NICE Strategic Plan

Introduction | Leading Principles | Pillar I | Pillar II | Pillar III | Pillar IV | Archived Strategic Plans

Introduction

NICE brings together public and private sector stakeholders to build, develop, and grow a sustainable and effective cyber workforce for the Nation. The cyber workforce includes those who govern and provide oversight; design and develop; implement and operate; and protect and defend cyberspace resources, as well as those who investigate cybercrimes. Importantly, the cyber workforce encompasses a broad range of cyber roles throughout an organization and across disciplines, industries, and sectors. The cyber workforce extends to those whose primary focus is in cyber, as well as those whose work relies on digital technologies that create cyber risks.

The 2026-2030 NICE Strategic Plan was developed in consultation with representatives from key cyber workforce stakeholders, including academia and learning organizations, employers, service providers, nonprofit and civil society organizations, and government. Their extensive experience and unique perspectives have helped NIST create a plan that identifies foundational pillars to guide cyber workforce efforts over time.

Concrete goals under each pillar describe specific areas of work that NICE will lead in coordination and collaboration with the community. The plan is complementary to and enables the NIST Strategy for American Technology Leadership in the 21st Century, which heavily focuses on Accelerating U.S. leadership and competitiveness in critical and emerging technologies. Further, the plan is designed to stimulate and shape a united community to prepare, advance, and sustain a cyber workforce that safeguards and promotes America’s national security and economic prosperity.

Importantly, this Strategic Plan is presented as an evergreen plan: while the plan looks at a five-year horizon, the goals under each pillar will be reviewed annually. The evergreen model allows for more flexibility, agility, and responsiveness in a rapidly changing technology landscape.

NICE is a program of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the U.S. Department of Commerce and conducts activities as authorized by the Cybersecurity Enhancement Act and the NIST Act to further national security and economic growth and opportunity as well as to establish United States cyber workforce leadership abroad. The NICE program office is committed to supporting the NICE Strategic Plan by leading and fostering activities that engage and convene key stakeholders from across the cyber ecosystem in support of four cohesive pillars.

NICE Strategic Plan Leading Principles

The NICE Strategic Plan is guided by three leading principles that support NICE’s mission, values, and vision. These principles provide direction and influence across the plan’s pillars and are intended to be incorporated and threaded throughout the plan’s goals.

1. A Standard Framework to Describe and Define the Cyber Workforce: Standards help cultivate trust, ensure quality, and drive innovation. The NICE Framework provides a core structure and common language that is foundational to each pillar of the NICE Strategic Plan and brings cohesion to efforts across the ecosystem.
2. Research and Data to Inform, Evaluate, and Improve: NICE efforts emphasize the importance of research and objective and reliable data to inform decision making and support continuous evaluation and improvement.
3. A Robust Community Working Together: NICE engages the cyber workforce community in support of a cohesive approach to advancing an employer-led education and workforce ecosystem. From convening stakeholders, to coordinating the development of resources, to supporting implementation and adoption efforts, community is at the heart of NICE’s mission and activities.

NICE Strategic Plan Pillars

• Pillar I: Building a Skilled Cyber Workforce
• Pillar II: Transforming Talent Acquisitions for the Cyber Workforce
• Pillar III: Advancing and Sustaining the Cyber Workforce
• Pillar IV: Building Cyber Workforce Ecosystems

Pillar I: Building a Skilled Cyber Workforce

As the digital world expands into every aspect of our lives, there is a critical need for a robust cyber workforce that safeguards and promotes America’s national security and economic prosperity. Adequately preparing such a workforce requires a pipeline of individuals into this profession that includes flexible paths with multiple entry points at different stages and across disciplines. Further, incorporating various methods of developing and evidencing capability that respond to and meet employer requirements is essential for effective workforce readiness.

Goals:

1. Promote flexible pathways to prepare today’s learners for tomorrow’s cyber careers
2. Advance adoption of skills- and work-based learning approaches
3. Invigorate the pursuit of foundational cyber skills and cyber careers

Pillar II: Transforming Talent Acquisitions for the Cyber Workforce

Cyber workforce recruiting, hiring, and assessment practices require transformation to meet the demands of today’s digital world. Effective talent acquisitions require a clear understanding of workforce needs, an ability to translate and communicate those needs, and a means to determine when candidate capabilities meet requirements. At the same time, a clearer, data-informed understanding of today’s workforce and job market as well as foresight into the near future is needed to inform research, business analysis, and decision-making. Finally, the advent and rapid adoption of new, critical, and emerging technologies is changing organizations, jobs, and talent acquisitions. Understanding the impact of such technologies is essential to addressing key challenges in this area.

Goals:

1. Pursue opportunities to strengthen a comprehensive data picture that effectively informs talent acquisition practices
2. Explore and recommend solutions to address career entry challenges
3. Identify effective approaches to skills-based assessment for hiring

Pillar III: Advancing and Sustaining the Cyber Workforce

Advancing and sustaining the cyber workforce requires new approaches to workforce management and development that support public and private sectors across industries and critical infrastructures, nationally and internationally. This includes maturing practices to support, retain, and further individuals throughout their learning and career journeys and ensuring that existing participants in the cyber workforce maintain and grow their knowledge and skills to understand and anticipate shifts in the digital landscape and its impact on product developers, providers, policy makers, and consumers alike.

Goals:

1. Identify approaches that advance workforce capability to develop, implement, and effectively secure critical and emerging technologies (CET)
2. Recommend employer practices to effectively manage a growing cyber workforce across the organization
3. Amplify reskilling and upskilling best practices to support continuous workforce development

Pillar IV: Building Cyber Workforce Ecosystems

A cyber workforce ecosystem comprises learning organizations and learners, private and public employers, service providers, nonprofit and civil society organizations, and government representatives. An integrated ecosystem brings together individuals with systems, processes, and activities to achieve common goals, foster innovation, and discover more effective approaches and increased productivity. Sustainable cyber workforce ecosystems will require collaboration in new ways and proactive efforts to engage new stakeholders.

Goals:

1. Discover and highlight innovations that stimulate and accelerate cyber workforce ecosystems
2. Compile and disseminate cyber workforce ecosystem development best practices
3. Enhance and strengthen cyber workforce ecosystem stakeholder participation and engagement strategies

Archived NICE Strategic Plans:

Credit: NICE

Strategic Plan (2012-2015)

Credit: NICE

Strategic Plan (2016-2020)

Credit: NICE

Strategic Plan (2021-2025)