Defense Contractor Hiring

A Charleston defense contractor plans to swell its workforce to well over 1,000 by the end of December.

Scientific Research Corp., which now has 950 employees at its Remount Road site, will add 135 highly skilled workers to fill back orders and new military contracts expected next year from the nearby Space and Naval Warfare System Center Atlantic, or SPAWAR as it's commonly called.

"That's the work force we need to accomplish the backlog of work on the books," said James Ward, senior vice president. "We are expecting additional contracts from SPAWAR, but we don't want to wait for the contracts and then start hiring somebody."

The move comes a month after Scientific Research laid off 25 electronic technicians because of the slowdown in demand for armored mine-resistant vehicles, Ward said. Those employees installed equipment inside the vehicles, he added.

The new hires will require a different set of skills, Ward said. "It will be a higher technical workforce, such as engineers, software developers, (information technology) professionals and information assurance workers," he said.

The workers will help the Department of Defense buy data storage and applications as a service rather than building more government facilities to house the information, Ward said. It's called cloud-computing.

"The Department of Defense is trying to save money, and it will reduce their infrastructure costs significantly," he added.

All the new workers will need security clearances, which tends to lengthen the process and limit the pool of workers, which is why they have begun the employee search now, Ward said.

Ward expects hiring to be difficult because the positions that need to be filled are in demand nationwide.

"All sorts of national firms will be hiring the same people," he said. "But it's good for Charleston to have this kind of demand for engineering professionals."

**How to apply **Anyone interested in the openings should log on to http://www.scires.com/ and click on 'How to apply' and then the 'Jobs search' button at the top of the page. They can also call 747-8766 or submit resumes at Scientific Research Corp., 1101 Remount Road, Suite 500, North Charleston, S.C. 29406.