Aptima Supports US Space Force’s Innovative Vision for Guardian Talent Management

Year 2 of contract to provide new framework to algorithmically match Guardians with USSF needs

Woburn, MA – September 15, 2025 – Starting in September, Aptima Inc. will begin its second year on contract with the US Space Force Space (USSF) Enterprise Talent Management Office (ETMO) to provide services in support of an innovative skills- and capability-approach toward managing Guardian talent.

To build a workforce for the unique challenges of space conflict and competition, USSF is drawing Guardian talent from a broader range of fields that extends beyond the military to include the commercial space and technology sectors.

ETMO—with help from Aptima on a previous contract—has developed a skills- and capabilities-based framework to better organize and leverage this diverse pool of talent.  In the second year of their contract, Aptima will use this framework to begin designing an algorithm that will match Guardians with USSF positions based on their skills, backgrounds, and career objectives, while also allowing Guardians to better manage and sequence their individual USSF careers.

“Space Force is taking a highly innovative yet systematic approach to its workforce development. That includes a system designed to better accommodate and fit Guardians, who are bringing a more diverse set of skills and backgrounds, with its needs,” said Dr. Samantha Emerson, scientist in Aptima’s Performance Augmentation Division and Project Manager for the contract.

“Essentially, the competency and skill framework provides an architecture that will be used by the person-job matching algorithm to account for the skills and positional requirements on one side and the components of the Guardian profiles on the other,” Emerson added.

As part of its warfighting ethos, USSF requires Guardians to possess a baseline of skills. Officers can then vector into various specialty areas that include cyber, intel, space engineering, or acquisitions.

The framework will serve as a bridge that maps the courses and experiences that a Guardian may need to fill gaps or deficits to advance their careers.

“Aptima is applying the scientific rigor and quantitative methods so that when everything’s complete,  the matchmaking algorithm can bridge these elements to assist decision-makers in identifying and creating matches,” said Emerson.

“The Space Force vision is for Guardians to be able grow and manage their careers in a more flexible, less linear way than a typical service trajectory, while providing them with more transparency and tools. This means having a good understanding of the unique skills and capabilities that each Guardian brings with them to the force and how those abilities relate to the possible roles they could fill,” added Emerson.

The new framework is expected to help USSF to fit and fill positions more efficiently and quickly—taking advantage of the unique skills and capabilities that each Guardian brings to the table—while enabling Guardians to better guide and manage their own USSF careers.

 

U.S. Space Force photo by Judi Tomich

 

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