FBI campaigning to hire skilled technical employees over the next month

[RoadWarrior]

In a press release e-mailed to Ars, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced it would be running a campaign to attract highly skilled technical employees starting today. The campaign runs until January 20.

The Bureau said it will primarily be looking for scientists, engineers, and mathematicians “to work in high pressure and demanding team environments as Special Agents, Computer Scientists, Information Technology Specialists, and Engineers.” A “Cyber Internship” is also available to full-time students.

The Special Agent job listing uses the word “cyber” six times in four sentences, with passages like, "With private and public sector reliance on computer technology, cyber security is becoming more and more critical... FBI Special Agents with cyber skills combat global cyber threats, partner with international law enforcement, and protect the nation's critical cyber infrastructure.” The Computer Scientist listing is a bit more descriptive, "Computer Scientists work on squads alongside Special Agents investigating the most sophisticated cyber intrusions, malware attacks, and system exploitation cases. They are routinely called upon to support major cases in other areas including terrorism, counterintelligence, white-collar crimes, bank robberies, violent crimes, and child exploitation.”

The most well-compensated vacancy is for a computer scientist. It offers a starting salary at GS-13 (or General Schedule 13), a range of $71,674 to $93,175.

Ars contacted the FBI for more information about how many positions the organization seeks to fill and how big the hiring budget for the bureau is. We have not yet received a response, but we will update if we do.

Earlier this year, the FBI chief lamented that the bureau was having a tough time hiring cyber security experts because of its no-marijuana policy. "I have to hire a great work force to compete with those cyber criminals and some of those kids want to smoke weed on the way to the interview,” FBI Director James Comey told a New York City Bar Association meeting in May. Comey later backtracked from the comment, which many took as evidence of wanting to soften the policies. "I am absolutely dead-set against using marijuana,” he clarified.