[4][7] Shay continued as chair, CEO, and sole shareholder of PAE until 1974 when 40 percent of the company was sold to an employee stock ownership program.

[16] PAE specializes in "expeditionary logistics" and "nation building" including construction and supply of basecamps for peacekeeping missions, airfield management and maintenance, foreign aid distribution, police training, and elections monitoring, and it has additional capabilities including technical support for weapons of mass destruction elimination, vessel and cargo tracking software, crime scene software, and weather forecasting.

[18] The same year it, along with two sub-contractors, agreed to a $1.45 million out-of-court settlement with the United States over claims it had engaged in bid-rigging of a U.S. Army contract for support in Afghanistan.

[21] According to PAE, since 2016 it has operated NASA's Stennis Space Center and Michoud Assembly Facility as part of a joint contract with BWX Technologies.

[25] Under the terms of the contract, PAE was tasked with providing medical support, facility construction and management, and equipment and personnel transportation to sites in Antarctica.

[25] In 2014, PAE was awarded a NZ$72 million contract by the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) for "building and facility construction and maintenance services".

[32][a] According to PAE, its earliest work for the State Department began in the 1950s and included design of the Kandahar International Airport and Kabul University, and construction of the U.S. Embassy in Laos.

[37] In 2015, when the U.S. Agency for International Development supported a program by the German NGO Welthungerhilfe to build four ebola treatment centers in Liberia, PAE was awarded contracts for the management of the sites.

[38] In 2017, according to the company, it received a $423 million contract from the State Department to "provide administrative, technical, maintenance, training, safety and logistics/procurement support for the Colombian National Police's" aviation unit.