GSA Announces First Cohort of US Digital Corps

The General Services Administration has announced the first 40 members of the U.S. Digital Corps. These individuals will help develop a more effective and more secure digital government.

The U.S. Digital Corps is a two-year program that was launched in 2021 to hire technology experts who would work on key projects in five skill tracks. These are data engineering, data science and analytics, product management, design, and cybersecurity.

The members of the Digital Corps will support health, immigration, customer experience, service equity and other areas, the GSA said Tuesday.

The individuals were selected from a pool of over 1,000 applicants from 19 states and 37 academic institutions. The first cohort includes veterans, technologists and fresh graduates who just finished their certificate, undergraduate or graduate degree programs. Over 80 percent of the selected individuals are first-time federal employees.

According to GSA Administrator Robin Carnahan, the Biden administration wants to make it easier for prospective experts to serve the public. Dave Zvenyach, the director of the GSA’s Technology Transformation Services, shared that the program will improve government service delivery.

Applications for the second Digital Corps cohort will be opened later in 2022.

The U.S. Digital Corps is led by the GSA and is done in collaboration with the Office of Management and Budget, the Office of Personnel Management, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. It is funded by the Federal Citizen Services Fund, which is part of the American Rescue Plan.