WASHINGTON — The Navy has received scores of applications for a new effort to recruit commercial technology professionals into the Navy Reserve’s Navy Innovation Unit (NIU), following in the footsteps of similar initiatives from the Army and Marine Corps.
The Navy announced a search to recruit commercial technology experts into the unit on June 12, and said it’s seeking those with experience in cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, autonomous and unmanned systems, among other things. Specifically, the Navy said it wants senior engineers, software architects, and other technical leaders for the new unit.
“We’ve gotten over 200 applications for the direct commission officer program as it stands right now, and a lot of these are senior executives from the names you’d recognize, both on the traditional tech scene, whether it’s from hyperscalers or defense primes, all the way down to some of the vibey startups in El Segundo, in Austin, and elsewhere,” Benjamin Kohlmann, assistant secretary of the Navy for Manpower and Reserve Affairs, told Breaking Defense.
The program mirrors efforts from the Marine Corps, which activated the Marine Innovation Unit in 2023 to pull civilian talent into the service’s Reserve force in an effort to deploy advanced capabilities.
