The question in that WashingtonExec headline is the right one, but the article itself didn’t load for me—just a security checkpoint. Still worth addressing, because I hear versions of it in every retained engagement we run for cleared C-suite and senior technical leaders.
The technologies reshaping delivery teams and mission systems aren’t usually the ones getting keynote time at conferences. They’re the orchestration layers, the zero-trust enforcement points, the CI/CD pipelines that finally work in air-gapped environments, and the identity fabric connecting legacy and modern stacks without becoming the next breach vector. Passive candidates with track records in those areas—especially those who’ve done it at TS/SCI or higher—know their value. They’re not looking, but they’ll take the call if the mission and the team are real.
When we map the market for these roles, fit matters more than résumé length. A leader who’s instrumented observability across a hybrid mission system or stood up a software factory in a SCIF brings something a generalist can’t. The search gets narrow fast, and that’s fine—it should.