ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. -- Air Force Reservists and units are leveraging GigEagle, the Department of Defense’s newest Artificial Intelligence-powered joint talent marketplace, to connect skilled talent with needs across the command and department in a push for talent agility.
"I think this is a game changer for the Reserve and the Air Force," said Col. Michael Parks, commander of the 94th Airlift Wing, Dobbins Air Reserve Base, Georgia. "As leaders sit down and talk to our Airmen, we are always amazed by the skillsets they bring to the Reserve and by the professional and personal credentials they obtain outside of the Air Force.”
A Defense Innovation Unit transformational project, GigEagle is open to all Reserve and Guard members for talent profiles and gig work, while any military member or DoD civilian can post gigs, or short-term work opportunities, on behalf of an organization.
GigEagle’s AI synthesizes members’ military and civilian skills and experiences, and even infers potential skills, to optimize matching, according to Lt. Col. Chuck Kubik, GigEagle product manager. The platform opened to all Reserve Component troops – and won the DoD's inaugural Talent Management Innovation Challenge – in April.
“GigEagle will give us better visibility on the talent we have, and it gives our Airmen a way to showcase their skills across DoD,” said Parks. “This is exactly how the Reserve Component’s mission-ready Airmen can bring even more capability to the fight, above and beyond their Air Force specialty training.”
The wing recently leveraged the data science skills of a local Reservist to create a new ticketing system for the 94th Aeromedical Staging Squadron but relied on word of mouth and personal connections to find someone with the right experience.
With plans to debut the platform’s capabilities to his Airmen during the October Unit Training Assembly, Parks said the wing will begin using GigEagle to quickly match available talent to requirements for upcoming Air Force Force Generation and inspection cycles, day-to-day operations and special projects.
Air Force Reservist Brig. Gen. Mike McGinley first envisioned GigEagle while taking a rideshare.
McGinley, now the program’s director, realized the DoD needed a similar way to quickly identify top talent to tackle tough problems – whether the necessary skills lie in the civilian experience of a Reservist or a junior member of another service.
"The idea is that across the department, programs have real-time needs for specific support and skills, and by mapping the expertise across the Reserve and Guard force, who have in-demand expertise outside of their military occupational specialty, we are able to connect them in an easy-to-use environment," McGinley said.
While GigEagle currently uncovers Reserve Component talent across the joint force, the envisioned Agile Talent Ecosystem will use similar methods to leverage talent across government, industry and academia for national security.
“What we’re building here is a whole-of-nation talent marketplace,” said McGinley. “We’re up against adversaries with an unbelievable number of personnel resources and we need to make precise, effective use of the resources we have.”
The program plans to expand its talent base next to active component servicemembers, DoD civilians and military spouses, with future iterations opening GigEagle to other federal agencies and the private sector.
“And if we do this right, I think it changes the course of Great Power Competition,” said McGinley. “When the Department of Defense can identify and engage talent, not only within its uniformed personnel, but to reach outside and find the best and brightest … and bring those insights to bear at the speed of mission relevance, that’s incredible.”
Reservists interested in signing up for GigEagle should visit https://gigeagle.mil to create a talent profile. For questions, support or help posting gigs for needed talent, contact the GigEagle team at gigeagleinfo@diu.mil.
(Kirchoff is the GigEagle executive admin and communications lead.)