After years of growth, DoD cyber workforce braces for reductions

The Defense Department’s cyber workforce is expected to experience cuts amid an ongoing hiring freeze and efforts to reduce the overall number of DoD civilians.

DoD officials are looking to limit the impact of the cuts by focusing on strategic reductions to the cyber workforce, as well as upskilling opportunities for staff.

The DoD cyber workforce comprises about 225,000 civilians, military personnel and contractor employees. The broad category includes positions focused on cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, software engineering and other IT work.

In recent years, DoD ramped up its use of direct hire authority to drive down vacancy rates for cyber positions from upwards of 25% to around 15% — A level that remains today, according to Patrick Johnson, director of the workforce innovation directorate under the DoD chief information officer.

But Johnson noted the full impact of recent DoD personnel actions is still unclear. Employees who opt for deferred resignation can remain “on the books” through September. Eligible employees can also choose to take a voluntary early retirement.

Meanwhile, the civilian hiring freeze has driven DoD cyber hiring down from approximately 1,500 personnel per month last year to less than 200 hires per month recently.

“We’re going to see a reduction in the size of our force,” Johnson said during a May 22 GovExec webinar. “Our goal is to limit that, provide the administration, and particularly the secretary and the deputy secretary, the information they need to make reasoned and rational decisions on the size of the force and where we have to cut, be as focused and strategic as we can. A lot of these things, you cannot simply turn the switch on and have it flood back in.”

Some civilian workforce cuts are starting to come into focus. The Defense Information Systems Agency, for instance, expects to lose nearly 10% of its civilian workforce.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth directed efforts to reduce the size of the DoD’s civilian workforce in a late March “Workforce Acceleration and Recapitalization Initiative” memo. DoD’s goal is to reduce the civilian workforce by 5% to 8%, or approximately 50,000 to 60,000 employees to “align its civilian workforce with national security priorities,” Hegseth wrote.

Johnson said DoD CIO officials overseeing the cyber workforce are “adjusting our strategy” to support Hegseth’s goals.

DoD is heavily reliant on contractors to fill cyber skills gaps as well. Johnson noted his office is adjusting plans to account for cuts to the contractor workforce as well.

“If we’re not going to be able to add additional folks, especially if we’re looking at losing contracts along the way and that contract support, how do we upskill the workforce?” Johnson said.

He said the DoD CIO’s office is already in discussions with universities, including the University of Albany, to explore new training pathways for DoD’s civilian and military cyber personnel.

“Those are the kind of things that I’ve tasked my team with. Those are the things I want to look at. It’s still a win,” Johnson said. “Look, it’s challenging times. I’m not going to kid anybody, but there is opportunity here to challenge some obstacles and other things that may have prevented us to do some of that and really lean into improving our workforce.”

Despite challenges with the hiring freeze, Johnson said his office has been moving forward with testing out “skills-based” hiring and assessments.

Government agencies in recent years have moved to adopt skills-based recruiting practices that focus more on technical evaluations rather than education and experience. The House Homeland Security Committee in February passed legislation that would create a new cyber scholarship-for-service program focused on skills-based training.

Johnson said he is aiming to share the skills-based assessments his team is piloting across the federal government.

“I am really keen on what I’m doing right now should be scalable to the rest of my federal partners, because this is a partnership,” he said. “And while the department has taken cuts, some of the other federal agencies have really taken some deep cuts. So if anything we’re doing, we can lend a hand over on the other side of the fence, I’m all about that. It is a collaborative effort. It’s not just a DoD problem.”