Technical Talent Strategies to Build Capacity, Accelerate Priorities, and Drive Change
Summary
The Biden-Harris Administration is confronting multiple challenges that require a coordinated, innovative, and flexible response by the federal government. The recently released FY22 President’s budget sets a solid foundation for leveraging the capacity of the federal workforce, along with necessary science, technology and innovation expertise from the private sector, to meet the challenges ahead.
However, hollowed out agencies and technical skills gaps mean agencies lack the capacity to implement needed programs. Agencies have to rapidly scale up personnel, ensure they have the necessary skills, and implement underutilized hiring mechanisms to fill out talent gaps.
While the goals laid out in the budget will allow agencies to address climate, continue to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, rebuild the economy, and increase equity across government programs and services, it requires a sustained focus on building and hiring diverse expertise to accelerate progress on these initiatives – which increasingly rely on modernized IT infrastructure and equitable delivery of services.
This is an historic opportunity, driven by critical need, to focus on driving systemic change across government to equip all federal agencies with the capacity required to build back better while bolstering and reinvigorating the federal talent pipeline.
The following proposals are offered as ways to tackle hiring challenges, build a diverse technical talent pipeline, and continue to rebuild the public trust in government and interest in serving. The Day One Project and its partners stand ready to assist in fleshing out and supporting the proposals below.
As cyber threats grow more complex and sophisticated, the nation’s ability to defend itself depends on developing a robust, adaptable, and highly skilled cybersecurity workforce.
For the United States to continue to be a competitive global power in technology and innovation, we need a workforce that understands how to use, apply, and develop new innovations using AI and Data Science.
Students, families and communities want and need more STEM learning experiences to realize the American Dream, and yet they cannot access them. Prioritizing STEM education must be an urgent priority for the federal government and the Department of Education.
The Department of Education must provide guidance for education decision-makers to evaluate AI solutions during procurement, to support EdTech developers to mitigate bias in their applications, and to develop new fairness methods.