White House cyber czar launches new hiring sprint 

The White House’s Office of the National Cyber Director announced a new hiring sprint for the nearly half a million cyber jobs across the United States on Wednesday. 

The effort, dubbed Service to America, will last through October. ONCD is collaborating with the Office of Management and Budget and Office of Personnel Management on the sprint.

“Throughout our history, generation after generation of Americans have stepped up to meet the challenges of their day, protecting and serving our nation in a variety of ways,” Harry Coker, national cyber director, wrote in a blog. “Today, we face a new challenge and with it a new opportunity to serve: defending cyberspace.”

There are currently approximately 470,000 cyber jobs in the United States, per Cyberseek. 

The federal government alone had 3,000 open jobs in the 2210 occupational series — which encompasses IT work, including some cyber jobs — in fiscal 2024. 

That’s per an inventory the White House’s cyber office is fielding with OMB and OPM, Seeyew Mo, assistant cyber director for workforce, education and awareness at ONCD, told Nextgov/FCW. 

The hiring push is the latest in the administration’s efforts to fill in the national cybersecurity workforce. 

The White House’s cyber office released a workforce-specific strategy last year. Since then, it’s also garnered commitments from organizations to train and expand the cyber workforce and remove four-year degree requirements from cybersecurity jobs — a move the federal government is also pursuing for its own cyber hiring.

The government’s HR agency has also pitched lawmakers on a legislative revamp of cyber hiring and pay, although that effort doesn’t appear to have piqued the interest of lawmakers yet, at least publicly.

The new campaign is meant to both raise awareness for jobseekers who may not know of opportunities in cyber, as well as engage with public and private sector employers, said Mo.

“We’re trying to connect more Americans to good paying, meaningful jobs in cyber,” said Mo. “We need more Americans to be interested in this work.”

Part of the battle is perception, wrote Coker.

A highly technical background or cybersecurity degree isn’t necessary to work in the field, he wrote. Still, there are barriers to entry for some, including requirements for degrees, years of experience and cybersecurity certifications.

Removing those obstacles is something the administration says it’s been focused on. 

Last spring, ONCD and OPM announced that they would be rewriting requirements for the federal government’s IT workforce in an effort to enable agencies to hire feds without college degrees that learned skills on the job.

The Labor and Commerce Departments also fielded a push for cybersecurity apprenticeships in 2022.

As for the latest effort, the cyber czar’s office will be coordinating with other federal agencies to recruit and hire at career fairs, said Mo. The first one, targeted at military spouses, will take place Thursday.

ONCD is also encouraging both agencies and private sector counterparts alike to use best practices like removing degree requirements and offering entry level cyber jobs, apprenticeships and paid internships, said Mo.

“We are trying to open up opportunities for each and every American who wants to serve their nation,” he said. “It’s about broadening pathways and removing barriers.”

The administration has also been seeking to hire AI professionals into the government after Biden signed an executive order focused on the technology last fall. 

The landing page for the new OCND effort includes links to tech and AI jobs, in addition to cybersecurity. The efforts are complementary, Mo said. 

“Cyber is more than cybersecurity,” he noted. “You don’t need a ‘cyber’ in your title to be doing cyber work.”