I'm wondering if the intended assignments for these reserve officers would be for operational roles or in acquisitions/program management.

Historically there are a lot of revolving door style career moves, but usually from the direction of active duty officers going into industry roles. And in the last decade we've also seen the flow back in reverse direction (e.g. SecDef, technically a civilian office)

While it wouldn't apply to every person serving, it seems possible to have exposure to conflicts of interest if the person's civilian job directly intersects with the industry pool where systems are being developed and procured from.

It's a great idea. Leveraging the awesome power of the American civil tech economy is going to be very necessary as great power competition heats up.

I'm dubious of its scale and effects. Tech creates exponential value because of aggressive focus, iteration and critical mass of talent. The reserves seems very far from this.

The military isn't exactly a place for great minds to flourish.

"The department is considering asking chief technology officers and other senior tech professionals to take up high-ranking positions in the reserves."

This is some sort of consolidation of power.

Can the DoD guarantee that you'll never ever get sent overseas against your wishes ? People in the reserve and the Guard got sent to Iraq.

I'm not trying to sound snarky, but the armed forces does have a category of employees who can't be involuntarily deployed: civilians. There are already many civilian employees of the DoD that work in the tech roles discussed in the article.

Where to apply? Or is the door open on an invite-only basis?

I've been looking at this personally. It's not stated in the article, but the initiative is known as constructive service credit for cyber direct commissions.

The way it works is basically the same as reserve officer recruiting, but with a higher starting rank.

You'd get in contact with an officer recruiter for the service branch you're interested in, using the normal channels. They have a deserved reputation for ghosting candidates, but they generally spend most of their effort on candidates further down the pipeline. One recommendation I got was to get in touch with an enlisted recruiter who can confirm your eligibility to serve and refer you as a qualified lead to an officer recruiter.

Air Force officer appointments are the most competitive (3-10% of people who meet all application requirements and medical qualifications are selected), and they are stingy on medical waivers.

The Navy is only slightly less competitive but reputed to be the most permissive with waivers.

One thing to know is that waivers for medical issues are issued without regard to your nonmedical qualifications. So if Jeff Bezos had a bad knee, that would disqualify even him.

> The department is considering asking chief technology officers and other senior tech professionals to take up high-ranking positions in the reserves.

So rather than a recruiting pipeline for actual technical experts, they'll be recruiting linkedin "thought leaders." Good luck, I guess.

I don't trust that CTOs are trained for situations where retreat isn't an option.

Executives can always quit or declare bankruptcy if they screw up a company. Can't do that when you screw up a country.

Lol, pretty sure you can. See Afghanistan withdrawal, Iraq, Vietnam etc etc

Resigning as a bad government is a thing you can do.

In the middle of a conflict?

That is usually the end of the conflict.

Love that they're still calling themselves the Department of "Defense" even after Operation Northwoods leaked