Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter on Wednesday laid out a number of initiatives designed to make the Defense Department more competitive with private sector in recruiting and retaining young, technologically savvy employees.

“We put a lot of effort into staying on the cutting edge with regards to weapon systems and it’s time we did the same with managing our people,” Carter said of the first of his Force of the Future initiatives during a speech at George Washington University. The initiative is part of several department-wide reforms that are the most sweeping since it abandoned the draft in 1973. 

Whereas the Pentagon and its agencies have traditionally developed technology that is then transitioned to civilian applications, its procurement process has lagged in the face of commercial technological development over the last decade. It has also been outmatched in recruiting young talent by commercial firms that pay more and don’t require rigid service commitments.

In an effort to enlist engineers and entrepreneurs from the private sector, Carter plans to launch the Defense Digital Service, which will bring in engineers and other appropriate professionals on a temporary basis to tackle specific challenges.

Carter said the Digital Service is the first of several “onramps to make it easier to contribute to” the Defense Department’s mission. It will be “a new thing which will bring in talent from America’s technology community for a specific time or for a specific project [as an] initial approach to solving our most complex problems.”

The Pentagon also will launch a pilot program called “entrepreneur in residence” where civilian business leaders will work with senior Defense Department officials to tackle systemic issues within the department for a year or two, Carter said. A new position will be created for a chief recruiting officer that “will serve as a headhunter to help bring in some of America’s best qualified executives for stints in top civilian leadership roles.”

“While today former military officers run some of America’s largest companies–Johnson & Johnson, FedEx, Verizon–we want to be able to benefit from doing that the other way around, too. Hopefully, that infusion of innovative entrepreneurial, managerially excellent spirit will rub off on us.”

Carter also wants to create more “off-ramps” for both civilian and uniformed Defense Department personnel to access career, educational and personal opportunities outside the department. That includes expanding the career intermission program that allows employees to take sabbaticals to earn a degree, learn a new skill or have children.

“You don’t have to choose between getting ahead in the military and getting a valuable experience that will help you get ahead in life,” Carter said. “That is, and always should be, a false choice.”

Inside the department, Carter plans to scale up an Army program that mirrors the online social media application LinkedIn [LNKD]. It currently matches engineering officers to units that need their particular expertise. Plans are to expand use of the application to all services and military specialties.

Currently, 80 percent of uniformed personnel leave the military before the 20-year service milestone at which they would earn retirement benefits, including a pension. Carter said a program is in the works to establish funds similar to civilian 401-K retirement plans into which troops can pay and then take with them regardless of their term of service.

Other Force of the Future reforms are expected in coming weeks.