Cybersecurity

WH launches cyber hiring sprint to fill open tech roles

The cyber hiring push led by the Office of the National Cyber Director comes as the government grapples with an estimated 3,000 open cybersecurity jobs.

Justin Doubleday@jdoubledayWFED

September 4, 2024 5:55 pm

2 min read

The White House is pushing to fill hundreds of federal cyber, technology and artificial intelligence jobs in the coming months.

The Office of the National Cyber Director today announced a “Service for America” hiring sprint. In a blog, National Cyber Director Harry Coker wrote that the sprint is “aimed at preparing our country for a digitally-enabled future by connecting Americans to good-paying, meaningful jobs in cyber, technology, and artificial intelligence.”

“These jobs offer an opportunity to serve our country by protecting our national security, while also offering a personal path to prosperity,” Coker added.

The cyber hiring initiative features a series of events through the end of October, including a Sept. 27 “National Cybersecurity Virtual Career Fair.” A new “Service for America” website includes links to open cyber, tech and AI jobs at federal agencies.

During the Billington Cybersecurity Conference in Washington this week, Coker said the cyber hiring push builds on a 120-day cybersecurity apprenticeship sprint led by the departments of Commerce and Labor.

“The task at hand is to find that talent, hire the talent, motivate that talent, inspire, develop, and retain that talent. That’s what we have to do,” Coker said Sept. 3 at Billington.

“These are not only good paying jobs, they are meaningful jobs,” he added. “These jobs work with our economic prosperity, our technological innovation, and our national security. So, we’re going to launch that tomorrow, and we hope to make progress.”

The cyber hiring push could help fill thousands of open cybersecurity jobs in the federal government.

ONCD has been working with the Office of Personnel Management and the Office of Management and Budget to create an inventory of federal IT jobs. Seeyew Mo, assistant national cyber director for workforce, training and education, said the initial data shows agencies have about 3,000 open jobs with cybersecurity responsibilities.

“We’re continuing on this work, and we want to make sure that we’re getting these things right,” he said during Federal News Network’s Workplace Reimagined last week. “What we plan to do is socialize this information more interagency to figure out how we can work together to fill some of these roles in a more efficient manner. We have to solve this problem in many, many different areas.”

The recruiting push comes as OPM and ONCD work to transition most federal IT jobs to “skills-based hiring” by next summer. Rather than focusing on education and experience, the goal is to evaluate candidates using skills assessments.

More broadly, officials see skills-based hiring as a key strategy to filling an estimated 469,000 open cyber positions nationwide.

“How much knowledge an individual has, what are the skills they can use to contribute to the mission, as opposed to the sheepskin that might be on the wall, which does not necessarily mean someone has the skills to apply,” Coker said this week at the Billington conference.