DHS Plans Cyber Job Fair

The Homeland Security Department plans to hold a major job fair that will focus on staffing up its cybersecurity workforce, the agency's chief human capital officer told Wired Workplace on Monday. The news comes just days after DHS announced a new hiring flexibility that authorizes it to hire up to 1,000 additional cyber experts.

CHCO Jeffrey Neal said the department is working with the Office of Personnel Management and the Office of Management and Budget to hold the cyber job fair within the next four to six weeks.

Neal also said the new hiring authority, which provides DHS with more flexibility in hiring and paying up to 1,000 additional cybersecurity workers, will focus mainly on recruiting and hiring more experienced cyber professionals. Because the department already has flexibilities that enable it to simplify the hiring process for entry-level workers, he said, the agency plans to use the new authority mainly to target upper- and mid-level cybersecurity professionals.

"A lot of folks who are recent grads have the theoretical understanding but not practical experience. ... It doesn't mean we won't be hiring for entry level, but we have to be certain we have folks who have experience," Neal said. "We're looking at all the options available to us."

The new authority also will focus exclusively on hiring actual cybersecurity professionals, rather than a mixture of those positions combined with additional human resources or budgetary staff, he added.

Neal also touted the synergy between DHS, OPM and OMB in rolling out the new cyber hiring authority in just two weeks, just in time for October's Cybersecurity Awareness Month outreach effort. "We looked at what our hiring needs might be over the next three years and added cushion in case we had additional needs," he said. "We came up with the number of 1,000 and that it would take three years to hire that many people. It could be we will move faster than that depending on what talent we find out there."

Neal also said DHS is in the process of writing new rules for how to manage the application processes for the 1,000 cybersecurity jobs. Those regulations should be finalized this week, he added.