More Than 40 Technologists to Serve in Inaugural U.S. Digital Corps

The newly created U.S. Digital Corps will be comprised of an inaugural cohort of more than 40 technologists serving in short-term details, according to a blog post Friday authored by U.S. Federal Chief Information Officer Clare Martorana.

Announced last August, the federal government’s latest tech fellowship effort will place technologists across 13 federal agencies to support and improve services critical to the American people and help advance administration priorities. The fellows—selected from more than 1,000 applications received from 47 states and territories—will begin later this month and will serve up to two years.

"Launching the inaugural cohort of the U.S. Digital Corps is an important step towards delivering on a key pillar of the President's Management Agenda—strengthening and empowering the federal workforce, Pam Coleman, associate director performance & personnel management at the Office of Management and Budget, said in a statement. “The Digital Corps has selected more than 40 talented early-career technologists to serve as fellows across federal agencies, where they will help address key challenges the government faces in both the near and long term.”

Martorana’s blog post calls out three federal destinations for some of the soon-to-start fellows. Fellows will join the Department of Veterans Affairs’ digital experience team to help modernize digital tools veterans rely on; help the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services create a behavioral health treatment locator tool, and provide certain technical assistance to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

The program will be housed within the General Services Administration’s Technology Transformation Services alongside the Presidential Innovation Fellows program, which also specializes in term-limited roles. The program is a collaborative effort among several federal agencies, including GSA, the Office of Management and Budget, the Office of Personnel Management, CISA and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

In her blog post, Martorana said the fellows “reflect the diversity of our country” and emphasized the government aimed its recruitment efforts at communities “traditionally underrepresented in civic tech.”  U.S. Digital Corps will support in‑person, hybrid and distributed fellows, subject to the telework policies of host agencies.

“I am honored to support the U.S. Digital Corps in my role as federal chief information officer. Creating new ways to bring technology talent into the federal government is crucial to our efforts to protect, serve, and inspire the American people in today’s digital age,” Martorana said.