OPM’s Next Workforce Bet: Pentagon Tech Hiring, AI Interviews and a New HR Model

The Office of Personnel Management is expanding its centralized recruiting strategy, testing new uses of artificial intelligence and continuing to digitize federal HR processes as the agency moves ahead with its broader HR 2.0 effort.

OPM Director Scott Kupor tells Fed Gov Today that one of the agency’s newest efforts takes the infrastructure created for Tech Force and adapts it to the Pentagon.

The new initiative is designed around a position Kupor describes as a “forward deployed engineer.”

He says the job combines traditional software engineering abilities with the ability to go to a location and implement technology directly.

The Pentagon is looking to hire up to 250 people for those positions, Kupor says, and OPM has already issued its first certificate of candidates.

Innovation in Government: DoDIIS 2026

From zero trust and artificial intelligence assurance to data-centric modernization and cyber intelligence, leaders from across the intelligence and defense communities are rethinking how technology supports the mission. Recorded at DoDIIS 2026, these conversations explore how government and industry are moving beyond collaboration toward deeper integration—while keeping security, trust, workforce readiness and operational outcomes at the center.

Beyond Governance: The New CDO Agenda

Data is no longer simply something federal agencies collect and govern—it is becoming the foundation for mission decisions, operational modernization and artificial intelligence. In this episode of Modernizing Government: The EY Insight, Marseta Dill, Acting Chief Data Officer at the Federal Aviation Administration, and Kamna Bohra, Senior Manager at EY, join Fed Gov Today host Francis Rose to examine the expanding role of the chief data officer. They discuss breaking down organizational silos, treating data as an enterprise asset, unlocking knowledge hidden in unstructured information and preparing agencies to use AI responsibly. The conversation reveals why the new CDO agenda extends far beyond governance—and into the design of the federal organization of the future.