GSA Blog

Technology Workforce is the First Line of Defense

As the federal government recognizes October as Cybersecurity Awareness Month, I’m reminded of how important our current and future workforce is to achieving results and protecting critical technology infrastructure. Technology constantly evolves to protect against new cybersecurity threats, but  what stays constant is the federal government’s need for talent, especially when it comes to highly skilled and mission-critical cybersecurity positions.

To maintain a strong cybersecurity posture, we need to build the skills of our workforce with training, development and experiential learning opportunities. Equally important is recruiting, retaining and curating the pipeline of talent. Shifting business priorities and the rapid pace of technology demands a certain agility in how we manage our workforce. Our challenge is maintaining a skilled IT workforce to meet current and future demands while also shaping a workforce that looks and feels like the people we serve.

At GSA, we’re hiring talented and experienced professionals who can embrace and adapt to these rapid changes. It is also important to give our employees meaningful work that will keep them fully engaged and satisfied while being able to tie their work to GSA’s mission. I work alongside highly qualified and talented professionals but we need sustained investment in our workforce if we want to remain a competitive employer. The government is no different than any other corporation or business, we need to make investments in our most valuable asset: our people. 

We’ve ramped up hiring in the following areas:

• Direct Hiring Authority: GSA is approved to use fast track hiring authority for mission critical cybersecurity positions. We’re recruiting development, security and operations professionals, designers, product managers, and infrastructure and cloud engineers to address our cyber challenges.
• GSA’s Technology Transformation Services: The team is looking for candidates who are passionate about applying modern methodologies and technologies to improve the lives of the public and public servants. Visit https://join.tts.gsa.gov/ to learn more and view open opportunities. 

My mantra is simple: Good tech all starts with people. GSA is a great place to work and we're doing innovative things with information technology. Come join us. Learn more about career opportunities at gsa.gov/careers.