PARSONS CORP

Overview

Parsons is a leading provider of the solutions and services required to support the complex security environment, unprecedented global infrastructure demand and a world of digital transformation effecting our customers. For 80 years, we have solved our customers’ most challenging problems and enabled a safer, smarter, more secure, and more connected world thanks to a culture of innovation, a focus on delivery, and a mission-focused workforce. Across those eight decades, we’ve established ourselves as a leading provider of integrated solutions and services that solve emerging customer challenges leveraging our depth of experience and expertise in the markets where we operate. Today, that legacy of success has never been more true or more important, with Parsons uniquely positioned to solve our customer’s most critical challenges.

We have developed significant expertise and differentiated capabilities in key end markets including cybersecurity and intelligence, space and missile defense, critical infrastructure protection, transportation, environmental remediation and urban development. Whether a first-of-a-kind sustainable, industrial city that runs on 100% renewable energy, security-as-a-service platform that uses advanced analytics and artificial intelligence/machine learning to defend against utility and water cyber threats, or elimination of emerging contaminants from the environment, we deliver integrated solutions that our customers need and the world demands. Across those programs, we have developed longstanding relationships with a diverse global customer set that includes intelligence agencies, the U.S. military, state and local governments, and international clients; all of whom know Parsons as a trusted partner sought out for our commitment to their success. We’ve further differentiated ourselves with those customers by delivering solutions through our One Parsons approach, bringing together capabilities from across our markets to provide integrated and unique offerings that leverage our global experience and in-depth technological expertise in areas of emerging demand like cyber protection for critical infrastructure.

Organizationally, we operate in two reportable segments, Federal Solutions and Critical Infrastructure, with revenue contribution of 55% and 45%, respectively, and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) contribution of 62% and 38%, respectively, for the year ended December 31, 2023 (“fiscal 2023”). See "Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Segment Results” for further discussion on our segments.

Federal Solutions: Our Federal Solutions segment is an advanced technology provider to the U.S. government, delivering timely, cost-effective solutions for mission-critical projects. We provide critical technologies, including cybersecurity; missile defense; intelligence; space launch and ground systems; space and weapon system resiliency; geospatial intelligence; signals intelligence; environmental remediation; border security, critical infrastructure protection; counter unmanned air systems; biometrics and biosurveillance. The U.S. government and its agencies represent substantially all of the revenue of our Federal Solutions segment. These U.S. government agencies include the Intelligence Community, the Departments of Defense, Energy, Labor, State, Homeland Security, and Commerce, the United States Postal Service, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the Federal Aviation Administration.

Critical Infrastructure: Our Critical Infrastructure segment provides program management, design and engineering services, and owners representative support for complex physical and digital infrastructure around the globe. We develop digital solutions focused on next generation aviation; rail and transit; bridges, roads and highways; leveraging sensors and data to drive smart sustainable infrastructure. Our capabilities in environmental remediation, water and wastewater treatment systems, and urban development allow us to deliver value to our customers by employing advanced technologies, improving timelines and reducing costs while reducing environmental impacts and improving the quality of life. We design and lead the delivery of complex infrastructure projects, leveraging our expertise as a leader in bridges, transportation, and urban development to support customers in programs that are transforming the global landscape. We serve a diverse global customer base including federal, state, municipal and industry customers, and private sector infrastructure owners, such as the transportation authorities for the cities of Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, and Paris, the state of New Jersey, AMTRAK, CSX, Metrolinx (Ontario, Canada), Southern Nevada Water Authority, Riyadh Metro, Dubai Roads and Transportation Authority (Dubai RTA), Abu Dhabi Department of Municipalities and Transport, Qatar Public Works Authority (Qatar PWA), the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund and international developers.

Advances in technology and a continued focus on sustainability are dramatically shifting the operating landscape across our markets, with pressing challenges ranging from confronting increasingly sophisticated cybersecurity threats to upgrading aging infrastructure to reducing environmental footprint and impact. Our customers are seeking smart technology-enabled solutions leveraging artificial intelligence to enhance and transform their systems performance and to address these challenges. Parsons’ wide-ranging capabilities enable us to provide our services, products and solutions across the national security and critical infrastructure markets, and we are well positioned to benefit from the trends in these markets. We have capabilities in the following four areas that span our two segments and four business units:

Systems Integration: We provide engineering services and technology for large digital and physical systems with high technical complexity. We lead projects from concept development through research and design, implementation, testing and verification, ensuring interoperability of these complex, disparate systems.

Program Management: We provide expertise and technology to advance our customers’ execution of large, complex projects within their defined sustainability, technical, quality, time and cost parameters.

Design Engineering: We provide advanced systems and infrastructure engineering design associated with utility capital projects, water/wastewater treatment, environmental remediation, ammunition plant upgrades, roads and highways, bridges, rail and transit systems and other associated infrastructure.

Product Development: We develop software and hardware across many domains and mission-specific applications. Our experienced engineers and developers design, develop, integrate, operate and sustain mission-critical software and hardware products for intelligence, defense and infrastructure customers.

Our customer relationships, which are based on a long history of successfully delivering complex technical services, are key to our success. We are often involved in the early stages of our customers’ planning processes, which allows us to efficiently optimize our service delivery model. These relationships, along with our technical expertise and intellectual property, enable Parsons to successfully deliver solutions that meet our customers’ demanding technical and execution requirements and fulfill our corporate purpose of developing a better world.

Our Services, Products and Solutions

Within each of our segments, we focus our solutions, products and services on the needs of customers in each of our business units. Parsons is differentiated by our people, processes and technology that work together to develop, rapidly prototype and deploy specialized hardware, software and infrastructure solutions to meet continually evolving customer missions and needs. With a culture driven by agility, innovation and collaboration, we deliver operationally proven capabilities in emerging technical areas, including advanced analytics, artificial intelligence/machine learning, cybersecurity, electronic warfare, environmental remediation and space systems. We perform systems integration, product development, program management and engineering across our segments and business units.

In fiscal 2023, we generated revenues of $5.4 billion, net income attributable to Parsons Corporation of $161.1 million and Adjusted EBITDA of $464.7 million. For a definition of Adjusted EBITDA and reconciliation to net income attributable to Parsons Corporation, see Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.

We achieved an overall win rate of 66% in fiscal 2023, 49% in the year ended December 31, 2022 (“fiscal 2022”) and 56% in the year ended December 31, 2021 (‘fiscal 2021”), which includes strong re-compete win rates of 93% in fiscal 2023 giving us long-term certainty on key contracts. As of December 31, 2023, our total backlog was $8.6 billion, an increase of 5.0% from December 31, 2022.

Our Federal Solutions business provides integrated solutions, software and hardware products and engineering services. Federal Solutions consists of two business units: Defense & Intelligence (D&I) and Engineered Systems (ES). Our strategy is to deliver information dominance across all domains.

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D&I—Our D&I business unit is organized into three related areas: defense, space and engineering services; cyber and national operations; and high consequence missions. Our customers include the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Intelligence Community, the Department of Commerce, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. D&I is a mission partner for differentiated technical solutions, products, and services, delivering innovations in cyber, space, missile defense, multi-domain command and control, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, electromagnetic spectrum dominance, and directed energy. Our solutions are used to meet national security challenges from space to the tactical edge around the globe.

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Defense Space and Engineering Services – We provide software, hardware, and technical expertise to clients across a variety of mission areas, including but not limited to, space, missile systems, and warfighter applications. Our customers include the intelligence community (Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), National Reconnaissance Office (NRO)); the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) (military services, Special Operations Command (SOCOM), the Missile Defense Agency (MDA), and United States Cyber Command (CYBERCOM)); the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

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We focus on providing small satellite launch and integration, satellite ground systems, flight dynamics, data fusion and analytics, platform system integration, directed energy, joint all-domain operations, and command and control systems.

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As an example, we are the prime contractor responsible for the DOD’s small satellite integration efforts through our Launch Manifest Systems Integration program with the U.S. Air Force. As part of this effort, we are providing the full range of hardware and system integration services, including the design, assembly, testing, and processing required to integrate small-satellite payloads onto a launch system. Our engineering and integration team performs the full scope of designing, assembling, testing and integrating systems to meet responsive launch missile needs. Our ground support equipment is enabling efficient and effective access to space for small satellites on commercial, national security and small class launch systems.

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Representative products include our Command-and-Control Core (C2Core®) mission planning and tasking suite that links requests, effects and operational guidance in a unified database, and ZEUS® Recovery of Airbase Denied by Ordnance (RADBO) laser neutralization system offering critical force protection in any operational theater.

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We are the prime Technical, Engineering, Advisory and Management Support (TEAMS) Next contractor for the MDA, where we provide engineering, analysis, and management support for the development of integrated and layered missile defense systems that defend U.S. and allied forces against ballistic, hypersonic, and cruise missile threats, and advance the agency’s integrated air and missile defense, command and control, and battle management and communications missions across all-domain battlespace.

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Cyber and National Operations – We provide capabilities across the digital landscape, including full-spectrum cyber, information operations, and analytics. Our customers include the U.S. intelligence community, U.S. Cyber Command, DOD research laboratories, and military cyber services. The acquisition of SealingTech expands our cyber offerings into Defensive Cyber Operations (DCO), and, combined with our offensive solutions, we deliver full spectrum cyber operations.

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Cyber solutions and products augment and automate full spectrum cyber operations, including our Automated Management Solutions (AMS), a software framework that integrates disparate cyber capabilities, tools and infrastructures into a common system architecture that assists military cyber operators. We develop and maintain enterprise platforms used by the DOD to perform network analysis and vulnerability assessments for defensive missions.

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We conduct vulnerability research and resiliency solutions for existing weapon systems, critical infrastructure and space systems, while supporting the development and integration of next generation electronic warfare capabilities. We also develop analysis and anomaly detection tools for radio frequency and airborne communications.

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We develop tools and tradecraft to conduct Information Operations across the physical and cyber domains, giving customers complete situational awareness for force protection and decision making with the Information Environment.

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High-Consequence Missions – We provide capabilities across the digital landscape, electronic warfare, multi-domain operations, mission support and national to tactical operations. Our customers include the U.S. Intelligence Community, U.S. Cyber Command, and DOD research laboratories.

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Our tools and products are used across a wide variety of electronic warfare operations, including commercial cellular survey, automated signal identification and characterization using Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML), signal modeling and simulation used for radio frequency (RF) ranges and test and evaluation centers using our TReX platform, and integrated RF and cyber solutions to deliver effects from long standoff distances.

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We conduct vulnerability research and resiliency solutions for existing weapon systems, critical infrastructure and space systems, while supporting the development and integration of next generation electronic warfare capabilities. We also develop analysis and anomaly detection tools for radio frequency and airborne communications.

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ES—Our ES business unit focuses on advanced technology services for complex energy and chemical systems, aviation, life sciences and bio-surveillance systems, environmental remediation, security and protection systems, and associated complex infrastructure. Representative customers include the Department of State (DOS), the Department of Energy (DOE), the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the United States Postal Service (USPS), the Department of Labor (DOL) and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Representative offerings include weapons of mass destruction elimination, munitions destruction; remediation of unexploded ordinances and hazardous, toxic, reactive wastes; architectural and engineering design; program and project management; infectious disease control; advanced electronic security systems; border security; counter-unmanned aircraft systems; and biometrics solutions.

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Our expertise includes designing and upgrading processing and production facilities such as Army ammunition, technology deployment in response to pandemic outbreaks, and delivery of solutions addressing resiliency, security and sustainability, as well as delivery of highly complex infrastructure in challenging environments and geographies.

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Representative programs include the National Science Foundation’s Antarctica Infrastructure Modernization for Science, the FAA Technical Services Contract, the DTRA Cooperative Threat Reduction Integrating Contract, the Department of State Overseas Security Installation Services, and the Radford Army Munition Plant Energetic Waste Incinerator.

Our Critical Infrastructure business provides planning, engineering, program management, owners representative and digital solutions consisting of two business units focused on two major geographies: North America (INF-NA) and Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). Our growth strategy includes leveraging our portfolio of sophisticated engineering solutions and technologies for complex physical infrastructure projects to capture the increasing demand and investment in global infrastructure programs. We are expanding our portfolio in key emerging growth areas, including intelligent transportation systems, smart mobility, environmental remediation, and water/wastewater treatment.

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INF – NA - Our INF – NA business unit provides planning, engineering and management services for complex infrastructure, including bridges and tunnels, roads and highways and water and wastewater. Within our diverse base, our customer relationships include states (e.g., Texas, Florida, California, Colorado, Washington, Illinois, New York, New Jersey and Georgia), cities, and Canadian provinces and territories (e.g., Ontario, British Columbia, Quebec, Nova Scotia and Alberta), as well as water and wastewater authorities. Our capabilities include technologies in long-span bridges, tunnels, building Information modeling, and water/wastewater treatment and conveyance.

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Examples of our design capabilities are our role as the lead designer of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, the largest twin tower suspension bridge in the world when it opened, lead designer for the Goethals bridge connecting Staten Island, NY and Elizabeth, NJ, and lead designer for the Federal Way rail extension for Sound Transit in Seattle.

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For program management, we are the Owner’s Engineer for the Gordie Howe International Bridge between Windsor, Ontario and Detroit, Michigan, which will have the longest main span of any cable-stayed bridge in North America. In addition, we are the program manager for the California Delta Water Conveyance Modernization Project, a multi-billion environmentally compliant water transfer project to improve water supply sustainability and reliability for human and environmental uses.

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INF- NA - Our INF-NA business unit also includes intelligent transportation systems, utilities, environmental remediation, emerging contaminants, aviation, rail and transit, and ParsonsX, our enterprise digital transformation organization. Our customers include state and local governments, Fortune 100 companies, smart city developers, and private sector infrastructure owners, such as the transportation authorities for the cities of Los Angeles and New York, states and provinces, and rail and transit entities, including AMTRAK, CSX, Metrolinx (Ontario Canada), and WMATA. Technology capabilities include AI/ML, cloud, digital twins, cyber, systems integration, intelligent transportation network software, vehicle inspection data analytics software, automated people mover, electric vehicle infrastructure, and autonomous vehicle integration.

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Parsons provides integrated traffic solutions for arterials, smart intersections, airport landside, ports, and tolling integrators. An example is our role as provider of Advanced Traffic Management Systems, or ATMS, through our iNET™ platform. Since the first deployment in 2007, iNET® has been delivered to twenty-four state Departments of Transportation, twenty-two cities, eight county agencies, seven toll agencies, and seven different countries.

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For aviation, we play a critical role as program manager and lead designer for global airports. We are the program manager of the environmentally sensitive Diamond Head Extension Program at Honolulu International Airport, the Houston Airport System, and the Landside Access Modernization Program for Los Angeles International Airport; and the lead designer on the Newark Airport Terminal A replacement project known as Terminal 1.

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Our rail and transit capabilities include systems optimization, communications-based train control, rail system design and system assurance. We have more than six decades of experience in this market and have supported over 400 rail and transit customers. Key programs include Edmonton light rail transit (as part of the Marigold Infrastructure Partners consortium), New York MTA Systems and Facility Engineering Services, and the Bay Area Rapid Transit Communications-Based Train Control. For our bus transit customers, we provide strategic fleet transition planning, zero-emission bus infrastructure design, and benefit-cost analysis to achieve net zero goals.

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EMEA – Our EMEA business unit has a region-wide customer base in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, with a key focus on the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states. Services provided include turn-key engineering solutions from project conceptualization to urban planning, engineering and program management; utilizing state-of-the-art digital solutions and embedded sustainability concepts for enhanced delivery of large-scale and highly complex infrastructure assets. Our client base includes top tier public authorities and state-owned developers across different markets from city-scale developments to major city-wide infrastructure schemes.

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Our extensive planning and design capabilities enable us to lead key infrastructure and development projects, including Dubai’s Integrated Traffic System design and operation to enable traffic optimization and efficiency, Doha City area transport infrastructure projects to increase capacity and reduce congestion, Abu Dhabi’s Mid-Island Parkway connecting multiple islands for future sustainable developments, Green Riyadh landscape and infrastructure design for increased urban green space, and Denmark’s Banedanmark Rail Signaling Program to enable better centralized traffic control, energy optimization, and reduced delays.

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Parsons has a long-standing program management legacy in the Middle East for infrastructure, mega cities, and urban development. We are part of the consortium Riyadh Metro Transit Consultants responsible for program management of the Riyadh Metro – the largest metro system under development in the world. We, managed successful delivery of the newly opened Abu Dhabi International Airport tripling the size of the previous terminals, led the Dubai Strategic Sewage Network program to increase capacity and sustainability, managed Lusail City Development the largest ever city development in Qatar, and provided program management of Riyadh’s King Abdullah Financial District prime business, hospitality and lifestyle destination.

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We are members of various collaborative delivery models, including Delivery Partner on the Qiddiya destination city development on the outskirts of Riyadh, and as an Integrated Project Management team member on NEOM The Line sustainable city in Saudi Arabia.

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Parsons is considered a go-to service provider for successful and timely delivery of world events with fixed opening dates, including UAE’s World Expo 2020 for which Parsons provided site-wide infrastructure and landscape design, as well as construction supervision services; and for FIFA World Cup 2022, where services from transportation management planning to vehicle access strategies were provided to manage traffic and build resilient infrastructure for the mega sporting event.

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The team maintains a keen focus on innovative practices. As an example, we are integrating cutting-edge construction supervision technologies across over 30 major GCC projects, enhancing efficiency and capabilities and driving much needed innovation in the construction industry.

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Our Smart Solutions Lab provides digital solutions to our clients as an important and integral aspect of our technical offerings. Within our Advisory Services group, Parsons is providing clients with relevant asset information across the full range of asset types to enable management decisions and maximize ROI. We help clients optimize their lifecycle costs with a focus on O&M, including the provision of O&M planning and inspections on various roads including Dubai’s Shindagha Bridge, modeling the O&M outlook for Dubai Municipality on its major Strategic Sewage Tunnel Program, and setting O&M strategies for optimized asset operations for mega cities such as Qiddiya and NEOM.

Our Market Opportunities

Technology revolution and environmental impact is driving a swift pace of change, resulting in ongoing societal transformation, complicated geopolitical dynamics, a shifting threat landscape and the globalization of commerce. To address this evolving landscape, our customers are actively seeking technology-enabled solutions at the speed of relevancy to upgrade and transform assets and operations. The below trends are key growth drivers in both our Federal Solutions and Critical Infrastructure segments.

Defense Spending Remains a Priority of the national agenda due to the reemergence of long-term strategic peer competition, which has been cited in the National Defense Strategy as the primary concern for U.S. national prosperity and security. This reemergence has resulted in increased global disorder and a security environment, defined by rapid technological change, which may be more complex than ever before. We believe the U.S. Department of Defense and Intelligence Community will continue to invest in cyber, space, intelligence, missile defense, and critical infrastructure protection. In addition, as a result of supporting ongoing war efforts, ammunition and munitions need to be replenished and the Army ammunition plants must be modernized to support this need.

Cybersecurity is Mission Critical to U.S. National Security and cybersecurity threats are increasing in volume and sophistication as global connectivity and the rise of social media have led to an explosion in the amount of available and exploitable data. Additionally, there has been an increase in aggressive nation state cyber activity in the past year partly driven by the Russia-Ukraine war and attacks on Ukraine’s critical infrastructure. Attacks by cyber-criminals seeking financial gain are also growing in volume and sophistication. We believe that the cybersecurity market will continue to grow in response to the nation state threat landscape and the vulnerabilities inherent in critical infrastructure. Our unique portfolio of Federal Solutions and Critical Infrastructure provides the technical capabilities to detect and prevent cyberattacks along with the domain knowledge to understand how infrastructure operates.

Consistent Need for Actionable Intelligence to Support U.S. Priorities is driving a shifting threat landscape that necessitates a greater need for collaboration and cooperation between intelligence agencies. There is a new demand for joint all-domain command and control systems that are optimized to function cohesively across a spectrum of domains. This in turn drives a need for sophisticated data analytics to aggregate data into useful formats in real-time. To respond, we believe the United States intelligence community and Department of Defense will need continued focus on information sharing and collaboration for improved intelligence accuracy and timeliness encompassing multiple forms of intelligence collection.

Indo-Pacific is the Department of Defense’s Priority Theater. The United States has an enduring commitment to uphold a free and open Indo-Pacific region. This has become complicated due to inter-state strategic competition and increasingly complex security environment. The United States is focused on competing, deterring and winning in this environment to safeguard free and open international order. To answer this demand, the FY 2024 National Defense Authorization Act includes a $14.7 billion request for the Pacific Deterrence Initiative to fund a stronger force posture including better defenses for Hawaii and Guam, improving infrastructure and logistics/prepositioning, and deeper cooperation with allies and partners.

Global Infrastructure Needs Significant Replacements and Technology-Driven Upgrades. Aging physical infrastructure is strained by the swift pace of technological change combined with heightened new expectations for sustainability and environmental impact. Furthermore, modernized infrastructure is important to recover from unexpected disasters caused by climate change. The $1.2 trillion United States Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) has increased funding for roads and highways, bridges, rail and transit, and aviation. Additionally, global infrastructure is aging and there is demand in other regions, including Canada and the Middle East. The Middle East has a planned spend that exceeds $1.5 trillion per the Middle East Economic Digest and Canada has invested $140 billion through the Investing in Canada Plan launched in 2016 for a 12-year period. In particular, the Saudi Vision 2030 focus is driving major industrial city and urban development projects. Critical infrastructure, specifically transportation infrastructure that is essential to national economic and security concerns, is also vulnerable to cyber threats. We believe that a focus on safety, security, sustainability and environmental impacts will continue to drive replacement of aging infrastructure.

Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) Remediation. PFAS are manufactured chemicals that have been used in industry and consumer products since the 1940s. Scientific studies have shown that exposure to PFAS in the environment may be linked to harmful health effects in humans and animals. Therefore, there is a need to reduce PFAS in the environment – groundwater, soil, and surface water. The Environmental Protection Agency has taken actions, including $10 billion of funding to address emerging contaminants in the IIJA, issuing health advisories and proposing new, legally enforceable Maximum Contaminant Levels for PFAS substances found in drinking water. Parsons has unique capabilities, expertise, and experience to mitigate PFAS risks and liabilities for both our federal and infrastructure customers.

Urbanization Creates Demand for Smart Cities with Connected Populations. Cities around the globe increasingly demand connected and more sustainable capabilities, such as sensor networks and communication strategies to connect streetlights, security cameras' and emergency systems, to provide important real-time information and better serve their citizens and reduce carbon emissions. Integrated corridor management solutions, intelligent transportation systems, advanced rail systems and updated telecommunication networks will keep cities around the world functioning as smart and sustainable cities and serve as engines for economic growth.

Transformation of Legacy Service Delivery Models through Technology and Digital Transformation. Historical capital project management is changing with the introduction of cloud-connected computer-aided design, automation, big data, machine learning, and other technologies. The introduction of these new technologies allows industry participants to reimagine existing value chains, address integrated lifecycle objectives, assure human rights are observed in their supply chains, provide environmentally sensitive and sustainable solutions, boost productivity, and streamline project management. Industry participants that have the capability to embrace these new technologies to enhance their capability and service offering to higher value solutions will be well positioned to assist governments and communities in their transformation.

Change equals opportunity, and Parsons is well-positioned to serve a large array of diverse global customers. Across a broad set of industries, we provide smart and agile solutions that create the future for our national security and critical infrastructure customers as they adapt to the rapid changes of a more interconnected and technology-driven world.

Our Competitive Strengths

Proven Track Record

Our proven track record is a result of our strong performance, the dedication of our employees and our longstanding customer relationships. We focus on being a company that delivers on its promises, holds integrity at the highest level and successfully assists our clients as they execute their most complex missions. Driven by our integrated people, processes and technology approach, we have a reputation for innovation and delivering mission outcomes for our customers’ most important endeavors.

Our differentiated business model has driven high win rates with strong book-to-bill, leading organic revenue growth, expanded bottom line performance, and low capital requirements. We achieved average award and incentive fees of 92% in fiscal 2023, 91% in fiscal 2022 and 93% in fiscal 2021. Incentive fees are fees earned for achievement of certain performance criteria included in our contracts, such as achievement of target completion dates or target costs, and our incentive fees average is calculated as the actual incentive fees achieved as a percentage of incentive fees expected to be earned in the applicable period. In addition, we achieved a win rate of 66% in fiscal 2023, 49% in fiscal 2022 and 56% in fiscal 2021. Our re-compete win rate was 93% in fiscal 2023, 89% in fiscal 2022 and 99% in fiscal 2021. In fiscal 2023, our Federal Solutions revenues increased 36% and our Critical Infrastructure revenues increased 22% year-over-year. As of December 31, 2023, our backlog was $8.6 billion, an increase of 5% from year end fiscal 2022.

Long-Term Customer Relationships

We maintain long-term relationships with key government and commercial customers, many of which span over 40 years. For example, in the Federal Solutions segment, we have been providing support to the Missile Defense Agency for nearly 40 years with over 1,000 personnel embedded with the customer. We have provided services to the Department of Energy (DOE) for over 50 years on a variety of projects, including work on DOE’s Loan Guarantee Program that funds renewable and clean energy projects, and have provided over 20 years of support to the United States Space Force customers. In the Critical Infrastructure segment, we have supported the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority for over 50 years and have served as Program Manager for Yanbu Industrial City for nearly 50 years.

These longstanding relationships give us the insight and customer intimacy to align our research and development investments based on customer needs and enable high win rates for prime contract positions on the most technically demanding assignments. We believe that our position as a recognized leader in integrity, innovation, operational efficiency, safety and security, environmental and health, and our ability to deliver exceptional quality, has resulted in a high level of re-compete wins and has driven substantial customer loyalty. Our six core markets, including cybersecurity and intelligence, space and missile defense, critical infrastructure protection, transportation, environmental remediation and urban development require leading-edge technologies and extensive technical know-how, and necessitate consistently exceptional performance, thus further entrenching us with our key customers and driving our long-term relationships.

Technology Innovation

Technology and our people are our most important assets, together they underpin our ability to consistently deliver for our customers. Investment in key technological capabilities is core to our business and helps us to stay at the forefront of the evolving trends across our end markets. To meet the challenges of tomorrow, we are focusing our technology investment in areas including artificial intelligence and machine learning; digital transformation; space, cyber and electronic warfare; assured position navigation and timing; emerging contaminant remediation; and quantum computing. The work of our diverse and collaborative, highly skilled and dedicated employees has enabled our long track record of continued innovation and execution on behalf of our customers. Our team of engineers, scientists, programmers and other specialists include PhDs and certified hackers, and a large number of our skilled workforce hold government security clearances, which provides a competitive advantage for the highly technical and demanding work we perform. Our dual technical career path and Technical Fellows program enable retention and development of our strong technical talent.

Leveraging our agile innovation framework and a cadre of seasoned domain experts, solutions architects, and technologists, we seek customer challenges and lead with innovative solutions to drive growth. Additionally, through our acquisitions, we continue to enhance our overall capability offerings in innovative ways, providing more robust solutions that meet our customers’ most challenging needs.

Environmental Sustainability and Resiliency Excellence

Delivering a safer, healthier and more connected world means a focus on environmental sustainability, resilience, conservation and lifecycle impacts. For Parsons, sustainability is a core value. We provide services to plan, design and support complex sustainable projects for our customers across the markets we serve, including transportation (aviation, rail and transit, intelligent transportation systems), ports, buildings, environmental remediation, and water/wastewater treatment.

With over 233 sustainability accreditations, we deliver resilient infrastructure, green building and renewable energy programs and projects that utilize best industry practices, as well as utilize leading edge technology and tools to provide environmental remediation. We work with customers to achieve and obtain the highest possible ratings such as the LEED, Envision, Estidama, and others.

We are proud to work with customers, such as the Indiana Finance Authority, on the first bridge and tunnel project to achieve Envision recognition; and we have obtained LEED certifications of transit and aviation facilities with customers in the United States, United Arab Emirates and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Parsons is focused on the risks and opportunities associated with climate change. In 2023, Parsons elected to disclose information related to our climate-related governance, risk management and metrics utilizing the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) framework. We conducted climate risk and opportunity workshops with senior leaders representing a cross-section of our geographies, markets and corporate functions. By releasing annual Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) disclosures and increasing our transparency, we received improved ratings from ISS, MSCI, Sustainalytics and S&P Global.

The Corporate Governance and Responsibility Committee of our Board of Directors provides oversight of environmental, social and governance (ESG), including climate-related topics, and the Audit and Risk Committee provides oversight of our enterprise risk management program, including climate-related risks. Our Chief Executive Officer holds overall executive-level responsibility for ESG. Primary responsibility for ESG risk and opportunity identification and management is assigned to our vice president for ESG.

Scalable and Agile Business Offerings

Our scalable and agile offerings enable us to satisfy robust and evolving customer needs. The demanding environments where we operate are characterized by a need for high-confidence solutions, widespread application and mission critical outcomes. We pride ourselves on providing agile technologies through inventive and refined processes that provide quality outcomes to our customers on time sensitive projects. Our domain knowledge of our customers’ current and emerging requirements enables us to deliver responsive, high-quality solutions on time and with operational relevance. By having the ability to respond to customers’ requirements with global deployment capability, we are well positioned to be the preferred contractor for many of our customers’ needs.

Our technologies and platforms are designed to be applicable across end user markets and sub-markets. This approach allows for scalable solutions that can be quickly and seamlessly integrated into multiple customer applications, regardless of geography or industry, allowing us to deploy a given service or platform across multiple markets.

World Class Talent

We believe that our resilience – and that of the communities in which we work – relies on advancing equality in the workplace through a diverse community of innovators and an empowered workforce. We also aim to be the employer of choice for top talent in every market that we serve by fostering a positive culture for employee engagement; focusing on diversity, equity, and inclusion; emphasizing health and wellbeing for all employees; and encouraging career development at all levels of the organization. Our success is measured by our business performance, by the enthusiasm of our employees, and by our commitment to our employees’ growth.

Demonstrated Ability to Identify and Execute Acquisitions to Transform our Business

Strategic acquisitions that augment our technology offerings and capabilities are a key tenet of our growth strategy. We have completed eleven strategic acquisitions since 2017. Nine of these acquisitions were within the Federal Solutions business segment with the remaining two (IPKeys Power Partners and I.S. Engineers, LLC) in the Critical Infrastructure segment. Our focus continues to be moving up the value chain with technology differentiation and in particular software. We seek companies that meet our strict financial criteria and have a similar mission-focused culture. These acquisitions include:

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I.S. Engineers, LLC: Acquired on October 31, 2023 for a purchase price of $12.2 million. IS Engineers is a full-service consulting engineering firm which specializes in transportation engineering, including roads and highways, and program management located in Texas. Texas is poised to receive nearly $30 billion in total transportation funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act between 2022 and 2026.

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Sealing Technologies, Inc.: Acquired on August 22, 2023 for a purchase price of $179.3 million. SealingTech expands Parsons’ customer base across the Department of Defense and Intelligence Communities and further enhances Parsons’ capabilities in defensive cyber operations; integrated mission-solutions powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML); edge computing and edge access modernization; critical infrastructure protection, and secure data management that protects national security.

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IPKeys Power Partners, Inc.: Acquired on March 13, 2023 for a total purchase price of $43 million. IPKeys enhances Parsons’ critical infrastructure protection capabilities through comprehensive cloud-based cybersecurity, software solutions that operate at the intersection of information and operational technology (IT and OT), and technologies that will help accelerate the global clean energy transition. This acquisition expands Parsons’ presence in two rapidly growing end markets: grid modernization and cyber resiliency for critical infrastructure.

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Xator Corporation: Acquired on June 1, 2022 at a purchase price of $387.5 million. Xator expands Parsons’ presence within the U.S. Special Operations Command, the Intelligence Community, Federal Civilian customers, and global critical infrastructure markets, while providing new customer access at the Department of State. Xator also expands Parsons’ customer base and brings differentiated technical capabilities in critical infrastructure protection, counter-unmanned aircraft systems (cUAS), intelligence and cyber solutions, biometrics, and global threat assessment and operations, increasing our addressable market in both the Federal Solutions and Critical Infrastructure segments.

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Echo Ridge LLC: Acquired on July 30, 2021 at a purchase price of $9 million. Echo Ridge adds position, navigation, and timing devices; modeling simulation, test and measurement tools; and deployable software defined radio products and signal processing services to Parsons’ space portfolio.

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BlackHorse Solutions, Inc.: Acquired July 6, 2021 at a purchase price of $205.0 million. Black Horse expands Parsons’ capabilities and products in next-generation military, intelligence, and space operations, specifically in cyber, electronic warfare, and information dominance. Black Horse’s technology is shaping the future of information dominance and converged military operations by unifying cyber, electromagnetic warfare, and information operations for the Department of Defense and Intelligence Community customers. The company also provides autonomous and distributed detection, identification, exploitation and the defeat of today’s most complex communications.

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Braxton Science and Technology Group, LLC: Acquired in November 2020 at a purchase price of $310.9 million ($267 million less the tax asset), Braxton operates at the forefront of satellite operations, ground automation, flight dynamics, and spacecraft antenna simulation for the U.S.

Department of Defense and Intelligence Community. These capabilities position Parsons to capitalize on the quickly evolving space missions of its national security space customers and address rapid market growth driven by proliferated low earth orbit constellations, small satellite expansion and space cyber resiliency.

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QRC® Technologies: Acquired in 2019 at a purchase price of $214.1 million, QRC® Technologies is a disruptive product company that provides design and development of open-architecture radio-frequency products.

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OGSystems: Acquired in 2019 at a purchase price of $292.4 million, OGSystems is a disruptive geo-intelligence solutions and immersive engineering provider that creates technology solutions for the United States intelligence community and the U.S. Department of Defense. OGSystems’ VIPER Labs and Immersive Engineering techniques serve as the catalysts for deployment of geospatial systems and software, embedded system threat analytics and cloud engineering solutions. OGSystems’ advanced hardware solutions include the PeARL family of sensors, combining industry-leading camera and optic lens technologies with our software solutions, yielding very high resolution 2D and 3D aerial imagery.

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Polaris Alpha: Acquired in 2018 at a purchase price of $489.1 million, Polaris Alpha is an advanced, technology-focused provider of innovative mission solutions for national security, intelligence, defense and other U.S. federal customers. With leading technologies in artificial intelligence/machine learning, cloud computing, command and control and data analytics, Polaris Alpha has long-term customer relationships and is known as a technology disruptor.

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Williams Electric. Acquired in 2017 for a purchase price of $26.4 million. Williams Electric provides industrial control system security, including utility monitoring systems and electronic support systems for customers, including the Army Corps of Engineers and the Smithsonian Institute.

We maintain a robust acquisition pipeline and are continually evaluating potential opportunities for disciplined growth by acquisition to further transform our business.

Our Strategy for Growth

Our growth strategy is to create the future of national security and critical infrastructure, while moving up the value chain as a solutions integrator and software provider. The future is full of possibility, and the defense, intelligence, and critical infrastructure markets are where we can collectively shape what tomorrow will look like. Our goal is to help create a safer, healthier, more sustainable, more connected and more secure world.

In a complex security environment with adversaries challenging on every domain and an economy driven by digital transformation, Parsons leverages innovative technologies to deliver integrated solutions at the speed of relevance. Our global integrated solutions span all domains (sea, land, air, space and cyberspace), ensuring information dominance and smart, sustainable infrastructure.

To create the future, we focus on people-first, “get-to-yes” and having top positions in high-growth, sustainable markets. This focus includes hiring, retaining, and developing our employees, continually enhancing and optimizing our core business processes, resourcing and capitalizing on our high-growth markets and acquiring and integrating companies that possess transformative and disruptive technologies.

People First

Driven by our people-first and high-purpose culture, we recognize that our people are key to our success in developing and delivering the technology and solutions to support our customers’ critical missions. Our most important asset is our diverse team of talented employees, over 18,500 as of December 31, 2023, who are committed and passionate experts critical to delivering leading capabilities and whose expertise is sought by our clients for their most sophisticated applications and challenges. Our employees choose Parsons and stay with us for the opportunity to collaborate with our customers, deploy our expansive technical resources, rapidly bring bold ideas to market and work on leading solutions to enable a better world. Our management team has extensive experience executing strategies for delivering profitable growth and is recognized for operational excellence and leadership integrity. They have diverse leadership capabilities in the markets we serve and the solutions and technology we deliver. Most importantly, we strive to give our employees and managers the best possible employee experience throughout their careers with Parsons.

We are committed to attracting, retaining, and developing a diverse and inclusive workforce by having a:

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Culture of employee engagement at all organizational levels

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Work environment that promotes training, mentoring, and career development planning

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Differentiated benefits program, including flexible work hours, remote work options, and an employee stock ownership plan

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Dual technical career path that leads to positions as Chief Technology Officer and/or Technical Fellow

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Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) program

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“Parsons Gives Back” program to support our communities and promote volunteering

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Global hiring strategy outside of high-employment zones

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Robust university relations and intern program to help shape the next generation of leaders and promote diversity

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Internal mobility program that supports employee growth, career development and retention

“Get to Yes”

By “getting to yes”, we enable the delivery of agile, innovative, and transformative solutions to our customers. We seek to enhance and optimize our core business and improve our financial performance, including revenue growth, margin expansion and positive cash flow, using the following strategies:

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Developing a company-wide agile framework to enable responsive solutions delivery

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Promoting collaboration and cross-company sharing to drive informed, timely decision making

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Aligning goals through shared one-company objectives and a focus on timely feedback to ensure opportunities for improvement are realized and executed

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Using digital transformation to improve our internal processes and deliver an improved customer experience

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Cross-selling new solutions to our existing customers and existing solutions to new customers.

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Promoting a culture that enables employees to drive technology and business model innovation

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Streamlining operations and processes to optimize performance delivery and reduce overhead expenditures

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Rigorously managing our working capital to maximize cash flow

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Committing to being a responsible corporation for both Parsons and our customers

Top Positions in High-Growth, Sustainable Markets

We have a balanced portfolio between national security and critical infrastructure and diverse range of end markets. We recognize the importance of driving business focus and will resource/invest in areas where we believe Parsons can have a top position in markets that are high-growth, profitable, and enduring. These include cybersecurity and intelligence, space and missile defense, transportation, environmental remediation, and urban development. We utilize the following strategies, among others, towards achieving this goal:

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We continuously evaluate and shape our portfolio to divest, exit and de-emphasize lower-performing businesses and markets.

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We invest in critical, differentiated technology areas, including artificial intelligence, assured position navigation and timing, PFAS remediation, space cyber/electronic warfare, quantum research and product development in areas including defensive cyber, space command and control, intelligent transportation systems, spectrum operations and biometrics.

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We seek continuous expansion in our focused high-growth markets:

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Cybersecurity and Intelligence – Continue our growth momentum by offering end-to-end full spectrum cyber operations including solutions, tools, operations and platforms for our U.S. Department of Defense and Intelligence Community customers.

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Space and Mission Defense – Extend our space situational awareness, small satellite integration and payload, command and control and enterprise ground systems and assured position, navigation and timing solutions to our current space customers and to new space and geospatial customers in the government and commercial space markets. Support our customer’s integrated air and missile defense strategy and deployment. Provide thought leadership in evolving areas, including hypersonic defense.

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Critical Infrastructure Protection – Provide critical infrastructure protection in sectors where we have installed base, including facilities, health care, transportation, water and energy. Deliver holistic solutions including electronic security systems, cybersecurity, counter unmanned air systems and biometrics.

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Transportation – Capitalize on the increased IIJA funding and increased global transportation and infrastructure spending to further our roads and highways, bridges, rail and transit, and aviation business. Capitalize on broadband and environmental spend in areas where Parsons is differentiated. Leverage technology to drive smart, sustainable infrastructure.

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Environmental remediation – Leverage our specialized skill and experience with respect to remediating mines and oil wells and eliminating emerging contaminants. Apply our design capabilities and innovative technologies to modernize, upgrade and create new water/wastewater treatment systems. Lead elimination of emerging contaminants (PFOS) from our soil, groundwater and surface water.

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Urban development – Leverage our program management, urban planning and urban design competencies to develop new industrial cities and mixed-use developments.

Mergers and Acquisitions

We continue to pursue the acquisition and integration of high growth, technology driven companies which meet the following criteria:

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Financial performance goals: >10% top line growth, >10% Adjusted EBITDA margin, and strong cash flow

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Align to our six focused markets

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Technology differentiation: fill technology gaps, drive end-to-end solutions, move up the value chain, scale within and across our businesses and add valuable intellectual property rights

Our objective is to continue to transform our business into an integrated, full life-cycle solutions integrator that delivers scalable solutions and drives revenue growth, expanded margins, and strong cash flows.

Backlog

We view growth in total backlog as a key measure of our business growth. We define backlog to include the following two components:

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Funded—Funded backlog represents the revenue value of orders for services under existing contracts for which funding is appropriated or otherwise authorized less revenue previously recognized on these contracts.

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Unfunded—Unfunded backlog represents the revenue value of orders for services under existing contracts for which funding has not been appropriated or otherwise authorized less revenue previously recognized on these contracts. Unfunded backlog does not include potential task orders expected to be awarded under multiple awards IDIQ contract vehicles, where task orders are competitively awarded and separately priced.

Backlog includes (i) unissued task orders and unexercised option years, to the extent their issuance or exercise is probable, as well as (ii) contract awards, to the extent we believe contract execution and funding is probable.

Our backlog includes orders under contracts that can extend for several years. For example, the U.S. Congress generally appropriates funds for our U.S. federal government customers on a yearly basis, even though their contracts with us may call for performance that is expected to take a number of years to complete. As a result, our federal contracts typically are only partially funded at any point during their term. All or some of the work to be performed under the contracts may remain unfunded unless and until the U.S. Congress makes subsequent appropriations and the procuring agency allocates funding to the contract.

As of December 31, 2023, our total backlog was approximately $8.6 billion, consisting of $5.0 billion of funded backlog and $3.6 billion of unfunded backlog. We expect to recognize $3.8 billion of our funded backlog as of December 31, 2023 as revenues in the following twelve months. However, our government customers may cancel their contracts with us at any time through a termination for convenience or may elect to not exercise option periods under such contracts. In the case of a termination for convenience, we would not receive anticipated future revenues, but would generally be permitted to recover all or a portion of our incurred costs and fees for work performed.

Competition

The industries we operate in consist of a large number of enterprises ranging from small, niche-oriented companies to multi-billion-dollar corporations that serve many governmental and commercial customers. We compete on the basis of our technical expertise, technological innovation, our ability to deliver cost-effective multi-faceted solutions and services in a timely manner, our reputation and relationships with our customers, qualified and/or security-clearance personnel, and pricing. Our peer group competitors in Federal Solutions are U.S. federal systems integrators and service providers such as Booz Allen Hamilton, CACI International Inc, Leidos Holdings, Inc., and Science Applications International Corporation. Our main competitors in Critical Infrastructure include AECOM, Jacobs Solutions Inc., Stantec, Tetra Tech, Inc., and WSP.

Seasonality

Our results may be affected by variances as a result of weather conditions and contract award seasonality impacts that we experience across our businesses. The latter issue is typically driven by the U.S. federal government fiscal year-end, September 30. While not certain, it is not uncommon for U.S. government agencies to award task orders or complete other contract actions in the weeks before the end of the U.S. federal government fiscal year in order to avoid the loss of unexpended U.S. federal government fiscal year funds. Furthermore, many U.S. state governments with fiscal years ending on June 30 tend to accelerate spending during their first quarter, when new funding becomes available. We may continue to experience this seasonality in future periods, and our results of operations may be affected by it.

Human Capital Management

We are committed to enhancing our position as a leading employer in our industry and aim to do this through providing a positive employee experience. Our culture and reputation as a leading provider of technology-driven solutions in the defense, intelligence and critical infrastructure markets enables us to recruit and retain some of the best available talent across the globe.

Our professionals are highly educated, with a wide range of technical acumen and in-depth domain knowledge and expertise. Our culture and values enable us to continue attracting qualified talent, particularly those with security clearances and requisite skills in multiple areas, including Project Management, Engineering, Software Development, Cyber, Data Analytics, Environmental and Architecture. Our employees hold more than 15,000 degrees and professional credentials as of December 31, 2023. Our diverse teams understand our clients and are comprised of technology subject matter experts and professionals with deep knowledge and experience.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Embracing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in all aspects of our business is fundamental to our corporate culture and vital to our continued growth and success. Our DEI Council is composed of a diverse cross section of employees in the organization, representing different markets, regions, disciplines, and levels. As a destination employer, we are invested in attracting and developing top talent. To that end, we believe that to make continued progress we must implement effective initiatives built into the employee life cycle. Our DEI initiatives embody the unique qualities of our employees and encourage a workforce comprised of people with diverse backgrounds, beliefs, and experiences. We are proud of our evolving culture to promote diversity, equity and inclusion to foster a sense of belonging.

We believe in doing right by the communities we serve, and we have policies prohibiting discrimination (age, race or ethnicity, gender/gender identity, religion, sexual orientation, or disability), child labor and human trafficking. We believe that Parsons is the place for our diverse employees to make a difference. In 2023, we kept our diversity goal to our short-term incentive plan design to drive desired outcomes and higher overall representation for global female representation and US ethnicity representation. In both areas, we have seen an overall increase (3.6% increase in the number of females and 4.2% in US leadership ethnicity) since 2022. This improvement was largely attributed to strong hiring in 2023 globally and lower overall attrition.

Engagement

We pulse our workforce annually through an employee engagement survey and the data these surveys provide help us identify areas where our culture is evolving and key strategic areas where we need to continue to focus our energies to improve employee engagement and the employee experience. This data is critical in guiding our cultural journey to become a more dynamic, entrepreneurial, and creative place to work.

This year, we saw some of our highest participation rates among our business groups and functions, with an overall response of 54 percent, which is higher than last year’s overall rate of 48 percent. We are also pleased that our employee engagement score was 78 against a benchmark of 75.

At the highest level, our results describe an organization with a strong performance-driven and team-based culture.

Employee Recognition

As a people first organization, we are dedicated to recognizing employee performance and promoting a culture of recognition. We are immensely proud to maintain a formal employee recognition program that is 100% developed and maintained in-house – a rare accomplishment in our industry. We approach company culture this way: recognition is a mindset.

The Distinguished Recognition and Incentive Program, affectionately known as the DRIVE Program, recognizes, rewards, and encourages high-caliber work. The DRIVE program is comprised of nine distinct award levels, each with its own criteria, workflow, and rewards – some monetary and some non-monetary. The program is open to all part- and full-time employees around the globe, and awards can be distributed from supervisor to team or team member, individual contributor to supervisor, and from peer to peer. That flexibility is what we are most proud of—all employees can recognize someone else or be recognized themself. In 2023, we are pleased that over 3,200 DRIVE awards were conveyed to our employees with monetary awards totaling over $5.8 million.

Mentoring

Parsons has a robust mentoring program that facilitates several types of pairings, including senior leaders and employees, peer-to-peer, veterans-to-veterans, and early career professionals with more experienced employees. Employees choose their own mentor and work closely with them to design a mentoring relationship that is tailored to meet their unique goals. Resources are provided to both mentors and mentees to ensure a successful and enriching experience for both. Most Parsons’ Vice Presidents and above are available and engaged in mentoring relationships thus actively fostering a culture of employee growth and development.

Career Development

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Parsons Learning Series – This program is open to all employees and consists of live, virtual one-hour courses across a wide range of topics appealing to both employees and managers. One or two topics are delivered each month. The live sessions are held at three separate times on the same day to accommodate our global workforce, and sessions are recorded and made available following live session dates.

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Engaged Leadership Program (ELP) – This 4-month, cohort-based program helps people and project managers develop their management and leadership skills through learning about and then applying new skills on the job. The extended nature of this program fosters a collaborative environment and builds cross-organizational relationships among participants.

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Intentional Leadership Program (ILP) – This is a program for senior leaders, Director level and above. Participants will complete a facilitated 2-day curriculum designed to strengthen senior leadership skills and help participants intentionally define their own leadership approach while fostering cross-organizational communication and relationship-building.

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Fellows Program - recognizes our top technical experts and promotes innovation in solving our customers’ most difficult technical challenges. It is a collaborative network of over fifty selected motivated and passionate subject matter experts working to solve technical challenges through either strategic research and development or through the development of long-term technical policies and best practices. The program defines its success through engagement, mentorship, and retention. Every benefit that collaboration among the Fellows offers is expressed by the idea that the individual is brilliant, but a group of brilliant individuals acting as one can be more powerful and enable Parsons to accomplish even more in our quest to deliver a better world.

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Technical Career Path - demonstrates two distinct career progressions for technical employees across our organization: one that follows a management path, the other that can be followed as an individual contributor. The Technical Career Path coupled with an integrated competency model and Workday tools such as the Opportunity Graph are resources designed to improve the quality of manager-employee career discussions and, ultimately, career movement.

Employee Stock Ownership Plan

At December 31, 2023, approximately 6,551 of our employees participated in our Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) which held 59,879,857 shares at December 31, 2023. Our employees own approximately 40% of the total outstanding shares in the ESOP. In December 2020, the board of directors approved an amendment to the ESOP to provide greater diversification rights to participants. The amendment provides that, with respect to all diversifications elected or processed after January 1, 2021, the definition of a qualified participant shall mean a participant who has attained the age of 50 and who has completed at least three years of participation in the ESOP and other criteria. Each qualified participant shall generally be permitted to direct the ESOP as to the diversification of 50% of the value of the eligible vested portion of the participant’s ESOP account. Further, in January 2021, the board of directors approved an amendment to the ESOP whereby distributions to participants in the Plan were modified as follows: (1) the threshold amount of an ESOP participant’s balance to be eligible for a single lump sum distribution was increased from $20,000 or less to $500,000 or less; (2) the threshold balance for a participant to be eligible to receive payment in two annual installments was increased from $40,000 or less to $750,000 or less; and (3) the threshold balance for a participant to be eligible to receive payment in three annual installments was increased to greater than $750,000. This change was made to facilitate greater flexibility for certain eligible participants to receive their balances in fewer installments and to accelerate the increase in publicly traded float for the Company’s common stock. In April 2022, the board of directors approved an amendment providing for lump sum distributions to participants and removing the annual installments. Annual diversification elections and five-year vested termination distributions are not impacted by this amendment and will still occur annually and over installments as outlined in the Plan.

Employee Stock Purchase Plan

At the 2020 Annual Meeting of Parsons’ Shareholders, the shareholders approved the implementation of the Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP). The ESPP provides an opportunity for eligible employees (as defined in the ESPP) to purchase Parsons’ stock. By participating in the ESPP, an eligible employee may purchase Parsons’ shares at a 5% discount from the New York Stock Exchange closing price at the end date for each offering period (June 30 th and December 31 st of each year). In 2021, the Compensation and Management Development Committee of the Parsons’ Board of Directors approved a special three-month offering period for eligible employees of BlackHorse Solutions and its eligible subsidiary companies. During 2023 and 2022, our employees purchased approximately 116,650 and 131,000 shares, respectively, of Parsons’ stock.

Stock Repurchase Plan

On August 9, 2021, the board of directors authorized Parsons Corporation to acquire a number of shares of common stock having an aggregate market value of not greater than $100,000,000 from time to time, commencing on August 12, 2021. In August 2022, the Board amended the stock repurchase program and authorized executive management to determine an acceptable price for repurchasing such shares. The Board authorized management to execute any agreements providing for the repurchase of the Company’s stock, subject to such conditions, on behalf of the company in such lots, blocks or other amounts, from such persons or entities, from such sources, on the open market, in privately negotiated transactions, or otherwise, on such terms and conditions, from time to time, in accordance with applicable federal and state regulations. As of December 31, 2023, the company had repurchased 1,426,476 shares of common stock at an average price per share of $38.35 (including commissions calculated at the average price per share) for a total amount of $54.7 million.

Intellectual Property

Our intellectual property portfolio consists of issued and pending patents as well as trademarks for many of our technologies. In addition, we maintain a number of trade secrets that we endeavor to protect to ensure their continuing availability to us. Our technical expertise is vital to our growth strategy, and we believe they are a core competitive advantage. We have 33 registered patents and 14 pending patents in the United States and 6 pending patents internationally. We have 77 trademarks and 4 pending trademark applications in the United States, and 105 trademarks and 16 pending trademark applications internationally. We also currently offer 37 products for sale to our global customers.

We rely upon a combination of nondisclosure agreements and other contractual arrangements, as well as copyright, trademark, patent, and trade secret laws to protect our proprietary information. We also enter into proprietary information and intellectual property agreements with employees, which require them to disclose any inventions created during employment, to convey such rights to inventions to us and to restrict any disclosure of proprietary information. While protecting trade secrets and proprietary information is important, we are not materially dependent on maintenance of any specific trade secret or group of trade secrets.

During the normal course of business, we perform research and development and technology consulting services and related products in support of our customers. Typically, these services do not depend on patent protection. In accordance with applicable law, our government contracts often provide government agencies certain data rights to our intellectual property. Government agencies may in turn provide to other contractors (including our competitors) the right to utilize our intellectual property. In addition, in the case of our work as a subcontractor, our prime contractor may also have certain rights to data, information and products we develop under the subcontract. At the same time, our government contracts often provide to us the right to utilize intellectual property owned by third parties.

Regulation

Our business is impacted by government procurement, anti-bribery, international trade, environmental, health and safety and other regulations and requirements. Below is a summary of some of the significant regulations that impact our business.

Government Procurement. The services we provide to the U.S. Government are subject to Federal Acquisition Regulation, or FAR, Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation, or DFARS, the Truthful Cost and Pricing Data Act, Cost Accounting Standards, or CAS, the Services Contract Act, the False Claims Act, export controls rules and U.S. Department of Defense security regulations, as well as government agency policies and many other laws and regulations. These laws and regulations affect how we transact business with our clients and, in some instances, impose additional costs on our business operations. A violation of specific laws and regulations could lead to fines, contract termination or suspension of future contracts. Generally, our government clients can also terminate, renegotiate, or modify any of their contracts with us at their convenience, and many of our government contracts are subject to renewal or extension annually.

In 2019, the U.S. Department of Defense announced the development of Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (“CMMC”) as a framework to assess and enhance the cybersecurity posture of the Defense Industrial Base (“DIB”), particularly as it relates to controlled unclassified information within the supply chain. CMMC is designed to ensure that contractors providing services to the U.S. Department of Defense have implemented cybersecurity controls and processes to adequately protect information that resides on DIB systems and networks. The U.S. Department of Defense issued an interim rule on September 29, 2020 to amend the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) to include one new provision and two new contract clauses. The Department of Defense (DoD) published changes to the CMMC program (version2.0) in December 2023. The CMMC program will go into effect (and into contracts) in Q1 2025. As part of the Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) Joint Surveillance Voluntary Assessment Program, Parsons identified an authorized certified third-party assessment organization (C3PAO), that along with Defense Industrial Base Cybersecurity Assessment

Center (DIBCAC) conducted a High Confidence (CMMC level 2) Assessment for Parsons FedNet® Secure environment in July 2023. Parsons is currently DFARS/NIST 800-171 compliant with an associated Supplier Performance Risk System (SPRS) score reported. All 110 control requirements and 320 control objectives with NIST 800-171 were deemed 100% satisfied per DIBCAC’s official report and posting to DoD’s SPRS. Parsons anticipates expanding the CMMC Level 2 certification to additional networks in 2024.

Anti-Bribery and other regulations. We are subject to the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and similar anti-bribery laws, which generally prohibit companies and their intermediaries from making improper payments to foreign government officials for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business. The U.K. Bribery Act of 2010 prohibits both domestic and international bribery, as well as bribery across both private and public sectors. In addition, an organization that “fails to prevent bribery” committed by anyone associated with the organization can be charged under the U.K. Bribery Act unless the organization can establish the defense of having implemented “adequate procedures” to prevent bribery.

International Trade. We are subject to U.S. export control laws and regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, or ITAR, and the Export Administration Regulations, or EAR, as well as U.S. economic and trade sanctions, including those administered and enforced by the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC. To the extent we export items and provide services outside of the United States (or to certain parties in the United States), we must do so in compliance with these laws and regulations. These laws and regulations impose export licensing requirements, and we may not be successful in obtaining necessary licenses and other authorizations. Further, these laws and regulations restrict our ability to export items or provide services to certain countries and certain persons, including those that are the target of OFAC sanctions. Noncompliance with these or similar laws could lead to government investigations, penalties, reputational harm, and other negative consequences, and thereby could adversely affect our business and financial condition. Further, any change in these laws and regulations, or any shift in the approach to their enforcement or scope, or change to the countries, persons, or items targeted by such regulations, could potentially result in our decreased ability to export or sell items or services to existing or potential customers.

Environmental, Health and Safety. We are subject to federal, state and local laws and regulations relating to environmental, health and safety matters, including, among other things, the handling, transport and disposal of regulated substances and wastes, including hazardous and radioactive materials; contamination by regulated substances and wastes; the types, quantities and concentration of materials that can be released into the environment; the acquisition of a permit or other approval before conducting regulated activities; the maintenance of information about hazardous materials used or produced in operations and provision of such information to employees, state and local government authorities and the public; and employee health and safety. Our previous ownership and current and previous operation of real property may subject us to liability pursuant to these laws or regulations. Under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, or CERCLA, and related state laws, certain persons may be liable at sites where or from a release or threatened release of hazardous substances has occurred or is threatened. These persons can include the current owner or operator of property where a release or threatened release occurred, any persons who owned or operated the property when the release occurred, and any persons who disposed of, or arranged for the transportation or disposal of, hazardous substances at a contaminated property. Liability under CERCLA is strict, retroactive and, under certain circumstances, joint and several, so that any responsible party may be held liable for the entire cost of investigating and remediating the release of hazardous substances. The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, or RCRA, regulates the generation, treatment, storage, handling, transportation and disposal of solid waste and requires states to develop programs to ensure the safe disposal of solid waste. Under RCRA, persons may be liable at sites where the past or present storage, handling, treatment, transportation, or disposal of any solid or hazardous waste may present an imminent and substantial endangerment to health or the environment. These persons can include the current owner or operator of property where disposal occurred, any persons who owned or operated the property when the disposal occurred, and any persons who disposed of, or arranged for the transportation or disposal of, hazardous substances at a contaminated property. Liability under RCRA is strict and, under certain circumstances, joint and several, so that any responsible party may be held liable for the entire cost of investigating and remediating the release of hazardous substances. Violations and liabilities with respect to environmental, health and safety laws and regulations could result in significant administrative, civil, or criminal penalties, remedial clean-ups, natural resource damages, permit modifications or revocations, operational interruptions or shutdowns and other liabilities. Additionally, Congress, state legislatures, local governing bodies and federal and state agencies frequently revise environmental laws and regulations, and any changes could result in more stringent or costly requirements for our operations. Our costs related to complying with environmental, health and safety laws and regulations have not been material in the past and are not currently material to our total operating costs or cash flows. However, if we have any violations of, or incur liabilities pursuant to these laws or regulations in the future, our financial condition and operating results could be adversely affected. In addition, in the unlikely event that we are required to fund remediation of a contaminated site, the statutory framework might allow us to pursue rights of contribution from other potentially responsible parties.

We maintain a compliance program designed to ensure compliance with the various regulations and requirements applicable to us. The compliance program, managed by our Chief Ethics and Compliance Counsel and overseen by our Chief Compliance Officer, includes an annual audit of performance with respect to our codes of ethics and business conduct and the adequacy of our compliance program, among other initiatives.

Executive Officers

Carey A. Smith, age 60, was appointed Chair of the Board of Directors on January 18, 2022, effective April 14, 2022. She became the President and Chief Executive Officer on July 1, 2021 and was appointed to the board of directors in December 2020. She was initially appointed as President and Chief Operating Officer in November 2019, Chief Operating Officer in November 2018 and led Parsons’ Federal Solutions business from November 2016. Before joining Parsons, Ms. Smith served in progressive leadership roles at Honeywell International Inc. (“Honeywell”) from 2011 to 2016, including President of the Defense and Space business unit. In total, Ms. Smith has 38 years of industry experience spanning the defense, intelligence and infrastructure markets. Ms. Smith serves on the Edison International board of directors, including on the Compensation and Executive Personnel and Safety and Operations Committees. She serves on one non-profit company board, the Professional Services Council, and she is a National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) Directorship (NCADD.DC) and Cyber Certified. Ms. Smith received an honorary doctorate degree from Ohio Northern University, a Master of Science degree in electrical engineering from Syracuse University and a bachelor-of-science in electrical engineering from Ohio Northern University. She received the GovCon Executive of the Year award in 2023. Ms. Smith was selected to serve on our board of directors because of the perspective and experience that she brings as our CEO and due to her significant industry and operations experience.

Matthew Ofilos, age 44, was appointed Chief Financial Officer of Parsons Corporation effective July 25, 2022. Mr. Ofilos previously served as the Parsons’ executive vice president of finance and brings more than twenty years of finance experience and a proven track record of delivering profitable growth and building high-performance finance teams to the role. As executive vice-president, Mr. Ofilos led the company’s financial operations, including project controls, financial planning, accounting, treasury, and financial systems. Prior to joining Parsons in 2021, he led multi-billion-dollar finance organizations, including those for Amazon Web Services (AWS) Worldwide Public Sector and Strategic Industry businesses. Prior to AWS, he held roles of increasing responsibility at Raytheon, concluding his tenure as CFO for the Space and Command & Control businesses for the Intelligence, Information and Services segment. Mr. Ofilos holds a Master of Business Administration from Boston University and a Bachelor of Science from Babson College.

Michael R. Kolloway, age 63, was appointed General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of Parsons Corporation in October 2017 and later became our Chief Legal Officer in January 2019. Before assuming the role of General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, Mr. Kolloway served as Deputy General Counsel – Americas from March 2016 through October 2017. Before joining Parsons, Mr. Kolloway served as Senior Vice President and Assistant General Counsel for Operations and Risk Management at AECOM

Technology Corporation, a publicly traded company. Prior to his tenure at AECOM, Mr. Kolloway was a partner in the Chicago law firm of Rock, Fusco & Garvey, Ltd and a member of the Federal Trial Bar for the Northern District of Illinois. Mr. Kolloway received his Bachelor of Arts degree from St. Norbert College, his Juris Doctor from the University of Illinois College of Law and completed the General Counsel Program at the Harvard University School of Law. Mr. Kolloway served on the Board of Directors for MUSE/IQUE based in Pasadena, California. He is a member of the Association of Corporate Counsel and the In-House Mentorship Committee for the Charlotte Chapter.

Susan Balaguer, age 54, was appointed as Chief Human Resources Officer of Parsons Corporation effective July 16, 2021. Ms. Balaguer is responsible for all aspects of the human resources function, including benefits, recruitment, retention, and the employee lifecycle and employee experience for the company. Ms. Balaguer has over thirty years of extensive experience in global human resources for public and private companies, and over twelve years of experience with public and private mergers and acquisitions, private equity, and large-scale business integrations. Before joining Parsons in 2021, she served as the Chief Human Resources Officer at Serco North America and Engility. She also previously served as the senior vice president of HR operations at CACI and, for over twenty years, she held progressive HR leadership positions at Raytheon. Ms. Balaguer is an executive sponsor for the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Council and sits on the Mid Atlantic Organizational Development Executive Roundtable.

Available Information

We file annual, quarterly, and current reports and other information with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The SEC maintains a website (www.sec.gov) that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding registrants that file electronically with the SEC, including us. You may also access, free of charge, our reports filed with the SEC (for example, our Annual Report on Form 10-K, our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, and our Current Reports on Form 8-K and any amendments to those forms) through the “Investors” portion of our website (www.parsons.com). Reports filed with or furnished to the SEC will be available as soon as reasonably practicable after they are filed with or furnished to the SEC. Our website is included in this Annual Report as an inactive textual reference only. The information found on our website is not part of this or any other report filed with or furnished to the SEC.