MxD Launches Hiring Guide for Cybersecurity in Manufacturing

The nation’s digital manufacturing institute, MxD, has released The Hiring Guide: Cybersecurity in Manufacturing, a guide to help U.S. manufacturers build the workforce they need to protect the industry from growing cyber threats.

The Hiring Guide is available for free download at mxdusa.org/HiringGuide.

“American manufacturing must build a skilled new army to protect our factories, products, and intellectual property from cyber-attackers who lurk in the shadows,” said Chandra Brown, CEO of MxD. “All manufacturers, no matter their size, have a vested interest in helping develop a strong and resilient cybersecurity workforce.”

 The comprehensive Hiring Guide identifies 247 cybersecurity-related job roles in manufacturing (some current, some future), and details the skill sets, career paths, and education and training needed to prepare American workers for these jobs.

The Hiring Guide project, led by MxD and ManpowerGroup, engaged experts from more than 25 industry, academic, workforce development and government organizations to define the state and future of manufacturing’s cybersecurity workforce.

“The pace of change in manufacturing has accelerated – what we thought was next is now and identifying and developing the cyber skills of the future is critical to the ongoing success of the industry in America,” said Becky Frankiewicz, President ManpowerGroup North America. “That’s why we are pleased to partner with MxD to bring together the cybersecurity expertise from our Experis brand with the deep insight of our Manpower Manufacturing business to create a common language to describe these emerging roles.”

Cybersecurity is a daunting challenge facing every sector of the U.S. economy, including manufacturing. Industry’s increasing reliance on automation, advanced control systems and remote work has expanded the attack surface for cyber criminals.

These challenges come as a war rages for cybersecurity talent. A 2019 ISC2 workforce study estimated the overall shortage of skilled cybersecurity professionals at almost 500,000.

“The Hiring Guide illuminates the path for companies to reskill their current workers,” said Lizabeth Stuck, MxD’s head of workforce development. “Interestingly, over half of the roles we identified in the Hiring Guide are actually existing manufacturing roles that have been modernized, updated or retooled to address cyber needs. Only 8% are emergent or future jobs.”

The number of opportunities identified in the guide also illustrates why cyber manufacturing jobs are attractive to Gen Z college students looking for high-tech careers.

The Hiring Guide does a deep dive into three job roles especially crucial to the future of cybersecurity:

• Cybersecurity IT/OT Integration Engineer
• Secure Design Product Life Cycle Manager
• Supply Network Cybersecurity Compliance Manager

The guide includes comprehensive descriptions of these three roles for companies to use in their recruiting. Descriptions for more jobs will be added as MxD partners with more companies, foundations and other funders on the effort.

“This Hiring Guide is a must-read for manufacturing executives, HR departments, educators and policy makers,” said Dan Rozinski, Manufacturing & Engineering Technology Fellow at Dow, a partner of MxD that was involved in the guide’s development. “It’s crucial that we train tomorrow’s workforce today.”

mxdusa.org