Schnabel Engineering achieved a CMMC Status of Final Level 2 (C3PAO) through an independent certification assessment conducted by Ignyte, an authorized C3PAO.
Rather than approaching CMMC as a compliance exercise, Schnabel treated certification as a strategic enterprise risk management initiative, aligning executive leadership, legal, and technical teams to establish a defensible cybersecurity posture and strengthen trust across federal engagements.
As cybersecurity expectations across the Defense Industrial Base continue to increase, Schnabel faced a familiar but critical challenge:
- Translating existing security practices into audit-ready, defensible evidence
- Aligning more than 30 offices under a consistent control and documentation framework
- Interpreting CUI handling requirements across legal, operational, and technical domains
- Preparing for a formal third-party assessment without introducing risk to ongoing federal work
Like many organizations, Schnabel had strong internal capabilities, but needed to bridge the gap between operational security and audit-grade validation.
From the outset, Schnabel made a deliberate decision: CMMC would not be treated as a compliance checkbox, it would be treated as a business and governance priority. That shift drove executive involvement early in the process across legal, the CIO, and leadership; alignment between legal interpretation and technical implementation; a focus on boundary definition and control ownership; and investment in documentation maturity and audit defensibility.
This approach mirrors a broader industry reality: achieving certifications like CMMC or FedRAMP requires cross-functional coordination and leadership sponsorship, not just technical implementation.
