NASA Workforce Directive Issued

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman has issued a new workforce directive, following his initial 50 days in office, aimed at restoring the agency's core competencies, reducing reliance on external contractors, and enhancing internal capabilities. This directive stems from his observations during visits to NASA centers and engagements with the workforce.

The Administrator noted a growing concern: NASA's ability to deliver on its mission has become increasingly dependent on external vendors and contractors for core functions, including engineering, operations, manufacturing, and repair.

This reliance has reportedly eroded internal capabilities, increased program risk, reduced flexibility in addressing technical challenges, and added over $1 billion in annual overhead, diverting resources from science and discovery.

Factors contributing to this trend include concerns over civil servant hiring ceilings and assumptions that outsourcing would provide greater workforce flexibility. This approach has also led to suboptimal outcomes in project cost and schedule, with an estimated $1.4 billion annually attributed to inefficiencies.

Vision for a Strengthened Workforce

Under this directive, NASA's vision is to expand with a strong core of civil servants equipped to lead complex engineering and operational challenges, ensuring expertise, resilience, agility, and innovation. This also includes developing the ability to build and repair critical components in-house.

Contractors are intended to be primarily utilized for limited-term assignments, surge staffing, and specialized functions outside NASA's core competencies. This initiative directly aligns with the President's national space policy to maintain U.S. leadership in space exploration.

Key Directive Actions

Within 30 Days:

• Work Assessment: Center Directors, Mission Directorate leadership, and the Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer (OCHCO) are to identify currently outsourced mission-critical work (engineering, operational, scientific, manufacturing) and propose what should be brought in-house.
• Workforce Assessment: The same leadership is to identify outsourced or missing technical and operational expertise and propose converting core roles to civil service, categorized by priority and aligned with core competencies.

Within 60 Days:

• Transition Strategy: The OCHCO, Office of Procurement, and Office of the Chief Financial Officer (OCFO) will consolidate assessments and create an implementation plan for converting or adding targeted civil service roles, addressing contract changes, renegotiations, terminations, timelines, and costs.
• Rapid Onboarding: A streamlined process for rapidly bringing candidates into civil servant positions without disrupting operations will be established.
• Talent Pipeline: Strategies will be developed with the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to attract industry and academic talent and embed civil servants with industry partners for accelerated learning.
• Training Programs: Internal training and mentorship initiatives will be assessed and developed to ensure knowledge continuity across generations of NASA personnel.
• Internship Opportunities: The current internship program will be expanded, standardized, and enhanced to develop in-house technical talent for high-priority agency requirements.

Strengthening Technical Autonomy

Within 30 Days (Office of Procurement):

• Repair and Operation Autonomy: Incorporate "right-to-repair" provisions in all future and applicable existing contracts, granting NASA access to specifications, parts, tools, schematics, software, and technical documentation for internal manufacturing, repair, and operations.
• Remove Restrictive Clauses: Eliminate contract language requiring NASA-fabricated replacement hardware to be returned to vendors for inspection after out-of-spec hardware delivery.
• Address Intellectual Property Barriers: Review and propose modifications to intellectual property restrictions that prevent NASA from performing internal repairs or redesigns, as needed for Presidential space policy objectives.

Within 60 Days (Center Directors):

• Makerspaces: Develop plans to create makerspaces at each center to enable rapid prototyping and proposal development, including funding mechanisms like sponsorships.

The directive clarifies that it does not reflect any intent or commitment to take action regarding any particular existing or future contract.