The defense acquisition workforce consists of civilian and uniformed personnel at the Department of Defense (DOD) who manage the planning, design, development, testing, contracting production, introduction, acquisition logistics support, and disposal of systems, equipment, facilities, supplies, or services that are intended for use in, or support of, military missions. The defense acquisition workforce plays a key role to ensure that DOD's contract dollars are properly spent on goods and services. As part of this role, the workforce is responsible for ensuring that acquisition programs—including major weapons and information technology (IT) systems—remain within their estimated cost and delivery schedules and produce the desired capabilities. In FY2015, DOD obligated roughly $438 billion on federal contracts, which comprised 62% of contract obligations government-wide. To fulfill its duties, the workforce must have an adequate number of acquisition professionals with an appropriate mix of technical skills (such as cost estimating, program management, and systems engineering). There are concerns, however, that the workforce may not be adequately sized or equipped with the skills necessary to support DOD's acquisition workload. According to a 2014 compilation of expert views published by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations), two-thirds of contributors felt that improved recruiting, training, and incentives for the acquisition workforce are necessary for comprehensive acquisition reform. As of March 31, 2016, the defense acquisition workforce consisted of 158,212 employees, roughly 90% (142,728) employees) of which were civilians. Between FY2008 and FY2015, the workforce grew by 24.2%, or 30,343 employees ( Figure 1 ). The workforce experienced the largest increase between FY2009 and FY2010, growing by 11%, or 14,602 employees. In April 2009, the Secretary of Defense launched an acquisition workforce growth initiative that aimed to add 20,000 uniformed and civilian employees to FY2008 workforce levels through 2015. The initiative was launched, in part, to address reported workforce size and skill imbalances resulting from past downsizing, particularly the congressionally mandated cuts to the acquisition workforce in the 1990s. DOD has utilized several tools to help rebuild the size and capability of the acquisition workforce, one of which is hiring flexibilities. Hiring flexibilities are a suite of tools that are intended to simplify, and often accelerate, the federal hiring process. The way in which they do so, however, can vary by flexibility. Hiring flexibilities vary in structure and function in order to help agencies best meet their evolving recruitment needs. For example, some flexibilities provide hiring exemptions—waivers from competitive hiring requirements in Title 5 of the United States Code . Other flexibilities provide no hiring exemptions, but grant agencies more control in administering the hiring process. Flexibilities can also vary in terms of their Scope: Agency-specific or government-wide Coverage: One position or a group of positions Length: Temporary or permanent Authorization: Congress, the President, or the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Service: Competitive or excepted service At least 38 hiring flexibilities are currently applicable to the civilian defense acquisition workforce—24 government-wide, 11 DOD-specific, and 3 acquisition-specific. A description of each of these flexibilities can be found in Appendix A . The subsections below describe six hiring flexibilities that, according to DOD, were used most frequently for external hires to the civilian acquisition workforce between FY2008 and FY2014 (during the acquisition workforce growth initiative): Direct-hire authority (DHA) Expedited hiring authority for civilian defense acquisition workforce positions (EHA) Pathways Recent Graduates program (established in December 2010) Pathways Internship program (established in December 2010) Federal Career Intern Program (eliminated in March 2011) Delegated examining authority DHA and EHA—a type of DHA—allow agencies to appoint individuals directly to a position or group of positions without regard for certain competitive hiring requirements in Title 5 of the United States Code . The specific hiring exemptions granted and applicability vary depending on the type of DHA. There are two different types of DHAs: OPM direct-hire and direct-hire authorized by statute . Regardless of type, the authorities are intended to accelerate job offers, though the level of acceleration may vary depending on an agency's interpretation of the authority. Appendix A provides examples of DHAs that are applicable to defense acquisition positions. The OPM direct-hire authorizes agencies to, upon OPM approval, waive competitive hiring requirements in 5 U.S.C. §§3309-3318—veterans' preference, competitive rating and ranking, and the rule of three —when filling positions for which OPM determines there is a severe shortage of candidates or a critical hiring need. DHAs can be established independently by OPM or upon request from an agency, though OPM ultimately determines the application and duration of the authority. Agencies must present evidence of a severe shortage of candidates or critical hiring need in order to receive the DHA. DHAs authorized by statute operate similarly to OPM direct-hire, but often differ in three primary ways: 1. Agencies generally do not need OPM approval to use DHAs authorized by statute and thus do not have to demonstrate the existence of a severe shortage of candidates or critical hiring need. 2. The authorities can exempt agencies from a broader set of competitive hiring requirements compared with the OPM direct-hire. 3. The authorities often apply to a specific department or agency and rarely apply government-wide. For example, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for FY2016 authorized a DHA that allows each military department to appoint a certain number of individuals with scientific and engineering degrees to scientific and engineering positions within the defense acquisition workforce without regard to competitive hiring requirements in 5 U.S.C. §§3301-3330. Expedited hiring authority (EHA) for certain defense acquisition workforce positions is a type of DHA that was first authorized by the NDAA for FY2009. The EHA authorizes DOD to use the OPM-direct hire to fill defense acquisition positions facing a severe shortage of candidates or critical hiring need, as identified by the Secretary of Defense rather than OPM. The EHA is the broadest of existing DHAs established exclusively for defense acquisition positions. Congress has expanded the scope and applicability of the EHA over time to include (1) all qualified individuals rather than those who are highly qualified, and (2) positions facing a critical hiring need in addition to those facing a severe shortage of candidates . Congress changed the EHA from a temporary to a permanent authority in 2015. The Pathways Recent Graduates and Pathways Internship programs are training and development programs designed to recruit high-performing individuals into the federal government and create a pipeline of talent for agencies. Under the programs, qualified individuals are temporarily appointed to agency positions and receive job-related training. The appointment length, eligibility requirements, and covered positions vary by program ( Table 1 ). Upon program completion, participants can be noncompetitively converted to permanent federal positions in the competitive service. The two Pathways programs were based on the Federal Career Intern Program (FCIP)—a structurally distinct training and development program that was terminated on March 1, 2011, under Executive Order 13562. The Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) found that the FCIP violated veterans' preference and public notice laws in November 2010. Positions under the Pathways programs are filled using an excepted service hiring authority, which places positions in the excepted service rather than the competitive service or Senior Executive Service. In so doing, the authority provides DOD with more flexibility and control over hiring for Pathways-covered acquisition positions. Namely, DOD can (1) restrict position eligibility to qualified students and recent graduates, (2) evaluate qualifications solely based on a candidate's education rather than work experience, and (3) use non-Title 5 recruitment, assessment and selection procedures, which may be more streamlined compared to procedures used for the competitive service. For example, DOD can post an abbreviated job announcement on USAJOBS for Pathways-covered acquisition positions. The table below provides a summary of different services within the federal civilian workforce. Delegated examining authority is arguably the standard for modern-day competitive federal hiring and can be considered the baseline for non-flexibility hiring. Delegated examining authority does not provide any hiring exemptions—agencies must comply with all competitive hiring requirements in Title 5 of the United States Code when filling positions under the authority. Delegated examining authority is considered a flexibility because it allows agencies, rather than OPM, to administer the federal hiring process for all competitive service positions (except Administrative Law Judge positions). Prior to delegated examining, federal hiring was centrally managed by OPM. Delegated examining is available to any agency that enters into an agreement with OPM. OPM can terminate, suspend, or revoke the agreement at any time. This section analyzes DOD's use of the six hiring flexibilities described above for some, but not all, civilian acquisition hires between FY2008 and FY2014 ( Table 2 ). According to DOD, the data in Table 2 include external civilian acquisition hires (i.e., applicants from outside the federal government), but do not include internal civilian acquisition hires (i.e., current or former federal employees). Internal hires may represent a sizeable portion of total civilian acquisition hires each year. Two of six flexibilities were available throughout the six-year period, while one was discontinued and three were established during that period. Regardless, the flexibilities were identified by DOD as the top six used to fill civilian defense acquisition positions between FY2008 and FY2014. Approximately 66% of total external civilian defense acquisition hires were made under the six flexibilities described above between FY2008 and FY2014 ( Table 2 ).