The Cybersecurity Infrastructure and Security Agency (CISA) has officially embarked on a hiring push to bring in 329 new employees, with roughly 180 job offers expected to go out this month, according to acting CISA Director Nick Andersen.
Speaking at Axonius’ Adapt in Action event on June 9 in Washington, D.C., Andersen said the hiring effort is part of a broader push to modernize the agency by better integrating the agency’s cybersecurity, infrastructure security, and emergency communications missions.
“We’re focused on building a CISA for the future,” Andersen said. “We’re really taking a concerted effort right now, bringing all those missions together and saying, how is it that we balance our approach between cyber impacts, physical security impacts, and between our emergency communications resiliency mission?”
Andersen said Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Markwayne Mullin has supported the agency’s workforce expansion plans. DHS is the parent agency of CISA.
Notably, CISA has lost roughly one-third of its workforce since President Donald Trump took office in January 2025. Those losses came from reductions in force at the agency, as well as voluntary departures during the historic 76-day shutdown of DHS.
“I’m so grateful that the secretary has been supportive of us as we’ve embarked on a hiring plan to be able to bring on 329 new people,” Andersen said. “We’re moving apace to be able to bring them on now.”
“In very short order, I think we’re going to have 180 tentative job offers out by the end of this month,” Andersen said. “We’re going to have a whole lot of new colleagues joining us here at the CISA table.”
The hiring push comes as CISA continues to adapt to an increasingly complex cyber threat landscape, including attacks against critical infrastructure and the growing role of artificial intelligence (AI) in both cyber defense and cyber operations.
According to Andersen, ensuring that CISA maintains a robust workforce is essential as cyber threats continue to evolve rapidly.
“Making sure that we have a ready and available cyber defense agency for the nation is critical to the long-term success of our economic growth,” he said. “It’s key and critical to our long-term security, and it’s key and critical to the overall resilience of our nation’s infrastructure.”
Andersen also suggested that the rise of AI will change the types of skills CISA needs from both federal employees and industry partners.
Trump’s AI executive order, which he signed last week, puts “an awful lot of responsibility on the shoulders of agencies like CISA,” Andersen said.
Specifically, the order tasks several agencies – including the Department of Defense, Department of the Treasury, and CISA – with strengthening U.S. cyber defenses to address emerging threats posed by advanced AI capabilities.
“It provides a tremendous opportunity, but it’s really going to change the types of minimum skill sets that we need, both from our partners in industry and from our federal employees as they look to come on,” Andersen said of the order.
He added that “hiring, and the types of approaches that we take to capabilities are going to significantly change over the next couple of years.”
In response to the evolving AI landscape, Andersen also announced that CISA plans to release a new binding operational directive (BOD) this week.
“Keep your eyes peeled on cisa.gov tomorrow because this week we’re going to be releasing another binding operational directive,” Andersen said.
While he provided few specifics on the BOD, he said the directive will “change some of our approach to thinking about management of risk and management of vulnerabilities.”