From Intern to Director of Growth and Innovation

I started my career in the Government contracting fresh out of college knowing very little about the industry. With only a basic understanding of how companies actually win Federal work, no idea of GovCon vocabulary or awareness of what “capture,” “pipeline,” or “qualification” meant.

What I did have was an opportunity to work with real companies, with real executives, solving real growth problems. That opportunity changed everything.

Today, I’m leading growth programs, managing multi-billion-dollar pipelines, supervising consulting teams, and helping scale federal businesses. I am now beginning to work at Imagineeer LLC, joining the company full-time after serving as a fractional consultant and Director of Business Development at Hopper Consulting LLC.

This next chapter begins with working directly for Imagineeer CEO Jose Arrieta, former HHS CIO, nationally recognized innovator, and owner of several patented technologies that reshape how the Government manages and secures data.

Looking back, the journey from student to growth leader happened faster than I ever imagined. But it did not happen by accident. It happened because I was trusted with real responsibility early in my career.

Learning the Business by Doing the Real Work

During the final two years of my Bachelor’s degree at George Mason University, I worked as a student analyst supporting multiple Government contracting firms, eventually helping my mentor start his own company, Hopper Consulting, a growth advisory firm that embeds analysts directly into client business development operations.

This was not a typical internship as I was not shadowing anyone to learn the business.

I had a front-row seat to how firms grow in the federal space across small, mid-sized, and large organizations. I learned how strategy translates into capture decisions, how operating models evolve with scale, and how leadership judgment matters just as much as process in determining the direction of growth.

That experience challenged me. It required me to think beyond individual pursuits and begin understanding growth as a system: incentives, talent, timing, partnerships, and risk. I grew quickly not by title, but by responsibility.

Faced with the opportunity to do the work while I was learning, I built the operational framework, set up processes to create pipelines for business development, qualified opportunities, supported capture strategy and researched Government agencies and programs. I learned how companies position themselves years before a contract ever hits the street. I learned how disciplined processes create wins. And I learned how complex the GovCon market really is.

This was when I realized that while most students graduate with theory, I graduated with real operating experience in the real world.

Running a Business Unit Before Most People Run a Meeting

At graduation, I stepped into a full-time Growth leadership position to lead a commercial practice, supervising a team of ten consultants and analysts supporting 19 customer accounts. I managed client pipelines totaling more than $4.7 billion and my team qualified 78 contract opportunities. Working with a dedicated, talented team mattered while producing results. This was a fast-paced work environment that grew at an even faster and exciting rate.

Since then, I increased the business unit’s revenue by 231 percent while maintaining a 93 percent client retention rate receiving an 88 percent “Excellent” or better rating on client surveys.

“Sana has accomplished an extraordinary amount early in her career. I’ve watched her evolve from a recent graduate into a trusted advisor to CEOs of multi-million-dollar companies, helping them grow real businesses. It’s been incredible to witness.”
— Scott Hopper, Founder, Hopper Consulting

Imagineeer was one of our Federal digital modernization and AI engineering clients. I served as their business development Account Lead, building their pipeline, shaping capture strategy, and driving long-term growth planning. That hands on experience led Imagineeer’s CEO to hire me full time to lead growth and development for the company.

Imagineeer operates across multiple agencies and programs with the delivery depth, internal controls, and leadership structure required to sustain execution at scale. It functions as a mission studio; pairing delivery, strategy, and IP development so government customers are not passive consumers, but active owners in the solutions they deploy. This growth model and approach inspired me.

They presented me with my next unique opportunity, and I will be managing a growth portfolio most professionals don’t make their way into until mid-career.

The Intern-to-Operator Model: How Real Careers Are Built

I did not start my career with a perfect résumé or a long list of credentials. I started as a student who was curious, motivated, and willing to learn. What changed everything was being given real responsibility early.

During my time in school and after graduation, I was developed through a simple but powerful model: learn the fundamentals as an intern, step into ownership as an entry-level professional, and grow into a skilled operator by being trusted with real outcomes. That model was not accidental.

It is the result of a leadership philosophy I was fortunate to be part of. For more than six years my mentor, Scott Hopper, has built and scaled high-performing growth teams by investing in motivated young professionals and developing them into highly skilled professionals. At multiple companies and now through Hopper Consulting, his approach has been consistent: give people real work, empower them to lead so that they have real accountability and real opportunity to grow.

That philosophy shaped my career. I was not trained to be an assistant. I was trained to be a professional.

As a student analyst, I learned how business development actually works. As an entry-level consultant, I owned accounts and outcomes. And as a growth lead, I was trusted to supervise teams, manage multi-billion-dollar pipelines, and help scale real federal businesses.

That progression is intentional. It is how analysts become consultants. How consultants become capture leads and CGOs. And how future CEOs are built. I am proof of what happens when young professionals are given responsibility instead of busy work. I started my path to CEO as a college junior.

Why Business Development Still Needs People

Right now, a lot of companies are trying to replace analysts with AI. That is a mistake.

Scott often says that young people cannot find the nearest gas station because they plug their GPS in every time they get into a car. If the phone dies, they are lost. The same thing is happening in business development and across some industries.

If companies outsource the critical thinking solely to AI, they will not really know their customers. They will not fully understand their markets. They will not recognize opportunity patterns. And when something breaks, they will not know how to fix it.

AI is an incredible tool. We use it every day. But AI does not replace judgment. It does not understand agency politics. It does not see patterns across clients. It does not make tradeoffs. It does not challenge bad assumptions. Business development is a human profession. It is built on relationships, context, and experience.

Looking Forward

I share my story because it shows what is possible when young professionals are given real opportunity and are empowered to make real decisions.

At this point, I have led teams, run growth programs, managed multi-billion-dollar pipelines, and helped scale federal businesses. None of that happened because of a title. It happened because someone invested in me and let me learn by doing.

For students early in their careers, the right environment matters more than the perfect job description.

And for companies, building up people and personnel is not just the right thing to do, it is a competitive advantage.