Career Fields

If you want to get the best value for the resources spent, you can have a big impact on the Intelligence Community. You'll manage the whole life cycle of contracts for goods and services, from planning and execution to administration and closeout—all to support a mission of keeping the nation safe. You will interact with customers to solicit and evaluate proposals, conduct cost or price analysis and implement acquisition strategies. You may research and evaluate potential contractors or vendors to determine the best fit with government needs, considering capabilities and costs. You may manage contracts of several types and dollar values, ranging from simplified purchases to multimillion-dollar awards. Depending on the role, you may need to know about Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR).

Who we hire:

• Acquisition specialists
• Contracting specialists
• Contracting officers
• Grants officers

This includes business, accounting, budget, human resources and general administrative support.

As a business professional in the Intelligence Community, you will help the business side of intelligence run smoothly. Just like a commercial business, we need to hire and train good employees, administer benefits, manage budgets, negotiate contracts, forecast spending and communicate with a wide range of stakeholders. With your support in these areas, we are positioned to provide the intelligence our leaders need to make well-informed decisions. Business, accounting, budgeting and general administrative support are critical services in the Intelligence Community.

Who we hire:

• Accountants
• Administrative management specialists
• Benefits specialists
• Contracting specialists
• Human resource specialists
• Instructional design specialists
• Instructors
• Program officers

As a computer scientist in the Intelligence Community, you will solve complex problems, test innovative approaches and research new solutions to storing, manipulating and presenting information. You should know how to apply the theoretical models of computer science to complex system architecture and system software organization challenges. Apply your computer science expertise to projects that seek to create new standards for the transformation of information.

Who we hire:

• Computer scientists
• Information technology specialists
• Information technology operations specialists
• Network vulnerability analysts
• Software engineers
• Web engineers

Working in words or images, online or print, you know how to articulate ideas and craft communication products that tell a story. Whether your specialty is visual communication, writing, editing or web development, you will facilitate internal or external communication to achieve Intelligence Community goals. You will become a part of a team that oversees communicating vital information to multiple audiences.

Who we hire:

• Communications operations specialists
• Editors
• Graphic designers
• Public affairs specialists
• Publications officers
• Technical editors
• Writers
• Visual information specialists

All agencies in the Intelligence Community have a role to play in our cyber landscape. Your next career could be focused on a defensive mission, helping to protect U.S. information systems from cyberattacks, or it could be focused on an offensive mission, gathering intelligence from foreign adversaries and preventing them from using their systems to attack us. No matter where you start, you will study many sides of cyber and move from one agency to another to expand your skill sets.

As technology evolves and cyber actors become more skilled, the threat to the nation will only grow. We are at the forefront of cybersecurity, and we need your help to keep us there.

Who we hire:

• All-source analysts
• Capabilities defense specialists
• Computer network defense analysts
• Computer network operators
• Information assurance engineers
• Information systems security specialists
• Technical counterintelligence officers

Every agency collects, analyzes and shares data from a wide range of sources from every corner of the globe. The greatest challenge is not finding data but wrangling and analyzing the endless amounts of information already available. We need to retrieve, combine and analyze this data to picture current and future events accurately.

That's why data science professionals in the Intelligence Community have opportunities that rarely are matched in the private sector. Depending on your skill set, you may manipulate and analyze large datasets to find patterns and relationships, develop computational algorithms and statistical methods to create reusable, repeatable operations or communicate findings with decision-makers in the Intelligence Community, the federal government, Congress and the U.S. military. Whatever road you choose, you will immerse yourself in big data analytics, machine learning, natural language processing, predictive analytics and specialized data operations that won't be matched elsewhere.

We look at a wide range of quantitative degrees in data science candidates.

• Computer science
• Computer engineering
• Data analytics
• Mathematics
• Statistics
• Operations research
• Physics
• Quantitative social science

You will use state-of-the-art methods to develop and administer training courses and curricula that address the developmental needs of all Intelligence Community employees. Along with creating and presenting new courses, you will review course content to ensure that our programs are up-to-date and that we are creating a learning environment that is conducive to the success of each learner. You will keep each member of our workforce at the forefront of their chosen field with a fulfilling career in education and training.

Who we hire:

• Education specialists
• Education technicians
• Instructors
• Instructional design specialists
• Learning development specialists
• Training instructors

All intelligence agencies collect, analyze and share data from a wide range of sources spanning across the globe. Depending on your skills, you may translate, transcribe and report foreign intelligence, research foreign intelligence targets and how they operate, craft written assessments of foreign intelligence that provide insight into foreign target intentions or design and develop products to enhance understanding of mission-critical foreign languages.

Depending on your experience level and the agency you choose, you may enter a foreign language development program, which combines office tours, classroom training and computer-based training to rapidly sharpen your language skills and expertise.

A solid understanding of world events and foreign targets is critical to every mission. If you have a deep knowledge of foreign languages, dialects, contexts and cultural overtones, you can provide federal and military decision-makers with the intelligence they need.

Our critical language needs are Russian, Chinese, Arabic, Persian, Korean and Spanish.

Who we hire:

• Foreign language advisors
• Foreign language translators, interpreters and liaisons
• GEOINT analysts
• Language analysts
• Scientific linguists

You will work on a team that performs facilities designs and technical services in support of the intelligence mission. Designing physical facilities, preparing engineering calculations and drawings or analyzing HVAC, air distribution and piping systems are some of the opportunities available. Start or continue a career where the facilities are specialized to meet a critical mission.

Who we hire:

• Environmental protection specialists
• Equipment specialists
• Facilities engineers
• Facilities manager
• Facilities operations specialists
• Logistics management specialists
• Logistics officer
• Supply management specialists

Intelligence analysis is a fascinating field that offers intellectual stimulation, career mobility and deep satisfaction in knowing you play a role in keeping our country safe. You can turn raw data into actionable intelligence. You will evaluate information from multiple sources, monitor trends and interpret events related to specific countries or issues. The final output of intelligence analysis is a carefully crafted intelligence report that provides political and military leaders with the information they need to make critical decisions. Skills central to the profession include analytical thinking and logical reasoning, the ability to write clear, concise reports and the ability to objectively analyze all sides of any given issue.

What kind of jobs are available in this field?

• All-source analysts
• Intelligence analysts (general, economics, scientific and technical, geographic/regional)
• GEOINT analysts (imagery intelligence)
• GEOINT analysts (photogrammetric image science)
• Intelligence operations specialists (counterintelligence)
• Intelligence operations specialists (DOMEX digital forensic analyst)

As an intelligence collector, you collect the vital information needed to produce intelligence. You will use your exceptional interpersonal skills, high-level training and professional talents to collect intelligence anywhere in the world. You may use your proficiency in a foreign language or learn a new language as part of this career. You have a knack for the art of persuasion, negotiation, interviewing and problem-solving and can work in ambiguous and unstructured situations.

Who we hire:

• Intelligence collection experts
• Intelligence research specialists
• GEOINT analysts
• Intelligence specialists
• Access analysts and system architects

As an inspection, investigation and compliance professional, you make sure proper adherence to all appropriate standards, rules and regulations. Inspection professionals examine facilities, equipment and procedures to ensure compliance with standards and make recommendations for improvement. Investigation professionals conduct detailed investigations, ranging from employment suitability to performing independent reviews of personnel-related incidents. Compliance professionals review numerous processes and procedures to make sure all efforts follow appropriate standards, rules and regulations.

Who we hire:

• Administrative investigators
• Compliance officers
• Financial auditors
• Investigators
• Inspectors
• Quality assurance specialists

The Intelligence Community operates in an extremely complex arena that is governed by international and domestic laws, rules, regulations and standards. As a law and legal service professional, you will use your knowledge of the law and applicable standards, rules and regulations to advise leadership and guide policymakers on the legal issues facing us today and in the future.

What kind of jobs are available in this field?

• Attorneys
• Law clerks
• Legal technicians
• Legislative affairs liaisons
• Intelligence oversight officers
• Paralegal specialists

Medical professionals in the Intelligence Community perform medical evaluations, laboratory analyses and even pharmaceutical care. Our occupational health professionals ensure that the conditions at work are safe and will not adversely affect the well-being of employees. This includes evaluating workspaces to make sure conditions meet health and efficiency standards and amending issues that negatively impact an employee's health or ability to work.

Who we hire:

• Clinical psychologists
• Environmental health and industrial hygienists
• Medical advisors
• Nurses
• Pharmacists
• Physicians
• Professional counselors
• Safety and occupational health managers

Security professionals in the Intelligence Community protect the people, information, facilities and the systems that protect our nation. We have positions at all levels of the security profession, from police officers, criminal investigators and polygraph examiners to information security specialists and security analysts. We depend on security forces to protect our employees and agencies. Our personnel must be safe, and our classified information must remain protected. As a security professional in the IC, you will keep our operation safe from internal and external threats.

Who we hire:

• Area security officers
• Criminal investigators
• Information security specialists
• Physical security specialists
• Police officers (general and K9)
• Polygraph examiners
• Security analysts

Professionals in science, technology, engineering and mathematics are critical to the progression of the intelligence profession. We have positions in every phase of the technical life cycle: defining requirements, engineering and design, development and testing and operations. If you prefer research, we have state-of-the-art research facilities that tackle the most complex problems to push technology to new and superior heights. The Intelligence Community holds hundreds of patents on technical inventions. Every day we pave the way for more, and with your help, we will remain the most technically advanced intelligence operation in the world.

Who we hire:

• Computer network operators
• Computer scientists
• Information system security managers
• Mathematicians
• Physical scientists
• Physicists
• Software engineers
• Systems engineers