Tech industry’s pain is NSA’s gain, cyber leader says about layoffs

The National Security Agency has seen a boost in its recruitment efforts following waves of layoffs at tech giants like Google and Microsoft, a senior official said on Tuesday.

“We’ve gotten some uptick,” NSA Director of Cybersecurity Rob Joyce said during an event at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

“What I would say is we got some people with an experience level we didn't often see,” according to Joyce. “We're seeing mid-career people looking to come to, one, the stability, but, two, also the opportunity to come into the intel community.”

He did not provide any specific figures. The pool of available talent has expanded in recent months, with the tech sector laying off tens of thousands of people.

Last week Bloomberg reported that Apple planned to eliminate an unspecified number of positions within the company's "corporate retail teams.” Amazon alone has laid off 27,000 employees. Meanwhile, Meta has cut 21,000, and Microsoft and Google have each laid off 10,000 workers.

The spy agency launched a hiring push in January and NSA talent management senior strategist Christine Parker told The Washington Times that it would look to scoop up qualified applicants.

Joyce, who joined the world’s largest intelligence agency straight out of college 34 years ago, conceded to being an NSA “lifer.”

“That's not unusual for NSA. The mission is spectacular,” he said. “The ability to just work with really smart people and work on hard, meaningful problems keeps people there. It’s great.”