Defence and cyber hiring push

Washington is reopening money for defense startups and widening the government’s hiring and buying channels at the same time. (latimes.com) President Donald Trump signed the Small Business Innovation and Economic Security Act on Monday, restoring Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer funding that had lapsed in October after a congressional impasse. The Los Angeles Times reported the programs are a key source of capital for new aerospace and defense firms in Southern California and elsewhere. (latimes.com) At the Pentagon, the Army is pushing a faster route from prototype to field use through the Pathway for Innovation and Technology, or PIT. The Army Acquisition Support Center said on April 7 that PIT embeds acquisition staff with warfighting commands and is meant to compress timelines that once took years into months or weeks in areas such as artificial intelligence, hypersonics, counter-drone systems and secure communications. (dvidshub.net) In space, the Space Force’s “Front Door” portal now also routes commercial submissions to U.S. Space Command. Space Systems Command said April 13 that the system has logged more than 2,300 technology submissions from over 1,850 companies since its customer-relationship platform went live in September 2023. (ssc.spaceforce.mil) The hiring side is moving too. The Office of Personnel Management said April 13 that it opened applications for a new Information Cybersecurity Specialist role in the U.S. Tech Force, adding cyber to earlier tracks for software engineering, data science and product management. (content.govdelivery.com) Tech Force describes itself as a White House-backed, two-year program that aims to recruit about 1,000 technology specialists to work across agencies, including the Treasury Department and the Department of Defense. The program says participants will work in teams reporting directly to agency leadership and can come from fields including cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and technical project management. (techforce.gov) The common problem behind all four moves is time. Startup grants help small firms survive long federal sales cycles, PIT is meant to cut the “valley of death” between testing and deployment, Front Door reduces the number of separate space-industry entry points, and Tech Force is trying to fill skills gaps that agencies have struggled to staff through normal hiring. (latimes.com) (army.mil) (ssc.spaceforce.mil) (federalnewsnetwork.com) That push is also feeding a labor market around defense technology. Defense Tech Jobs circulated a list this week of 124 openings across the sector, giving engineers, operators and security specialists a snapshot of where demand is building as federal money and procurement access reopen. (defensetechjobs.com) The near-term test is whether these channels move faster than the old ones. The government has now restored startup funding, added a cyber recruiting lane, expanded a commercial space intake portal and told the Army to shorten acquisition timelines; the next measure is how quickly contracts, hires and deployed systems follow. (latimes.com) (dvidshub.net) (ssc.spaceforce.mil) (content.govdelivery.com)