Some years ago, government blockchain jobs in the United States would have been unthinkable. Not anymore. The Innovation Lab in the Government Accountability Office has listed two posts related to blockchain technology. The posts are ‘interdisciplinary assistant director’ and an ‘interdisciplinary computer scientist/engineer. Both jobs demand know-how of ‘distributed ledger tech’ with possible use in auditing applications.
The website for government jobs in the U.S., USAJOBS.gov, has listed openings for these government blockchain jobs. Furthermore, these positions will be filled in the Innovation Lab’s STAA (Science, Technology Assessment, and Analytics) cell. GAO performs the functions of a watchdog and an auditor for the legislative division. It is good to see the official acknowledgment of blockchain knowledge in the government realm.
U.S. government blockchain jobs demand in-depth expertise
The job profile requires a varied set of skills from the applicants. Desired skills include the development and testing of future technologies, including ‘Internet-of-Things,’ cloud-based services such as SAAS, digital ledger, RPA, VR, machine learning, and more. However, the job profile of the assistant director demands a more in-depth skill set. The job profile entails a leadership role in the prototype development of various above-mentioned emerging technologies.
On the surface, these government blockchain jobs might reflect the auditing needs of the government agency that requires exploration of emerging blockchain technologies. However, past records of the Congressional budget oversight reveal that the U.S. government is seeking more blockchain and crypto expertise. The director of Innovation Lab, Taka Ariga, says that blockchain is emerging as an essential technology crucial to enhancing the auditing capabilities while efficiently processing large amounts of information. Multiple sets of sophisticated data can be inferred using blockchain. Innovative tech such as digital ledger and machine learning is helping the auditing community address key challenges.
So, is the U.S. government focusing on recruiting more blockchain specialists? Well, just these two government blockchain jobs aren’t much considering the vast distributed ledger sector these days. However, the posts do represent that governments are more receptive of blockchain technology.
