The future of the intelligence workforce will center on STEM, diversity and flexibility, experts say

When Lindy Kyzer told her parents what she wanted to study in college, they didn’t think she would be able to find a job. 

“As a young person growing up in Iowa, nobody told me that I could support national security. My parents had no idea if I would ever be able to work when I majored in international affairs. They were positive I would be unemployable,” she said. “Maybe that's true, but look at me now. I'm on a webinar.”  

Now the director of content and public relations at clearancejobs.com, a job website for individuals with an active federal security clearance, Kyzer is attuned to helping talent find new roles in national security. 

In a Sept. 5 Intelligence and National Security Foundation webinar focused on development of the intelligence community’s workforce, Kyzer spoke with representatives from the government, private and non-governmental sectors who agreed that the future of that workforce will increasingly promote STEM expertise, workers from underrepresented backgrounds and more transitions between the public and private sectors.

STEM 

Jo-Ellen Adkins, the deputy director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s Human Development Directorate, said college students who want to work in intelligence and are majoring in a subject like political science should also get a certification in something related to science, technology, engineering and mathematics, more commonly known as STEM. 

“I'm looking right now at what we're hiring and what our strategic workforce plan is for the future. And I'm going to tell you this right now for NGA it is largely about STEM, STEM, STEM, STEM and STEM,” she said.  

Lauren Buitta — who founded and leads Girl Security, an organization that helps girls and women enter the national security workforce —  referenced a July report from the Aspen Strategy Group that argued a weak educational system is a national security risk. The document summarized how the U.S. can create and promote career pathways from K-12 into industries that are critical to technological competitiveness, 

“The findings are all the same, which is that we need to invest in better STEM education access earlier on for more young people,” she said, noting that her organization prioritizes teaching STEM skills. 

Diversity

Buitta warned that recent mishandling by intelligence agencies of sexual misconduct cases also is a recruitment issue. 

“There's no question that the IC has its challenges with respect to workplace safety issues,” she said. “Issues related to sexual violence, those stories make it to girls and women. They read those stories, they hear those stories.”  

The House Intelligence Committee in April issued an interim report that found the “CIA failed to handle allegations of sexual assault and harassment within its workforce in the professional and uniform manner that such sensitive allegations warrant.” 

She also lamented that opposition to diversity, equity and inclusion efforts could harm the national security workforce. 

“I feel like the DEI backlash has really cut short the opportunity to analyze a return of investment on what DEI — done in the way it's designed to do — can do for national security and giving the space for companies and institutions to actually measure the benefits of it,” she said. “I hope that despite all of the backlash that there's still space for us to be able to do that kind of work together.” 

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s annual demographic report for fiscal 2023 found that while the Intelligence Community has made strong gains in minority applicants, attrition has led to workforce diversity declines over the past two years.

The Private Sector

Adkins argued that intelligence employees transitioning between the government and business is not a bad thing. 

“The great ideas that are being worked on right now with ODNI is how do you move in and out of government? I love that concept. I love that idea,” she said. “The message shouldn't be you have to stay in the government or you have to be in the private sector. You should be able to move in and out.” 

As an example, she pointed to intelligence community public-private talent exchanges. Currently, ODNI is facilitating PPTE pilots in areas such as artificial intelligence, human capital and space. 

“I have this dream where we create sort of a civic model where people can serve across sectors,” Buitta said. “Because it really does showcase the actual way in which national security occurs — across the public and private sectors and sort of this collaboration.”