The Science and Technology (S&T) Directorate within the Department of Homeland Security is transitioning to a new organizational structure that he says will be more transparent for all to see and more accountable and flexible to address rapidly changing threats and take advantage of existing technology solutions that are also innovating quickly.
The revitalization effort will get S&T “the kind of visibility we need across a wide domain so people know what we are doing and what we are working on and who we’re working on it for,” William Bryan, the current acting undersecretary of the directorate and President Donald Trump’s nominee to be undersecretary, said last week.
The new structure was unveiled to the S&T workforce the first week of September and Bryan said it will officially stand up on Oct. 1. The transition is underway, he said on Sept. 13 at the outset of a Homeland Security Science and Technology Advisory Committee meeting. Bryan outlined a new model and organization for his agency.
Going forward, Bryan said that S&T will be focused on five key elements, including customer requirements, customer engagement, technology scouting, program management, and technology transition.
The new operating model has three core elements. The first, better understanding customer needs, is being driven in part by Homeland Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen who wants S&T to work more closely with its customers, Bryan said.
S&T’s customers are typically the operating components of DHS and the nation’s first responders.
As needs are understood, S&T will analyze whether solutions already exist or can be adapted, or if they need to be further developed or developed outright. If the answer is no to all of those, then customer needs have to be better understood, according to one of Bryan’s briefing slides.
Bryan said that S&T will use a team-based approach to address customer requirements and needs rather than the traditional program management-driven model. He also said the new model will leverage the full-range of capabilities across his organizations and that where S&T may be lacking, capabilities will be strengthened.
Bryan’s predecessor, Reggie Brothers, who led S&T the last few years of the Obama administration, also emphasized technology foraging to find existing, or near-existing solutions to customer needs. Bryan said he believes that a lot of solutions to his customers’ needs already exist, so he wants to further built up the technology scouting. He asked members of the HSSTAC for help finding technologies globally.
The final element to the operation model is to “execute efficiently and effectively,” which includes regular project assessments based on defined milestones, testing and validation, delivering capability, and post-delivery follow up. Tracking the use of a solution will last at least three years to understand customers’ return on investment, Bryan said.
“That’s not a metric that we’ve been keeping but frankly that’s just a smart thing to do and it’s being demanded of us, so we need to do that,” Bryan said, “adding we need to be able to articulate our return on investment for all the money we spend.”
The restructuring of S&T to support the new operating model will include four primary offices. The Office of Mission & Capability Support will round up the current divisions in one shop and support customers. The office will consist of three divisions, Border, Immigration & Maritime, First Responders & Detection, and Physical & Cyber Security, according to the organization chart presented by Bryan.
Bryan said the Mission & Capability office will have a pool of program managers who work on more than one program and draw from the rest of the organization.
The second pillar is the Office of Engineering & Science, and will include Operations & Requirements Analysis, Systems Engineering & Standards, Technology Centers, Technology Scouting, Technology Transition, and Test & Evaluation. Bryan said this office will determine how to best satisfy capability gaps and requirements.
The third office, Innovation & Collaboration, will include Federally Funded Research & Development Centers, Industry and International Partnerships such as the Silicon Valley Innovation Program, outreach to national labs, and University Programs. Bryan described this office as the “toolbox” that the Office of Engineering & Science can use to bring resources to bear on solutions.
The Office of Enterprise Services will include support functions such as administration and communications, finance and budget, and the chief information office.
Bryan said all four offices are dependent on each other so they have to “work horizontally to manage the program effectively.”
The four offices will report to the deputy and undersecretary. A chief scientist will also report to Bryan and will oversee the work that is currently done by the Homeland Security Advanced Projects Agency (HSARPA). Patrick Carrick will be S&T’s chief scientist in addition to leading HSARPA.
Bryan said that HSARPA has never had the staff or resources needed to do advanced research.