Meet Christian Knutson

What inspired your move from the U.S. Air Force to the private sector? 

When I first joined the Air Force, I planned to do only four years to pay back my university commitment. But four years seamlessly turned into eight as my wife, who also served in the military, and I were stationed overseas and enjoyed our travel and experiences. 

As I began thinking about leaving the military, 9/11 happened and changed everything. Like many others, it recommitted my drive to stay in uniform. More years passed, and then my wife and I started discussing our next steps once we’d reached our 20 years in the service. We had two children by then, so we wanted to reduce our travel, provide more stability and offer them an experience outside of the military. Ironically, after we left the service, we traveled just as much in our civilian lives! 

My drive for the change wasn’t just about my family. My goal: achieve something new and meaningful with my experience and skill set while I still had plenty of runway left in my career.

What are the lessons from your military background which help you in your current role? 

Having a tailored personal vision for your role is crucial; even more so when you’re a leader. Each of us is personally accountable to shape our personal vision and objectives to align with the company strategy. Once done, you must build operational action plans to enable your vision. Strategy work is valuable, but strategy without good delivery is useless. You need to create operational action plans that enable the strategy. 

The second lesson is the value of clear and concise communication. The technical bits we do in engineering can be complex, but most of the problems in projects are due to communication issues. A mentor of mine, a Chief Master Sergeant, stressed the value of the three ‘Cs: communicate, communicate, communicate — upwards, downwards and laterally. It’s the foundation of collaboration.

It’s not just about quantity — the quality matters. You need to fear the send button. You should only hit it once you’ve nailed clarity, precision and simplicity, especially if you’re working with people globally and English is not their first language.

Staying in the communication theme, the power of in-person meetings can’t be overstated in
building relationships. You can pretend to care but you can’t pretend to be there. I love the convenience of tools like Teams, but it can’t substitute a face-to-face meeting for the first time or being onsite with a client.

What are the biggest issues in sustainability for our clients and how are we responding to them?

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and decarbonization. Jacobs is a member of the U.K. Trade Association called Aerospace, Defence and Security (ADS), and I sit on the Infrastructure Executive Committee. We polled over 1,400 companies in this trade industry to ask them what they most want to hear about. The most popular topic was PFAS, and decarbonization and asset management followed close behind.

We’ve spoken to our clients and their feedback echoes these results. We’re working on specific efforts for PFAS and the decarbonization of the defense estate, and we’re drawing in a broader array of experts from across Jacobs, including energy and power and environmental remediation. We’re leveraging our cross-sector capabilities and track record experience to help our clients navigate these challenges. 

This is an area that I’m close to, as I’ve done many front-end environmental assessments and my last job in the U.S. Government was focused on building sustainable training ranges globally. Thanks to innovative land quality management and ground restoration, we witnessed animals returning to areas in which they hadn’t been seen for decades — like the gray wolf at Graffenwoehr, Germany. Even with the intensive use of resources, you can still manage it to protect and promote plant and animal life. 

Why do your projects matter to our clients and communities?

In Europe, defense and security are critical topics given the conflict in Ukraine. Since the war began in February 2022, there has been a significant increase in capital expenditure investments in the defense estate and manufacturing by countries including the U.S., the U.K., Poland and Germany. Defense also encompasses security; often translating into energy security and resiliency. We’re focusing on the programs that support the U.S., U.K. and Germany in achieving security and resiliency in their defense estates. 

From a personal perspective, these projects mean a lot — I was stationed in some of the project locations across the U.K. and Europe. For example, we’ve just finished managing a program at an air base in Eastern Europe; it was one I spent time at when I was in uniform back in 1997.

The personal connection doesn’t end there: I have a son in the U.S. Army who currently lives in a building I was responsible for programming 20-plus years ago. He was four years old then, but now he’s training there as part of the airborne unit, and he jumps on training ranges that I helped create. 

At Jacobs, we emphasize social infrastructure and the importance of providing strong, resilient communities. By providing safe, effective and supportive facilities for aircrew, soldiers, sailors and other personnel, we can help them to perform at their best.