Washington: The Trump administration is seeking to recruit 400 dealmakers to help strengthen US national security supply chains, offering salaries of up to $400,000 a year - matching the president's pay - to attract top Wall Street talent.
Under a new hiring initiative, the White House is targeting finance professionals by offering unusually high compensation and allowing recruits to retain private-sector benefits such as stock options and carried interest.
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The initiative aims to bring in experts to structure financial agreements that support critical supply chains and domestic industries vital to national security, according to administration officials.
The effort seeks to address what officials described as a major bottleneck in government: a shortage of skilled personnel to evaluate and execute hundreds of potential projects. Experts in finance and dealmaking could help the US deploy taxpayer funds more efficiently and accelerate efforts to reindustrialize the country, officials said.
"For too long, the federal government has tried to shore up critical supply chain deficiencies in industries such as semiconductors, shipyards and critical minerals without enough people with dealmaking experience in these strategic industries," US Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Director Scott Kupor said this month. "Under Trump, that is changing."
Kupor previously served as managing partner at venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.
The initiative targets professionals skilled in structuring, negotiating and closing complex transactions who may otherwise be reluctant to leave the private sector for temporary government roles.
Federal civil service salaries currently top out at $197,200 annually, while senior executives can earn up to $228,000. Under the new programme, however, recruits would start at $253,100 - equivalent to a cabinet secretary's salary - and could earn as much as $400,000 annually.
