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Comment by pharmakom | Hacker News Reader

Is NSA pay still uncompetitive though? I think this might be the biggest obstacle to mass surveillance honestly.

"The 2023 salary cap for all GS employees is $183,500 per year. You cannot be offered more than this under any circumstance."

https://join.tts.gsa.gov/compensation-and-benefits/

At least they get to play with some cool "toys".

That’s only base salary. There are quite a few performance and skill based bonus programs in the federal government which end up in the mid-200s.

Are there published guidelines for this, or is it more that you negotiate with a hiring manager?

There are published guidelines within the agency, your recruiting human capital person or hiring manager could tell you more.

There’s no negotiation though, either the billet is part of the program (CISA calls their CTMS) or it’s not, and either you check the box (usually with a certification) or you don’t.

Edit: found this on their site.

https://dhscs.usajobs.gov/assets/pdf/Career_Level_Guide.pdf

So basically it's still not worth it to work for the government, and it's more profitable, literally, to sell secrets to private companies.

Absolutely wild and shortsighted.

for an ambitious person the appeal of the NSA would be to do a few years of work and then team up with a lobbyist type to start a consulting business that makes a fortune. Or use the connections and authority to raise money for a startup

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