Mulally-Mulally was hired by Boeing immediately out of college in 1969 as an engineer. He held a number of engineering and program management positions, making contributions to the Boeing 727, 737, 747, 757, 767 and 777 projects. He led the cockpit design team on the 757/767 project. Its revolutionary design featured the first all-digital flight deck in a commercial aircraft, the first two man crew for long range aircraft, and a common type rating for pilots on two different aircraft. He worked on the 777 program first as director of engineering and, from September 1992, as vice-president and general manager.[11]
He was later named as Vice President of Engineering for the commercial airplane group. He is known and recognized for elevating Phil Condit's "Working Together"-philosophy through and beyond the 777-program. In 1994, Mulally was promoted to senior vice president of Airplane Development and was in charge of all airplane development activities, flight test operations, certification, and government technical liaison. In 1997, Mulally became the president of the Information, Space & Defense Systems and senior vice president.[12] He held this position until 1998 when he was made president of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, Chief Executive Officer duties were added in 2001.[11]
Following the forced resignations of Phil Condit in 2003 and Harry Stonecipher in 2005, Mulally was considered one of the leading internal candidates for the CEO position.[13] When Mulally was passed over in both instances, questions were raised about whether he would remain with the company.
For Mulally's performance at Boeing, Aviation Week & Space Technology named him as person of the year for 2006.[5]