BAE Systems and Manchester Community College are developing a pipeline for information technology and cybersecurity personnel who are trained initially at the school then hired into full-time positions at the defense and airospace manufacturer.
“It is extremely hard to fill these roles, and we are in constant competition with the Raytheon’s, the Lincoln Labs, the Northrop’s and so forth,” said Brian Mackey, BAE’s vice president of IT and security.
This program has just been an outstanding opportunity for us to develop some professionals like Irina.”
His reference was to Irina Mistrik, a program participant and full-time worker at BAE since the beginning of the year, who said, “It definitely is win-win, both for the company to breach this shortage of cybersecurity professionals, but also for the new generation of the cybersecurity students who want to achieve their dreams and do something that actually matters.”
A range of companies in the state have had longstanding direct relationships with the Community College System of New Hampshire for the specific purpose of educating and training individuals for specific jobs at those companies.
Great Bay Community College in Ports mouth, for instance, established a satellite campus in 2017 to produce specially skilled workers for Safran and Albany Engineered Composites at their Rochester facilities in the production of composite engine components for commercial airplanes.
Other examples throughout the state abound, including BAE. In 2016, BAE established a Microelectronics Boot Camp pipeline program with Nashua Community College.
BAE Systems is a global defense contracting company with a wide scope of services encompassing aircraft, munitions, vehicles and other items.
Here in the Granite State, BAE employs some 6,500 employees at facilities in Manchester, Nashua, Merrimack, and Hudson.
The company says its NH-based business is a world leader in electronic warfare, providing critical technology to the U.S. Department of Defense and its allies, including EW systems for the F-35 fighter jet and classified programs.
BAE’s computer network requires a high level of oversight and security, given the number of military applications that the company is working on.
“We have literally hundreds and hundreds, if not thousands, of classified environments that are heavily regulated by the government,” Mackey said. “We literally endure hundreds of compliance reviews a year by the federal government. These are highly sensitive programs, doing a lot of really amazing things for a war fighter every day, but it’s important that we ensure that we safeguard those properly.”
The two-year program with Manchester Community College is meant to prepare, train and certify students to work in that environment.
Four students are currently part of the program, and BAE hopes another four will participate next year.
The locations of where the students ultimately work is fluid, according to the company. Among the current cohort of four, two are assigned to BAE’s Canal Street location in Nashua, and two others are assigned to the Manchester campus.
“Certainly, as it continues to show a lot of promise and progress, and both sides are happy, and things have gone well based on some of our conversations, we’ll certainly look to expand that,” Mackey said.
Mistrik developed an interest in IT systems and cybersecurity as a result of the Equifax data breach in 2017.
“I, myself, was the identity theft victim. I thought that we’ve got to do something, and I thought that this is a very much-needed career,” she said. “Businesses need cybersecurity professionals to help mitigate the risk and come up with some sort of feasible solutions to protect the private data, people, the assets, intellectual property and everything like that.”
A graduate of MCC in 2023, Mistrik has been a full-time information system security officer at BAE for eight months.
A benefit of the program, besides the education and training, is acquiring the security clearance necessary to work in a military-contractor environment like BAE.
“This brings an opportunity for individuals like Irina to get cybersecurity training, but also in parallel, be sponsored and work towards a government security clearance” Mackey said.
“This is definitely a wonderful platform to broaden the skills, to get the necessary training, and most importantly, to contribute to the company’s mission,” Mistrik said.
For BAE, it’s one way to help fill hard-to-fill cybersecurity jobs.
“This partnership allows that early onset of getting a clearance in parallel with the training, so they come out of the program with the degree, they’ve got some on-the-job training, they’ve been sponsored in parallel with their clearance,” Mackey said. “It makes them that much more marketable as a cybersecurity professional, and as a company, we can get them to work on day one.”
