Before you set foot into the offices of Modern Technology Solutions, Inc., a sign-in sheet prompts you for your name, organization, part of your Social Security number, national citizenship and government security clearance.

But don’t let the clandestine nature of MTSI’s work fool you — inside you’ll find a growing group of self-motivated engineers living by a strong business ethics code.

“We’re a combination of older guys, retired military and some younger folks mixed in,” said senior engineer John Teter. “We have a set of core values, and the first one is that employees here come first.”

The employee-owned cooperative, a branch of a Virginia-based engineering consulting group, opened in June 2005 with three part-time and four full-time workers. Today, it employs 45 engineers and support staff in an office across the street from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Teter said. MTSI has 450 employees at nine offices nationwide.

The firm offers consulting services for government engineering projects, constructing test models and simulations for experimental intelligence equipment. Much of what it does is classified, but has included work on satellite navigation, signals analysis, and unmanned aerial vehicles like the RQ-4 Global Hawk in conjunction with labs on the base.

“Ninety-nine percent of our business is government,” Teter said. “That in includes the Department of Defense, the Air Force, the Navy, the DIA, CIA, the NASC.”

The unusual cooperative model of the business keeps everyone invested in its success and furnished with a generous benefits package, including biannual bonuses, leave plans, 401K and Employee Stock Option Plans, Teter said.

“We don’t have bosses here — just people doing different jobs. It’s very informal,” Teter said. “Anybody in the office can pick up the phone and call the president.”

The informal nature of the business and its strong ethical foundation has meant a retention rate of near 95 percent in Dayton, said office leader Scott Coale. The strong ethos guiding MTSI prompted employees to also vote it a special award for ethics.

“What separates us from anybody is our core values.” Coale said.

Another of the company’s nine core values is social responsibility, Coale said, and it maintains a consistent volunteer effort for such charities as the Hope Foundation and Building Bridges among many others.

“We give a constant percent of our profits — no matter if the economy goes up and down,” Coale said. “We’re proud of these things, and we think it creates a loyalty to our customer.”

The business doesn’t seek out contracts, Teter said, and in fact limits its work to jobs in which its employees are most content. However, the business could expand more into the private sector as it grows.

“We’ve turned down fairly lucrative jobs because it might be perceived as a conflict of interest,” Teter said.