Brian Mackey is vice president of IT and security at BAE Systems, which has created a training program with Manchester Community College to help fill its cybersecurity needs. (Courtesy photo)
What’s being called a “win-win” relationship between BAE Systems and Manchester Community College is helping the company develop much-needed IT and cybersecurity personnel who are trained initially at the school then hired into full-time positions at BAE.
“It is extremely hard to fill these roles, and we are in constant competition with the Raytheons, the Lincoln Labs, the Northrops and so forth. This program has just been an outstanding opportunity for us to develop some professionals like Irina,” said Brian Mackey, BAE’s vice president of IT and security.
His reference was to Irina Mistrik, a program participant and full-time worker at BAE since the beginning of the year, who said: “… it definitely is win-win, both for the company to breach this shortage of cybersecurity professionals, but also for the new generation of the cybersecurity students who want to achieve their dreams and do something that actually matters.”
A range of companies in the state have had long-standing direct relationships with the Community College System of New Hampshire for the specific purpose of educating and training individuals for specific jobs at those companies.
Great Bay Community College in Portsmouth, for instance, established a satellite campus in 2017 to produce specially skilled workers for Safran and Albany Engineered Composites at their Rochester facilities in the production of composite engine components for commercial airplanes.
Other examples throughout the state abound, involving BAE. In 2016, BAE established a Microelectronics Boot Camp pipeline program with Nashua Community College.
BAE Systems is a global defense contracting company with a wide scope of services encompassing aircraft, munitions, vehicles, and other items.
Here in the Granite State, BAE employs some 6,500 employees at facilities in Manchester, Nashua, Merrimack, and Hudson. The company says its NH-based business is a world leader in electronic warfare, providing critical technology to the U.S. Department of Defense and its allies, including EW systems for the F-35 fighter jet and classified programs.
BAE’s computer network requires a high level of oversight and security, given the number of military applications that the company is working on.
“We have literally hundreds and hundreds, if not 1000s, of classified environments that are heavily regulated by the government,” said Mackey. “We literally endure hundreds of compliance reviews a year by the federal government. These are highly sensitive programs, you know, doing a lot of really amazing things for a war fighter every day, but it’s important that we ensure that we safeguard those properly.”
“As we continue to scale and grow this, it’s going to be a win-win for BAE and the college, as well as the individuals, because it’s really helping us strengthen a very important bench of professionals coming into the technical workforce,” Mackey added.
The two-year program with Manchester Community College is meant to prepare, train, and certify students to work in that environment.
Four students are currently part of the program, and BAE hopes another four will participate next year.
The locations of where the students ultimately work is fluid, according to the company. Among the current cohort of four, two are assigned to BAE’s Canal Street location in Nashua, and two others are assigned to the Manchester campus.
“Certainly as it continues to show a lot of promise and progress, and both sides are happy, and things have gone well based on some of our conversations, we’ll certainly look to expand that and in the years to come,” said Mackey.
Mistrik developed an interest in IT systems and cybersecurity as a result of the Equifax data breach in 2017.
“I, myself, was the identity theft victim. So I thought that, my goodness, we’ve got to do something, and I thought that this is a very much needed career,” she said. “Businesses need cyber security professionals to help to mitigate the risk and come up with some sort of feasible solutions to protect the private data, to protect people, to protect the assets, intellectual property and everything like that. So for me, it was a personal story and a passion.”
A graduate of MCC in 2023, Mistrik has been a full-time information system security officer at BAE for eight months.
A benefit of the program, besides the education and training, is acquiring the security clearance necessary to work in a military-contractor environment like BAE.
“This brings an opportunity for individuals like Irina to get cybersecurity training, but also in parallel, be sponsored and work towards a government security clearance. So they really hit the ground running on day one,” said Mackey.
The program should generate a high level of interest among students interested in a cybersecurity career, according to Mistrik.
“This is definitely a wonderful platform to broaden the skills, to get the necessary training, and most importantly, to contribute to the company’s mission, which is, I think, outstanding,” said Mistrik.
“And it’s not an easy task,” she added. “It does require, in my opinion, for the students to be detail oriented, to be definitely driven and dedicated and loyal, because this is one of those areas of cyber security that consistently changes. So you do need to evolve. You do need to read a lot. You do need to do a lot of research.”
For BAE, it’s one way to help fill hard-to-fill cybersecurity jobs.
“This partnership allows that early onset of getting a clearance in parallel with the training, so they come out of the program with the degree, they’ve got some on-the-job training, they’ve been sponsored in parallel with their clearance,” said Mackey. “It makes them that much more marketable as a cyber security professional, and as a company, we can get them to work on day one.”
