The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) has received approval for “surgical rehiring” to fill critical vacancies left after Pentagon-wide workforce reduction efforts, Lt. Gen. Paul Stanton, Cyber Defense Command commander and DISA director, said today during a media roundtable.
The reduction occurred as part of the Trump administration’s broader agenda to shrink the federal civilian workforce. Under that effort, the Defense Department – rebranded by the administration as the War Department – sought a 5% to 8% cut to its civilian ranks, a target that could affect up to 70,000 positions.
About 21,000 civilians have already departed through the Deferred Resignation Program and early retirements, with additional departures following a second round launched in April.
“DISA lost about 10% of its personnel,” Stanton said.
Before the cuts, DISA employed roughly 20,000 people, including about 6,800 civilian employees, 1,200 active-duty personnel, and more than 10,000 contractors.
However, the cuts left the agency with critical gaps in talent that agency leaders say must now be addressed.
Stanton said the agency will not be able to bring back individuals who left under the reduction initiatives but emphasized the need to selectively rehire specialists essential to agency operations.
“I received a very positive response from the Secretariat … based off of the requirements and criticality of our mission to perform what I refer to as surgical rehiring,” Stanton said. “There are very key positions … where [leaders] have come to me and said, ‘This is the position that I absolutely must have,’ and then that gets prioritized.”
“We have already hired a significant number of folks to fill those critical positions,” he added.
AI Steps in as DISA Works to Rebuild Talent
As DISA works to rebuild capability in critical areas, officials say the agency is also leaning on internal tools such as its emerging Concierge AI platform to support remaining staff.
Steve Wallace, DISA’s director of emerging technologies, said the workforce changes of the past year have opened opportunities to integrate the AI-driven support tools.
“We see this as a wonderful opportunity for us to help augment and enhance that workforce,” Wallace said. He said early results show that Concierge AI is “already bearing fruit” as teams explore how AI can help close capability gaps and enhance efficiency within DISA’s workforce.
DISA began piloting Concierge AI last year. The system draws from controlled unclassified information and uses large language models to produce answers for users. Wallace said about 50 use cases are in various stages of development, with adoption expanding through internal “road shows” that help organizations identify where AI can assist.
“We’re seeing uses wide ranging, uses that we would have never anticipated … writing reports, enhancing the writing of reports, cleaning up language. We’re seeing broad usage, some that we never expected,” Wallace said.