The Trump administration has launched a new “US Tech Force” recruitment drive to bring about 1,000 technology specialists into two-year federal roles spanning software engineering, AI, cybersecurity and data analytics, according to OPM Director Scott Kupor and the program’s public application site.
The program is designed to sell federal tours as career accelerators, not lifetime government moves, by pairing agency placements with post-service pathways back into industry via participating companies.
Tech Force’s site says participants will work in teams reporting to agency leadership for two years and, after completing the program, “can seek employment” with partnering private-sector companies for potential full-time roles.
OPM listed Apple, Google Public Sector and Nvidia among the initial private-sector partners that have pledged to consider program alumni. Kupor said to reporters that the companies have not made firm agreements to hire alumni, but the administration is pitching the program as a credible bridge between federal work and private-sector careers.
For agencies, the bet is that a two-year tour matches how modernization work actually happens: long enough to ship real systems, short enough to reduce the opportunity cost that keeps senior engineers away.
Kupor said that recruits will be assigned to specific projects, including building a digital platform for the administration’s savings accounts for children. Tech Force’s site also positions the work as “large-scale civic and defense challenges,” including financial infrastructure at Treasury and programs at DoD.
Kupor contrasted the push with the Biden-era “National AI Talent Surge.” Reuters reported that the earlier effort brought in about 200 hires and that roughly 75 remain in government roles, underscoring the retention problem the new program is trying to route around.
The news comes after Intel named Robin Colwell, then serving as deputy director of the National Economic Council, as head of government affairs.