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Pentagon Establishes New Cyber Workforce Incentive Framework

The program will take effect October 1.

The Pentagon has created a new incentive framework to encourage cyber professionals to master their skill sets. Credit: Gorodenkoff-stock.adobe.com

The Pentagon announced Wednesday that it is launching the Cyber Mastery Incentive Pay (C-MIP) program to incentivize the cyber workforce to diversify skill sets and pursue technical growth.

The program, which will take effect October 1, is part of the secretary of war’s U.S. Cyber Command 2.0 efforts to strengthen the cyber workforce and defense industrial base.

Katherine Sutton, assistant secretary of war for cyber policy and principal cyber adviser to the secretary of war, has spoken at Space Force IT Day and AFCEA International’s TechNet Cyber conference about the importance of cyber workforce retention and recruiting. Sutton will oversee the execution of the C-MIP framework.

According to a Pentagon press release, the C-MIP program will be a flexible and cumulative incentive framework, featuring two layers: skill incentive pay and special duty pay.

Skill incentive pay will reward individuals based on their technical skill level—basic, senior or master—established by U.S. Cyber Command.

Special duty pay will be a monthly incentive for individuals performing “exceptionally demanding” duties, as designated by U.S. Cyber Command. According to the release, this incentive applies to specialists who take on advanced cyber duties and serve as instructors and certified work role trainers.

“C-MIP fundamentally changes our approach by incentivizing the pursuit of deep, technical and career-long expertise,” Sutton said in the release. “By breaking down the bureaucratic norms of government incentives, this framework enables increased lethality by driving the skills, roles and duties most vital to mission success. New incentive frameworks normally take years to develop, but the CYBERCOM 2.0 team has driven this outcome in 60 days. This framework ultimately sends a clear signal to our cyber warriors that the department values the skills necessary to outpace and prevail against our nation’s adversaries by incentivizing service members’ commitment to cyber domain mastery.”