About the FirmBuilt on Operational
Discipline.
Sierra October LLC was founded to bridge the gap between high-level aerospace strategy and the practical realities of aviation operations.
Our Identity
Sierra October is not a marketing agency or a generic business coaching firm. We are a specialized aviation advisory firm that understands the unique pressures of Part 145 repair stations, aerospace service businesses, and MRO operations.
Our name reflects our commitment to clarity and precision—the same standards required in the cockpit and on the hangar floor. We believe that in aviation, operational discipline is the only sustainable path to commercial growth.
We work with owners, executives, and investors who are serious about professionalizing their operations, improving their commercial visibility, and executing on growth strategies that actually work.
Our Approach
Integrity
We provide direct, unvarnished advice focused on the long-term health of your business.
Precision
We identify the specific 20% of levers that drive 80% of your business results.
Execution
Strategy is useless without a disciplined framework for implementation and accountability.
Excellence
We hold our clients and ourselves to the highest standards of professional conduct and results.
Our Mission
"To empower aviation businesses with the structural discipline and commercial strategy required to lead their sectors, ensuring long-term viability and operational excellence in a rapidly evolving aerospace landscape."
Our Team
Emma Arocha
Co-Founder | Strategic Lead & Visionary
Emma Arocha is the strategic architect of every Sierra October engagement. She defines what changes, in what sequence, and why — and leads the client relationship from qualification through transformation.
Her pattern recognition comes from operating inside aviation and industrial organizations across her career at Safran, 3Chem, and Heico — she has watched operations fail and succeed across dozens of different contexts. That breadth produces an ability to identify structural problems quickly and design commercial architectures that fit the specific constraints of the MRO environment.
Emma is known for identifying the breakdowns that owners can feel but can't locate — the misalignment between commercial commitments and operational capability that quietly erodes margin and customer trust. Her strength is evaluating a business holistically and correcting those misalignments before they become exits.
Experience & Focus
- Vice President of Sales leadership across aviation and industrial sectors
- Enterprise-level customer relationship and contract negotiation management
- Aligning commercial risk, pricing, and operational feasibility
- Implementing corrective structures for sales and operational delivery
Steven Ontaneda
Co-Founder | Technical & Execution Lead
Steven Ontaneda builds what Emma designs — the systems, dashboards, financial models, SOPs, data infrastructure, and purchasing controls that make the strategic roadmap operational.
His execution range comes from running a Part 145 repair station with full latitude across 13 executive functions simultaneously — finance, sales, purchasing, operations, technical systems, customer service, and more — under a single constraint: everything had to run lean enough for one person to manage. That constraint produced a specific discipline: automate what doesn’t require judgment, systematize what does, and use technology as a force multiplier rather than a supplement.
The result is systems that don’t require added headcount to maintain. The data platforms, SOPs, and financial models he deploys aren’t invented for each client — they’ve been running in production inside a real MRO, producing real decisions, at 33% EBITDA margins.
Experience & Focus
- Scaling annual revenue to multi-million-dollar performance
- Reducing turnaround time through process control and prioritization
- Implementing structured customer communication and service workflows
- Supporting engineering-driven solutions and DER/PMA strategies
Why Clients Choose Sierra October
Domain Expertise
We speak the language of aviation. We understand turn-times, regulatory compliance, component repair, and the nuances of the MRO market.
Executive Focus
Our advisory is designed for decision-makers. We focus on high-level strategy, organizational structure, and commercial visibility.
Proven Results
We don't just deliver slide decks. We deliver improved workflows, better sales processes, and measurable growth in enterprise value.