Pentagon opens applications for cyber apprenticeship program
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DOD Chief Information Officer Kirsten Davies said last month that the apprenticeship had “already generated more than 70,000 inquiries” since it was first announced in late April.
The Department of Defense announced this week that it officially opened the application window for its Cyber Registered Apprenticeship Program, a new initiative to onboard more skilled cybersecurity professionals into its workforce.
DOD’s Office of the Chief Information Officer, which is directing the program, said on Monday that the job posting is now open through July 17 on the government’s USAJobs hiring site. The annual salary for the apprenticeship is listed as $22,584.
Cyber RAP, as the pilot is being called, was first announced in late April by the Pentagon. The 12-month apprenticeship is designed, in large part, to prioritize skills-based hiring over academic experience — part of a broader Trump administration push to place greater emphasis on experience over educational requirements in the federal hiring process.
“This program bypasses traditional academic gatekeeping to value what truly matters: raw aptitude, patriotic drive, and hands-on capability over traditional academic credentials,” DOD Chief Information Officer Kirsten Davies said in a statement. “By unlocking this untapped potential, we are actively forging America's elite cyber workforce of the future from the ground up."
In a recent interview with Nextgov/FCW, Davies said President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth “have given us a mandate to really get after skills-based training,” and added that she has also worked to eliminate degree requirements “because if threat actors can be script kiddies and teenagers, then we need to be employing great skills where the skills are and figuring out how to incorporate them.”
The Cyber RAP posting only requires that candidates be over 18 years of age, are U.S. citizens and have the ability to obtain and maintain a government security clearance. The pilot trains apprentices for entry-level DOD positions, including as cyber defense analysts, cyber defense infrastructure support specialists and cyber defense incident responders.
The program includes two developmental tracks with different academic requirements, which the department said are designed “to accommodate different agency missions and standards.”
DOD says “the core Technical Specialist Pathway focuses on rapid, hands-on technical skill acquisition for general [Pentagon] civilian cyber roles and explicitly does not require a college degree,” while “the Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC) Agency Pathway is tailored for specialized placements within the DMDC and requires candidates to hold an accredited degree to meet that specific agency's qualification standards.”
Speaking at the SAP NOW summit in Washington, D.C., last month, Davies said that the apprenticeship had “already generated more than 70,000 inquiries,” even though it had not yet been officially launched.