Martin earned a bachelor's degree in economics and math from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1989, and commissioned as a Surface Warfare Officer in the U.S. Navy upon graduation. He served in the Navy from 1987 until 2000, deploying to the Gulf during Operation Desert Storm. During the later part of his military service he transferred to a part time role in the Navy Reserve, which was when he first received access to classified data. Upon leaving the military, Martin remained in the D.C. metro area, continuing his education with a master's degree in information systems from George Mason University in 2004, and maintaining his security clearance working for government contractors including Computer Sciences Corporation and Tenacity Solutions. He was later hired by defense staffing giant Booz Allen Hamilton, tasked to the National Security Agency from 2012 to 2015, during which time he worked with the elite Tailored Access Operations unit, albeit in a support capacity. In 2015, while still a contractor for Booz Allen, Martin moved to the Pentagon's Office of Acquisition, Technology and Logistics (AT&amp;L), working at a Department of Defense facility in Alexandria, Virginia up until his arrest in 2016.