what keeps you up at night?

So most excited about is always hard. I say it's like picking your favorite child out of 6 end markets that are all growing 5% to 12%. I'm excited about all of them. I guess with my national security background, I would probably mostly be excited about cyber, but I get super excited these days about infrastructure and urban development as well. What keeps me up at night? I mean, it's just really, I think, watching the dynamics and staying on top of the dynamics, staying close to our customers and making sure that we're delivering mission performance for the warfighters on the federal side of our house and then enhancing our infrastructure, and not just enhancing it, but how do we build it back smarter and better. Because we're uniquely positioned as a company. We can drive digital transformation into infrastructure, we can also protect our infrastructure from threats through our cybersecurity capabilities.

Great. Well, thank you very much, and good luck to you.

Thanks, Mariana. Thanks.