The federal government is relying on the power of its personal appeal to win cybersecurity experts over from high paying private sector jobs, a Pentagon official said on Thursday.
“There’s one thing that the Defense Department, the intelligence community, the other areas of our government can pull on, and that’s the mission,” said Aaron Hughes, deputy assistant defense secretary for cyber policy, at an event sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor.
“You can’t get this mission anywhere else, in the legal context, to be able to do computer network operations. I think there is a strong affinity across [America] from people who have those computer skills, that hacking talent, that they want to be a part of that mission,” Hughes added.
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Defense officials and cybersecurity officials have lamented the difficulty of recruiting staff in the tech field because of competition with the private sector, which generally pays more and offers a quicker hiring process with fewer hassles. An April report from the Partnership for Public Service and Booz Allen Hamilton indicated that junior level software engineers in the government get paid an average of $8,000 to $14,000 less than their private sector counterparts, while those at the senior level get paid $24,000 to $33,000 less.
Hughes acknowledged the differential. “Obviously, they can make more money elsewhere, but the degree to which we can present an interesting mission for them to work on is key. In terms of recruiting talent, I think we [need to] make sure that folks are aware of that mission.”
Adm. Mike Rogers, head of the National Security Agency, struck a similar note during a hearing of the Senate Intelligence Committee last week.
“It’s the sense of serving something bigger than yourself. That’s the advantage that we have. That’s not something you can easily replicate on the outside,” Rogers told the committee. “It’s that sense of mission, that sense of purpose, that ethos of culture and compliance, I think, that is our greatest advantage.”
However, Hughes said the hiring process could be simplified, saying, “I think that we are trying to evaluate different hiring authorities that can help the permeability of forces and people between government, military and industry, and make it easier to go back and forth between those different silos.
“I think we need to continue to evolve that we can sustain the best cyberforce in the world going forward,” Hughes said.
