Career Development

We partner with government and non-governmental institutions across the country to offer employees additional educational opportunities to develop their careers. Employees who have deployed have described the experience as fast-paced, challenging and extremely rewarding.

We partner with government and non-governmental institutions across the country to offer employees additional educational opportunities to develop their careers. Whether at the Naval War College, National Intelligence University, Harvard Kennedy School or elsewhere, you can pursue a multitude of educational paths.

Our officer development program offers professional development training in business acumen, leadership, DIA and intelligence community knowledge and core skills, such as critical thinking and communication. The program prepares employees for a successful career with DIA and equips them with a strong understanding of our mission. The training is available to officers throughout their career—from the moment they onboard to the day they retire.

Our mentoring program offers a variety of opportunities designed to meet the specific needs of the civilian and military workforce. Throughout the year, the program hosts several events and provides resources and tools to facilitate formal and informal mentoring. This wide array of mentoring practices—from traditional one-on-one engagements to virtual sessions—ensures employees have access to multiple mentors across the agency. Our current mentoring programs include:

• One-on-one mentoring: A traditional engagement where a mentor provides leadership or guidance to a mentee to support their professional development.
• Speed mentoring: Quickly gain exposure and interact with several mentors affiliated with the program.
• Group/peer mentoring: Groups will develop through facilitated and targeted discussions with senior mentors and their peers.
• Meet the experts: You will interact and engage with senior leaders and experts across DIA. These sessions can occur both in-person and virtually to encompass our worldwide workforce.

We offer internal and external rotational assignments to broaden your career. An internal rotational assignment lets you experience another DIA job outside the scope of your work, while an external rotational assignment allows you to work outside of the Intelligence Community.

The Joint Duty Rotation (JDR) Program provides you with the opportunity to lead, operate and practice your tradecraft at partnering intelligence agencies and organizations. JDR is generally one year with an opportunity to extend an additional year. No matter your career field, you can work at another agency and learn some of their best practices and processes to bring back to your DIA office at the end of the rotation.