Suzette Kent: Data science talent will be the next big need for agencies - Fedscoop

For all of the recent focus on the cybersecurity talent shortages in the federal government, Suzette Kent said Wednesday that agencies will soon be battling for another in-demand skill set to help fuel its technology transformation: data science. While the workforce transformation and IT modernization goals of the President's Management Agenda are essential, they are undergirded by agencies' ability to analyze troves of government data, the federal CIO said at the Data Coalition's Data Demo Day. "Right now, we're just starting to see data science and analytics jobs pop up across the government," Kent said. "But we have to evolve roles for data scientists in deep learning development [and] inquiry designers. As we move down this path that is wholly data-driven, we need different types of capabilities in our workforce."