CACI Prepares for a “People Pivot” with AI and Skills-Based Hiring

THE CHALLENGE

The organization was preparing for a people pivot

CACI hires approximately 6,000 employees each year to support critical defense, intelligence, and federal civilian missions. For a workforce of more than 27,000 employees, talent acquisition is not simply a hiring function—it is a strategic imperative.

As demand for highly specialized technical talent continued to grow, CACI recognized that traditional recruiting approaches would not be enough to meet future workforce needs. The organization faced increasing competition for engineers, cyber professionals, and other technical talent, many of whom also required active security clearances.

At the same time, broader workforce trends were reshaping the talent landscape.

“We started talking about this as preparing for a people pivot—thinking about how AI and workforce changes are going to impact talent availability, especially when you layer in clearance requirements,” said Marcie Small, Chief Human Resources Officer, CACI

To prepare for that future, CACI began transforming both its recruiting strategy and supporting technology infrastructure.

THE SOLUTION

Building a skills-based recruiting model

The transformation started with organizational change. CACI shifted from a traditional recruiting structure embedded in the business and reorganized recruiters into centralized skills-based teams focused on areas such as engineering, cyber, and analytics. The goal was to help recruiters develop deeper expertise, build stronger talent networks, and engage candidates with greater credibility.

The sourcing function was also expanded to support both active hiring needs and long-term pipeline development, creating a more proactive approach to talent acquisition. As the new operating model took shape, CACI conducted a comprehensive review of its HR technology ecosystem. While Workday served as the system of record and a separate CRM supported sourcing and engagement, key information and workflows remained spread across multiple systems and communication channels.

“We didn’t want separate systems for every group,”  said Erin Modrow, Vice President, Digital Talent Strategy & Analytics, CACI. “We wanted everyone working in one place so we could actually see what was happening."

Creating a connected talent ecosystem

To support its vision, CACI selected Eightfold Talent Acquisition and partnered with The Groove to design and implement a more connected recruiting experience.

The organization was particularly focused on consolidating capabilities, embedding AI directly into recruiter workflows, and creating better visibility and a systematic approach across sourcing, recruiting, hiring managers, and candidates.

The Groove’s expertise across Workday, Eightfold, and CACI’s legacy CRM environment helped the team design a solution that aligned with both the organization’s technology landscape and talent strategy.

Rather than relying on custom development, the implementation focused on configuring standard platform capabilities enhanced with industry specific custom fields to support CACI’s unique operating model. This included improving collaboration between recruiters and sourcers, enabling strategic talent communities, and incorporating security clearance information into recruiting workflows. The result was a more unified experience that reduced reliance on disconnected tools, emails, and manual processes.

Putting adoption first

From the beginning, CACI viewed adoption as critical to success. The team invested heavily in change management through focus groups, leadership alignment, early communication, and peer-led training. Because AI was a significant part of the transformation, CACI also emphasized transparency and governance, consistently positioning the platform as “CACI-approved AI” and educating users on how recommendations were generated.

The organization’s guiding principle was simple: keep the experience intuitive for recruiters, hiring managers, candidates, and employees. “We continuously pushed ourselves to ask, ‘Are we overcomplicating this? Is this really going to be easy and simple for users?’” said Erin.

EARLY RESULTS AND FUTURE GROWTH

CACI went live with Eightfold Talent Acquisition

CACI went live with Eightfold Talent Acquisition in February 2026 and quickly saw positive results.

Candidate experience scores reached approximately 4.7 out of 5, and the organization began receiving unsolicited feedback from candidates highlighting how easy the career site and application process were to navigate. Recruiters and hiring managers adopted the platform quickly, while teams gained greater visibility into sourcing, recruiting, and hiring activity.

For Marcie, the implementation experience itself stood out.

“This has been the smoothest technology implementation in HR that I’ve ever been a part of in my career.” - Marcie Small, Chief Human Resources Officer, CACI

Today, CACI is building on that foundation by expanding into talent management and continuing its focus on skills visibility, internal mobility, and workforce growth and development. By aligning its recruiting organization around skills, embedding AI into talent acquisition workflows, and creating a connected talent ecosystem, CACI has positioned itself to compete more effectively for specialized talent—and prepare for the future of work.