The Defense Intelligence Agency is reaping the benefits of a salary supplement that allows DIA and other defense intelligence agencies to offer higher pay to employees in technical fields.

The Pentagon last May approved a targeted local market supplement for cyber and STEM jobs across the defense civilian intelligence personnel system, which includes agencies like DIA, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency.

Kimberly King, career service manager for analysis at DIA, acknowledges the government can’t compete with the private sector on pay. But she said STEM pay supplement is helping DIA’s recruiting efforts, especially among students with critical technical skills.

“We’re able to increase the pay that they get,” King said during a Sept. 17 webinar hosted by the Intelligence and National Security Alliance. “That’s been a really powerful recruiting tool.”

The higher STEM pay for certain defense intelligence positions comes amid a tight competition for technical talent across the public and private sectors.

King said DIA works closely with the colleges through the Intelligence Community Centers of Academic Excellence to connect with potential job candidates as early as possible.

“Developing those talent pipelines is really important because it gives us the connections to students early who hopefully we can get them onboard for internships, get them here for a summer, show them the kind of work that we do,” King said. “It’s hard. The intelligence community can look like a curtain, and we want to peel back that curtain and show them the reward they’ll get from working in the community.”

Many of DIA’s new hires have a high level of digital literacy and data acumen, King said. “The quality of new talent that we are getting is phenomenal,” she added.

But DIA is also struggling to find candidates in certain technical fields. King pointed to electrical engineers and aerospace engineers as two areas where there’s a deficit of talent.

“Certainly with some of the engineering disciplines, there’s just a lot of competition right now,” King said.

IC career development

Meanwhile, former DoD Chief Information Officer John Sherman said intelligence agencies will need to modernize their approach to career development if they want to retain new recruits. Sherman is now dean at Texas A&M University’s Bush School of Government and Public Service.

“If your career development feels like it’s from the 1990s, it probably is,” Sherman said during the INSA webinar. “There’s career services and a lot of thoughtfulness being put across the agencies, but it still feels very government.”

Sherman said the “highly laddered” structure of a government career is unlikely to appeal to younger generations.

“We’ve got think differently, and if it feels bureaucratic, it is bureaucratic,” Sherman said. “Give them latitude.”

King said DIA is having more “meaningful conversations” with employees about their career progress than in the past. She also said DIA is encouraging employees to take advantage of joint duty assignments and other rotational opportunities to learn new skills.

Additionally, DIA is doing “tons of training,” King said. The goal is to help employees learn new skills, especially in emerging areas like data and artificial intelligence.

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