Jason Bales is the chief technology officer at CACI International Inc., where he leads innovation strategies that align cutting-edge technology with mission-critical outcomes.
The competition for skilled technologists is fierce and growing. A recent survey shows 87% of technology leaders face hiring challenges, prompting Big Tech and startups to lean on compensation as a competitive advantage. But attracting top-tier engineers and innovators is about more than salary, it’s about purpose, adaptability, and a commitment to shaping the future.
According to a Gallup survey, employees with a strong sense of purpose at work are 5.6 times as likely to be engaged in their jobs as those with a low sense of purpose. In the national security space, purpose lies in the mission-driven work, supporting warfighters with innovative technology and frontline experience. Nearly 40% of our workforce are veterans, a testament to our culture of building a team who understands and connects with mission. By fostering an outcome mindset, we keep national security and the men and women who serve at the forefront of everything we do.
When you join CACI, the work goes beyond writing code and deploying systems, it’s about shaping outcomes that protect lives and strengthen our nation’s defense. Veterans bring operational insight, and we pair them with engineers and scientists who share that commitment. This alignment creates a culture where technology isn’t an end in itself, it’s a means to deliver mission success.
Closing capability gaps and novel applications of technology set us apart from both industry peers and Big Tech. Our teams are innovators focused on applying emerging technologies to our capabilities to enrich mission outcomes. For instance, with AI, we’re enhancing our existing technology, amplifying the impact of our developers, and enabling our workforce to deliver more capability, faster, without sacrificing quality or relevance.
This culture of adaptability and innovation has earned recognition beyond our walls. Our dedication to meaningful national security work has been honored with four Edison Awards, which recognize the world’s highest-level innovations, products, services, and business leaders.
To sustain this unique blend of mission-driven work and next-generation technology development, it is critical to cultivate future technologists that want to advance our programs and capabilities in the same vein. To do this, we take a holistic approach to recruitment and retention, from hiring talent to helping grow it. We invest in the roots of the industry by forging partnerships with universities like Virginia Tech and George Mason and assuming advisory roles shaping curricula.
Programs like our Virginia Tech Scholars initiative give students hands-on experience solving mission-relevant problems before they graduate. We also engage with service academies, providing training and resources that prepare future warfighters for the technologies they’ll encounter in the field. Ensuring young engineers and scientists are engaged and interested in national security work is a centerpiece of our talent acquisition strategy.
The bottom line: Attracting great people isn’t about outpaying Big Tech and start-ups, it’s about offering what they can’t: the chance to work with an unparalleled workforce driven by purpose, technological adaptability, and a commitment to shaping the future of the industry.