In today’s tech talent landscape, recruiters are constantly seeking untapped talent pools with specialized skills. One significant opportunity is emerging as the U.S. federal government undergoes unprecedented workforce restructuring. While this transition creates challenges for government employees, it presents a unique opportunity for tech companies to identify and recruit highly skilled professionals with specialized experience.
The Current Landscape
The U.S. federal government is currently experiencing significant workforce changes (i.e., DOGE), creating a pool of talent with rare and unique skills. These professionals bring unique perspectives, specialized training, high level clearances and experience working on complex systems at massive scale. These qualities can provide immense value to tech organizations across a broad variety of industries.
For recruiters in the technology sector, understanding where to look within government agencies and how to effectively source these candidates can significantly enhance your talent pipeline with professionals who possess hard-to-find skill sets and security credentials.
Where to Look: Key Government Agencies
Several federal agencies employ professionals with skills directly transferable to the tech industry:
18F – This digital services agency within the Technology Transformation Services department of the GSA helps other government agencies build, buy, and share technology products.
CYBERCOM – The U.S. Cyber Command directs, synchronizes, and coordinates cyberspace planning and operations to defend national interests in collaboration with domestic and international partners.
Department of Defense (DOD) – The DOD manages vast, complex systems requiring significant engineering talent to develop, maintain, and secure their technology infrastructure. Their software engineers are trained to build resilient, secure applications that operate under extreme conditions.
National Security Agency (NSA) – Focused on global monitoring, collection, and processing of information for intelligence purposes, the NSA employs experts in data science, cryptography, and large-scale systems engineering.
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) – As the nation’s cybersecurity defense agency, CISA employs specialists with advanced skills in vulnerability assessment, network defense, and critical infrastructure protection.
Military Branches (and associated defense contractors) – The Army, Navy, and Air Force employ a variety of technologists with highly developed operational skills in high-pressure environments, including software development, network administration systems engineering and cyber security.
Why Government Talent Matters
While government agencies are often secretive about their mission and operations, they employ professionals with skills directly relevant to the tech sector. These include software engineers, cybersecurity specialists (both defensive and offensive), threat intelligence analysts, and data scientists.
Government professionals bring unique advantages:
- Experience working with complex systems at massive scale
- Advanced security clearances
- Proven ability to work in structured environments
- Experience managing critical infrastructure
- Specialized training in areas like cryptography, threat analysis, and secure systems design
How to Source Government Talent
Sourcing former or current government employees requires tailored approaches that account for the classified nature of their work:
Traditional Boolean Searches – Focus on combining agency/sector keywords with specific skill sets. Consider that government job titles may differ from industry equivalents, and skills may be described using government-specific terminology.
For Example: (“DOD” OR “NSA” OR “18F” OR “18 F” OR “18-f” OR “CyberCOM” OR “CISA”) AND (“software engineer” OR “network engineer” OR “cyber security”)
Clearance-Focused Searches – Security clearance levels can indicate specialized experience. Include terms like:
- TS/SCI (Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information)
- FSP/Full Scope Poly (Polygraph)
- CI/Counter-Intelligence Poly
For Example: (“TS/SCI” OR “FSP” OR “full-scope poly” OR “CI-Poly” OR “Top Secret/SCI”)
Radial Location Searches – Identify the geographic locations of key agencies (i.e., NSA (Fort Meade / Annapolis Junction) or CIA (Langley, VA), NGA (Springfield, VA), NRO(Chantilly, VA) and Space Force (Arlington, VA) and conduct radius searches combined with relevant skill parameters.
For Example: Consider a search for Cyber Security engineers in Maryland
- Location (Set location to (“can have” & “current” in drop down) for: Annapolis Junction-MD, Linthicum-MD, Annapolis-MD and Bethesda in order to capture the bulk of candidates living near specified agencies.
- Clearance: (“TS/SCI” OR “FSP” OR “full-scope poly” OR “CI-Poly” OR “Top Secret/SCI”)
- Keywords: As you are targeting folks at secretive agencies, you will need to start broadly and then narrow down (i.e., “Security Engineer” OR “Security Architect” OR “CISSP”).
- Government Terminology – Incorporate government-specific language into your Boolean strings, including rank designations, clearance levels, unit names, agency abbreviations, and branch identifiers.
- Additional: If these searches are not yielding the desired results, you can pivot and target defense contracts in the local region (heavily impacted by DOGE).
- Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, Booz Allen Hamilton, Palantir, Leidos, BAE & General Dynamics.
Boolean Search Example
Here’s a practical example of how to structure a search for cybersecurity professionals from government agencies:
(“NSA” OR “National Security Agency” OR “CYBERCOM” OR “Cyber Command” OR “CISA” OR “DOD” OR “CIA” OR “Central Intelligence Agency” OR “FBI” OR “Federal Bureau of Investigation” OR “CNMF” OR “Cyber National Mission Force” OR “AFCyber” OR “18F” OR “CISA”) AND (“TS/SCI” OR “Top Secret” OR “FSP” OR “Full Scope Poly” OR “Polygraph”) AND (“cybersecurity” OR “cyber security” OR “threat intelligence” OR “vulnerability assessment” OR “penetration testing” OR “security operations” OR “red team” OR “blue team”)
This approach allows you to target professionals with specific security backgrounds while capturing the variety of ways their experience might be described. The keyword search above (set to Maryland) yielded 4,400 results with 39% actively “open to work”. If you remove the clearance requirements from the Boolean string the results increase to 19k candidates with 41% actively “open to work”.
Conclusion
As the federal government undergoes workforce changes, tech companies have an opportunity to access specialized talent with unique skills and experience. By understanding where to look, why these professionals bring value, and how to effectively source them, recruiters can significantly enhance their talent acquisition strategies.
The key to success lies in adapting your sourcing approach to account for the classified nature of government work, utilizing government-specific terminology, and recognizing the transferable skills these professionals bring to the tech industry. With thoughtful sourcing strategies, you can tap into this valuable talent pool and bring unique perspectives and specialized capabilities to your organization.