As the DoD thinks through innovation, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) plays a critical role in pushing the edge of technology – something they’ve been doing for over 60 years. As the Senate Appropriations subcommittee meets to push the need for innovation in deterring adversaries, the Pentagon agrees but cites the need for partnerships with academia, partner nations, and the U.S. private sector technology industry. Whether your role is working directly for DARPA or a DoD contractor, it is a partnered approach to pushing the boundaries on technology development.
“At DARPA, we think not just about scientific and engineering innovation, though, but also about the ‘innovation ecosystem.’ That ecosystem includes many overlapping and adjacent communities from academia, industry and government,” Stefanie Tompkins, DARPA’s director said.
DARPA’s unique program management style of bringing in talent from outside the agency for a specific project helps to enrich both the agency and other organizations.
“DARPA has forged new paths and continues to deliver on our mission,” she said. Whether they’re fighting COVID-19 or making hypersonic technologies, DARPA provides an innovation incubator.
Contract Opportunities to Watch
| CACI | CACI won a five-year indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract with a ceiling value of $376 million with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). CACI will be providing mission technology support to improve and sustain a framework for organizing and sharing geospatial intelligence data. CACI will also be working on increasing capabilities with artificial intelligence and machine learning tools.
“CACI is proud to bring our strength in artificial intelligence and proven mission technology to NGA to enable actionable intelligence for their critical national security missions,” said CACI President and CEO John Mengucci. |
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Key Employer in the Cleared Industry
| Leidos | Growth is only possible when there have been successful leaders at the helm over the years, and Leidos continues to have leaders that put the organization on the trajectory of growth and success. Ready to join?
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Cleared Job of the Week
| Help Desk Specialist | Sometimes, one of the best ways to get your foot in the cybersecurity and IT door is through a help desk position. The help desk role is heavily searched on our sites, and there are around a thousand current, open positions. While not every role will look the same, all of them require at least a Secret clearance and a computer science or related field bachelor’s degree. Some jobs will require a certification in order to be hired; however, many will want allow you to get a CompTIA or Microsoft certification within six months of onboarding.
While it may be challenging to climb the career ladder while you are on the same contract, once you get on the job experience and prove your skills in problem solving, you open up more cyber jobs in the future. As you gain on the job experience and more certifications, you can either make jumps internally or leaps externally. While some love the stability of a help desk position long term, for others, the opportunity to grow both skills and compensation is too hard to pass up. Whatever your career trajectory, the help desk position is a great opportunity to work your way into the cleared, tech field.
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Growth Opportunities
One benefit of the world going online is the ability to pick up a new skill. And that’s what many have done this past year. While learning to make sourdough bread is a great investment of time, so is learning how to code. As the industry explodes in need, an easy way to learn a new skill is to take on classes that are now offered online.
“The demand for career transition is, anecdotally, at an all-time high,” Codeup CEO Jason Straughan says. “High unemployment numbers are certainly probably the leading culprit of people wanting to transition careers. And in the next ten years, the Department of Labor predicts we’re going to continue to outpace, in technology, all other jobs markets by almost five times.”
“We see people coming out getting jobs in the 40s, 50s, 60-thousand dollar a year,” Straughan says. “Some of them that have security clearance or previous experience getting above six figures right out of the gate.”
Straughan says that veterans make up about 30% of their student body, and with the GI Bill getting congressional approval for online classes, veterans have another way to squeeze more value out of their benefits. It’s also a great time for more women to get involved with programming, adding more diversity to the field. The demands will continue to grow, so adding coding skills to your resume will only help make you more marketable.
