Katherine (Kathy) Tamer likes to have a master staffing plan to assist her with hiring decisions. As vice president and CIO of NASA contractor United Space Alliance (USA), Tamer leads a 400-person IT organization, so it's no wonder she needs a master plan to guide all that staffing. Her master plan identifies all the technical and professional skills her IT organization collectively needs to carry out its mission as NASA's prime IT contractor for space shuttle operations, supporting launches, landings and logistics. In this Q&A, she shares her hiring strategy and process, and she discusses the effort she and her staff put into developing a workforce of the future.

Jane Howze: What do you base your hiring decisions on?

Kathy Tamer: When I am hiring management, I look for people who can enable a team to be successful. Team dynamics are critical. There are some folks whom I could hire who might be able to do a job, but who would be totally out of sync with the dynamics of the team. I have a team today that is managing multiple sites, and they are doing a great job working together. They cover each other's backs, and if they hear something that could impact the others, they make sure they know about it as a team. Hiring is a piece of the team-building puzzle.

I also look for people who think at a level appropriate for the position I'm filling. If I'm hiring a director, I want them to think at the director level. If I'm hiring someone at the senior manager level, I want them to think at that level. Thinking like an employee on the floor and not understanding what the management issues are tells me a candidate is not ready for a management job.

Do you have a hiring strategy?

If you have the luxury of starting from scratch and you have a master plan for your organization, you'll know what kind of skills you need for the team as a whole even if you don't know what skills each individual on the team has to have. You have to have that [master plan] before you hire anyone. If I don't have the right plan for what I need, it won't matter who I hire because I won't get the right person. You have to have a plan, you have to understand what you need, and then you have to hire the right person.