Pentagon begins recruiting its next cohort of disruptive defense acquisition fellows

Pentagon procurement officials who are looking to up their expertise in buying cutting-edge tech for the U.S. military can now apply to join the 2026 Immersive Commercial Acquisition Program fellowship cohort, Defense Innovation Unit officials announced Tuesday.

Next year will mark the fourth iteration of the educational ICAP initiative, which DIU runs in partnership with the Defense Acquisition University. This fellowship is designed to provide DOD’s leading procurement professionals with hands-on experience and virtual training to help them more effectively buy in-demand commercial technologies from non-traditional military contractors. 

“We have other acquisition officers from across the department who can apply to the year-long fellowship with DIU — to learn our process, how we work with industry, and then bring that back to wherever they’re going. And [the next ICAP application] just opened today,” DIU’s Deputy Director for Commercial Operations Liz Young McNally told DefenseScoop during a panel at the Special Competitive Studies Project’s AI+ Expo.

If tapped for the fellowship, personnel will get a chance to work on a variety of real-world, military service-aligned projects alongside a DIU contracting officer, project team and commercial solution providers.

The fellows will also gain in-depth instruction on a flexible contracting mechanism designed for rapid prototyping and acquisition of commercial tech, known as other transaction (OT) authority. That mechanism, as well as DIU’s commercial solutions opening (CSO) solicitation process, helps the Pentagon operate at a pace that is closer to commercial speeds, when buying certain technologies.

Pointing to recent internal DIU stats, McNally said that for roughly 40% of the companies that win a new CSO deal each year, “this is the first time they ever worked with the DOD.”

“We’ve built all of these processes [to accelerate acquisition]. So we’re asking for a problem statement as opposed to a requirement. It’s a short response, right — like a few pages or a few slides, as opposed to something more — very rapid. And [the ICAP fellowship] is one of the processes that we have built to help not just do it ourselves, but then scale it across the department,” she noted.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recently issued new guidance to inform how the Pentagon buys software capabilities. In it, he directed Pentagon officials to prioritize OT and CSO procurement options when purchasing digital assets for the military.

“[DIU is] also working very closely with [the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment] and others in the department to implement the president’s new executive order on acquisition. And programs like that fellowship are a real way that we’re going to be able to help upskill, and train, and drive the culture change required so that we bring in more commercial technology,” McNally told DefenseScoop.

Those who wish to apply for ICAP must be permanent government civilians or active component military contracting officers. Each fellow will produce a capstone project that will serve as a training plan for their home organization, based on what they learn throughout the 12-month program.

Applications will be accepted until July 31. DIU aims to notify selected candidates in September and begin the program in October.

“To ensure our warfighters maintain a decisive advantage, we need contracting professionals who are fluent in both the defense and commercial sectors, and who can help their teammates across the department to develop that same fluency. That is what the ICAP fellowship delivers, and we need to keep scaling it — and its impact — for the department’s critical needs,” DIU Director Doug Beck said in a statement.