Building Cyber Talent Through Competition, Residency, And Real-World Immersion
Help Net Security, December 11,2025
In this Help Net Security interview, Chrisma Jackson, Director of Cybersecurity & Mission Computing Center and CISO at Sandia National Laboratories, reflects on where the cyber talent pipeline breaks down and what it takes to fix it.
She discusses skill gaps, hiring and retention realities, and how cybersecurity careers are evolving beyond traditional paths.
"Where do you see the real bottleneck in the cyber talent pipeline? Is it skills, training models, compensation, or something deeper like organizational culture?"
As we look at the cyber talent pipeline, the bottlenecks I've seen are primarily in bridging the gap between knowledge from colleges, universities, and certifications and the practice of defending complex networks, risk management and incident response. With the dynamic landscape and threats of cybersecurity, continual learning, evolving and understanding the balance of enabling business while defending the networks is a complex balancing act.