As a DARPA manager, you will work in one of six offices. The themes of each office is derived from DARPA’s strategy and set by the DARPA Director, Tony Tether. The director sets the strategy by interactions with the Secretary and Under Secretaries of Defense, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Combatant Commanders, Service Secretaries, Service Chiefs, Service units, and the staffs at each level of the Department of Defense.

There are two basic types of technical offices at DARPA: technology offices and systems offices.

The technology offices focus on new capabilities and component technologies that might have significant national security applications. Currently, these offices are the Defense Sciences Office and Microsystems Technology Office.

The systems offices focus on solutions to military problems and technology programs leading to products that more closely resemble a specific military end-product; i.e., an item that might eventually be in the military inventory. These offices are the Tactical Technology Office and Strategic Technology Office.

As a practical matter, a fair amount of overlap exists between the two types of offices; the work in the technology offices often shapes the work of the systems offices, and vice versa. And one office, Information Processing Techniques Office, covers the continuum from research to prototyping of military systems.

DARPA Program Offices

• Defense Sciences Office (DSO)
• Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO)
• Microsystems Technology Office (MTO)
• Strategic Technology Office (STO)
• Tactical Technology Office (TTO)

PROGRAMS