The Department of Defense was given the authority to hire up to 3,000 cybersecurity positions, partially meant to help fully staff U.S. Cyber Command, the Office of Personnel Management announced Thursday.
The permission applies to the entire department.
Rather than using traditional criteria, the department can offer positions based on skills. The positions “require unique cybersecurity skills and knowledge to perform cyber risk and strategic analysis, incident handling and malware/vulnerability analysis, program management, distributed control systems security, cyber incident response, cyber exercise facilitation and management, cyber vulnerability detection and assessment, network and systems engineering, enterprise architecture, investigation, investigative analysis and cyber-related infrastructure inter-dependency analysis,” said the notice posted to the Federal Register.
U.S. Cyber Command in particular can hire miscellaneous administrative personnel when the positions require unique cybersecurity skills and knowledge, the notice said.
All of the new positions will be at the GS 09-15 or equivalent salary: $42,000-$132,000.
The hiring authority ends after Dec. 31, 2015.
This notice came after Defense Department cyber officials told Congress it needs assured full funding.
The greatest help Congress can do to help Cyber Command accomplish its mission is to ensure a steady resource stream in contrast with sequestration funding levels, Adm. Michael Rogers, Commander of U.S. Cyber Command and Director of the National Security Agency, said on Wednesday.
“Our ability to defend the nation and our department from a cyber perspective, in the world that we’re facing and the threats we’re facing, is significantly impacted if we can’t sustain the resource budget picture that we’ve developed.” Rogers said at a House Armed Services Committee Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities hearing on military cyber operations.
Recruitment and retention of Army cyber personnel is challenging given employment constraints and a slow hiring process, Lt. Gen. Edward Cardon, head of Army Cyber Command, told the subcommittee.
Increased bonuses and student loan reimbursements would help recruit and retain talent, he said.
The improving economy is expected to increase the challenges of recruiting and retaining personnel for the cyber workforce, Vice Adm. Jan Tighe, Commander of U.S. Fleet Cyber Command, said.
The department has a target for the cyber mission force of about 6,200 personnel in 133 teams, Rogers said in his written testimony. The majority of the teams are to achieve initial operational capability by the end of FY 2016.