AFRL is looking for employees. You’re invited to apply

Ashley Morgan, the talent acquisition branch chief for AFRL, sought to dispel a mistaken idea sometimes at work among job applicants: That you need to be a uniformed member of the military to work for AFRL.

Not so, Morgan said in an interview. “You can, no kidding, come work on base as a civilian, as a contractor, as active-duty (a member of the military). We are our own little city.”

“AFRL cultivates a large science and technology workforce and is calling for a wide array of talent to make a difference for national defense,” the lab based at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base said in an announcement of the hiring event.

Getting started is easy. Those interested can walk in or upload a resumé in advance here.

“We have tried to remove every single barrier to entry,” Morgan said. “At the very least, come to meet AFRL. Figure out who we are.”

Open job categories include: computer scientists, contracting specialists, data analysts, financial management specialists, physicists, engineers (aerospace/aeronautical, electrical, electronics, mechanical, general and computer) and all business professionals

Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC) had a massive hiring event at the same Holiday Inn in March 2023. That event drew thousands.

Morgan noted that AFRL is a smaller organization than AFLCMC — AFRL has about 6,000 civilian positions and about 12,500 employees total.

But big crowds would not scare her. “We welcome the big crowds,” she said.

Morgan does not have a firm hiring target, but she does have key vacancies she wants to fill. Among them: engineers, contract specialists and financial managers.

“Everyone makes the assumption that we’re just science and engineering,” she said. “We’re not. We have a ton of other opportunties.”

AFRL is a national organization. Applicants will learn about openings at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida and at AFRL’s Rome, N.Y. information directorate. There are also working populations in Texas and elsewhere.

AFRL has a number of ways of reaching prospective employees. Most of the job-curious go to afresearchlab.com, Morgan said. Coming in second is LinkedIn.com.

But AFRL has also started dabbling with Handshake as a way to reach students. Any employer can post a job opening or hiring event on a university board. “Handshake is the vehicle to do that,” Morgan said.