POLITICO
‘That’s where we get the leg up’: How former government officials boost Amazon’s cloud computing unit
Amazon Web Services is snapping up former government officials who can help them gain access to lucrative federal contracts.
Amazon employs more than 1 million people overall, after adding 500,000 new jobs last year alone. | Steven Senne/AP Photo
Link Copied
Amazon’s massive cloud-computing unit is aggressively recruiting U.S. government officials as it pushes to make itself essential to branches such as the military and the intelligence community, a POLITICO analysis has found.
Since 2018, Amazon Web Services has hired at least 66 former government officials with acquisition, procurement or technology adoption experience, most hired directly away from government posts and more than half of them from the Defense Department. That’s a small portion of AWS’ tens of thousands of employees, but a particularly key group to its federal business. Other AWS hires
VIRIN: 210527-D-IM742-2001
Hanh: To expand my career path I am currently supporting Cybersecurity as an Information System Security Officer (ISSO) in Cross Domain Solutions and Boundary Services. I became an ISSO a little over a year ago when I took a joint duty assignment at the Pentagon in fall 2019. Prior to this, as a Computer System Architect, I designed, implemented, and maintained Database Management Systems.
Was there a defining STEM moment in your life?
Hanh: When I was a teenager in Vietnam, I looked up to my mom who was an accountant. All I knew was that she managed financial accounts for a company she worked for, so I thought that I wanted to be an accountant when I grew up, just like my mom. When I came to the United States in my twenties, I attended college in pursuit of an Accounting Degree, but shortly after I found out being an accountant wasn’t for me. While I was still unsure what other degree to pursue, I took Management Informati
Strategists in Washington, London, and other allied capitals continue to paint a bleak picture of the future. The Biden administration took the rare step of issuing its Interim National Security Strategic Guidance in March, which reflected the White House’s initial outlook on how to meet an increasingly complex and contested world. The tremendous challenges ahead are echoed in
The race to build robotic weaponry with Chinese AI to match the US advances in autonomous weapons is the goal of Russia and Beijing to dominate this type of future combat.