Rita began her career as a software engineer and team lead in the space industry designing and building systems for automated spacecraft test and anomaly resolution. She was a core member of the team that built the corporation’s first generation of test systems that leveraged tailorable simulation capabilities and were designed for reuse across all satellite models. She also developed software that enabled satellite designers to monitor, diagnose, and resolve problems on operationally deployed on-orbit systems.

Rita’s industry experience nurtured an interest in the dependability, adaptability, and resiliency of software-reliant systems. Transitioning from industry to an FFRDC, The Aerospace Corporation, she focused on software’s role in mission success from concept development through operations. Her program- and research-funded tasks spanned system architecture; requirements engineering; software design, development, and test; technical evaluations and trade studies; software security; and software measurement.

In 2005, Rita joined the SEI to continue her work on software acquisition. She moved to the CERT Division in 2010 to focus on acquisition challenges for cyber-resilient systems. In 2021, she returned to Aerospace to lead the Software Architecture and Engineering Department, a bi-coastal cohort of engineers with USSF, IC, and civil space program customers. In 2022-23, she served as adjunct professor of computer science at George Mason University, updating and teaching the course Introduction to Software Engineering. She left Aerospace to return to the SEI in 2024.

Rita is a member of IEEE, ACM, WiCyS, and INCOSE and is active in the INCOSE Systems and Software Interfaces Working Group (SaSIWG)* and INCOSE Digital Engineering Measurement Working Group. She has a BS in engineering and computer science, an MS in computer science/computer engineering, and an MA in organizational leadership.