I spent nearly 20 years in the background-screening industry and was part of the executive team that built and sold our technology to DISA in 2022. I continued working with DISA post-acquisition to support the acquired technology, guide modernization, and help integrate the platform we built into their broader ecosystem. What happened over the next three years was the exact opposite of what anyone would expect during an acquisition.
1. Zero Integration Strategy After Acquisition: We were acquired with no plan to integrate leadership, technology, or culture. Key contributors were never onboarded, acknowledged, or aligned with DISA’s structure. Roles remained undefined for years, leaving highly skilled people sidelined with no direction.
2. Massive Organizational Waste: DISA ignored early AI and automation opportunities that could have saved or generated well over $100M in competitive advantage - and that number compounds daily. The company is years behind industry innovation, even when solutions were being actively built internally.
3. Leadership Silos & Cultural Breakdown: The culture shifted dramatically post-acquisition - poor communication, no cross-team visibility, talent undervalued, and decisions made without technical context or understanding. There is no unified vision, and leadership teams operate independently with little coordination.
4. Understaffed, Overstretched, and Reactive: Critical systems were reduced to skeleton crews. Operational decisions are reactive instead of strategic. Technical debt accumulates unchecked because leadership refuses to allocate resources appropriately.
5. No Career Path, No Role Definition, No Utilization of Talent: Despite being part of the executive team during M&A, my role was never defined or aligned within DISA. There was no scope, roadmap, or direction — and no interest in creating one. Skilled people end up doing minimal work not because they lack ability, but because the organization has no framework to utilize them.
6. A Data Breach Mishandled From Start to Finish: DISA experienced a cybersecurity breach affecting over 3 million individuals, including highly sensitive data such as SSNs, driver’s license numbers, and financial information - yet waited nearly a year before informing the public. This level of operational opacity and delayed disclosure raises serious concerns about leadership accountability, security maturity, and overall risk management. Class-action lawsuits and the public breach make DISA a high-risk partner. Employers and job-seekers alike should question its reliability and risk profile.
7. Poor Technology Decisions & Legacy System Reliance: Despite acquiring modern, well-architected technology, DISA consistently failed to understand, adopt, or scale it. Instead, leadership chose to rely on older, brittle systems with buggy codebases and weak architectures. One core system went offline for weeks, leaving teams scrambling to continue operations. In another case, the invoicing engine of a legacy platform malfunctioned so severely that it resulted in millions of dollars in missed billing before anyone noticed
Bottom Line: This is not a place for innovators, senior technical leaders, or anyone who expects clarity, strategy, or meaningful work. The people are good - the structure is not. If you want stability and low expectations, you’ll be fine. If you want to make real impact, look elsewhere.
