Since September 11, 2001 the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) has become an organization with analysts who are expected to know something about everything all the time. They provide persistent surveillance of potential enemies of the U.S., says Fred Wong, chief of the DIA office for human resources.
"We have become a combat support agency, and are working to redefine what an intelligence officer is and what a support officer is," Wong says. "We are now true all-source analysts."
That, he explains, means "taking telemetry, imagery, human intelligence and more, and bringing it all together to connect the dots. We call it Ôrapid transformation of information to knowledge through responsive analysis.' We want to be able to do that on demand."
And that, he says, is where IT folks come in. "Our information management approach must support the shift from simple data collection to data exploitation and predictive analysis."
The DIA is part of the Department of Defense. It works with the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency and others in the intelligence community.
About 65 percent of the workforce of 7,500 is civilian, working on a performance-based promotion system, and 35 percent is military. Wong sees a strong need for IT pros, scientists, physicists, mathematicians and engineers, especially civil, structural and mechanical.
"Our focus is on foreign militaries and potential enemies. We try to find out what makes them tick, what they have and where they have it," Wong says.
One expanding technology area is the search for underground structures. "Our adversaries have found shelter in camouflaged underground facilities, not very visible or detectable from overhead platforms like satellites. If we determine that our potential adversaries are doing that, then we try to find out where they are, how deep and what it will take to get to them," Wong says.
The agency is growing. "Since September 11 our core business has gotten a lot of interest in Congress and elsewhere. We are working hard to recruit the right people for all the positions we need to fill," Wong notes.
About 600 people have been added over the last two years. Wong says there will be a "fairly significant increase over that for 2004," possibly more than double, and up to a third of the new people will have IT skills.
In recruiting, "We are very, very much into diversity," Wong says. "If we are going to be worldwide and focused outside the U.S., we need people who look like the people we are working with, who are able to speak the language and understand the customs, courtesies and nuances of living there.
"We are definitely interested in foreign languages, and we pay a premium for them," Wong notes. Some of the most sought-after languages are Farsi, Arabic, Dari, Pashtu, Hindi, Chinese and Korean.
Last year the DIA participated in nearly seventy-five recruiting events and technical society meetings, many of them diversity-related. Recruiters attend regional and national events of the NAACP, the Organization of Chinese Americans and the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers.
The agency aims for a 33 percent representation of minorities among each year's new hires, and a minimum of 2 percent for people with disabilities. The goal for new female employees is 50 percent. Employees must be U.S. citizens, either born or naturalized, and able to obtain top secret security clearances. They must also be drug-free.
Networking groups at DIA include a Blacks In Government chapter and organizations for women, Hispanics, Asians and Native Americans.
As part of its recruiting, the DIA has a high school outreach program in Washington, DC that specializes in science and technology. The program emphasizes the critical skill categories the agency needs. "We want young people to start thinking early about a career choice, and to give them keys to a door they might not have been aware of before," Wong says.
The agency also hosts college juniors - fifty-three this year - as summer interns, and has a part time work program for students from several nearby colleges.
Besides Washington, DC, DIA employees are located at the Missile and Space Intelligence Center at Redstone Arsenal (Huntsville, AL) and at the Armed Forces Medical Intelligence Center (Fort Detrick, MD). Military attachés also work in embassies worldwide while reporting to the agency's director.
The agency operates the Joint Military Intelligence Training Center (JMITC) to train agency personnel and members of the military service, as well as employees from other parts of the intelligence community. JMITC also offers some 4,000 online courses.
"We put people on the road to do training for the combatant commanders - classes on subjects like terrorism or chemical and biological warfare," Wong adds.
The agency also runs the Joint Military Intelligence College, an accredited school that offers a BS in intelligence and an MS in strategic intelligence. Courses are open to the intelligence community, members of government and the military. Supervisors at DIA "are encouraged to let their people take classes even during duty hours, because they're held right here," Wong says.
DIA is currently revamping its formal mentoring program. And this year it began a multi-year workforce planning effort, focusing renewed attention on strategic staffing and recruitment, succession planning, career/professional development and training, compensation and performance management. New initiatives, says Wong, "should be rolling out here fairly soon."
To become part of all this, applicants are encouraged to submit their resumes electronically. Entry-level candidates go through an agency hiring board which finds the best place for their skills; applicants with experience must apply for a specific position that's posted on the agency's website: www.dia.mil.
"This is an exciting place to be," Wong says. "Our people are really working hard, and the surveys say they like the mission and the contribution they're making to keep America safe. There's a lot going on, and these are exciting times."
D/C
Defense Intelligence Agency
www.dia.mil
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Headquarters: |
Washington, DC |
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Employees: |
7,500 |
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Business: |
To provide timely, objective
and cogent military intelligence to
warfighters, defense planners and
defense and national security
policymakers |
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