By Vyomika Jairam
Federal News Radio

The Defense Department has launched a program to exchange IT professionals with private industry. Top brass hope the pilot program will bring the best technology and management practices into the department. Joyce France is director of CIO management services at the Defense Department.

She joined the Federal Drive to talk about the exchange program, who it is open to and how it will work.

There are eight positions, and they are across the service branches. Position descriptions are already up and the DoD is waiting for the private sector to reach out.

As of now, the program is not yet a one-to-one switch. The positions currently open are for industry employees to come and work at the DoD. But the Pentagon is very interested in having defense employees spend time at other companies.

“The private sector, they stay on the leading edge on information technology because they are in a competitive environment,” France said. “So we’re hoping that when we send folks out, they will learn what’s going on in the private sector in dealing with certain situations and bring that knowledge and skills back within the DoD.”

The work will be carried out under a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in which salary, benefits, etc., will be covered by the original employer. All other training expenses would be absorbed by the host employer. All of the Pentagon-based positions require security clearences.

The positions are available to “anyone who is interested!” France said. “We’re offering this up, and we’ve already received a lot of inquires.”

This story is part of Federal News Radio’s daily DoD Report. For more defense news, click here.

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