Sioux Falls’ DSU cybersecurity lab now could bring 1,500 jobs, DSU leaders say

The promise of jobs for the new Dakota State University cybersecurity applied research lab in Sioux Falls just tripled.

Up to 1,500 new jobs may be in the cards with the program's expansion, according to a Monday morning conversation at Downtown Sioux Falls Rotary with DSU’s leaders. That's more than the 500 jobs that were announced two weeks ago.

Jobs will be available for people doing major defense research work at the school.

“The real focus of what we're going to be doing is, in fact, national security and defense,” DSU president Jose-Marie Griffiths said at the Rotary meeting Monday. “We've had a federal agency saying, oh, you know, I could take 200 a year from you. I mean, these are the numbers we’ve never really thought about, until now."

Of the $90 million going toward this initiative, $50 million over five years will come from T. Denny Sanford to expand in Sioux Falls; $10 million will come from the city, pending council approval; $250,000 from Forward Sioux Falls for a cyber/IT park in Sioux Falls; $30 million from the state as proposed in Gov. Kristi Noem’s State of the State address, pending legislative approval.

The project could double the graduation rate and establish South Dakota as the Midwest center for cyber defense. The facility means the state is also working hard to prevent "brain drain," or the phenomenon in which highly-educated young people leave the state.

More: Dakota State University could help establish South Dakota as a cyber state by building research lab in Sioux Falls

Keeping tech workers in South Dakota?

Cybersecurity education at DSU will “probably the biggest thing since, I think, since Citibank because it will just continue to provide incredible jobs here in South Dakota,” Miles Beacom, the CEO of Premier Bankcard and a DSU alum, said at the Rotary meeting.

Beacom, a major donor to DSU, touted that the financial industry in Sioux Falls has been able to innovate and keep up with major coastal cities and that cybersecurity research can do the same.

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DSU points to the lower cost of living, the nearby airport and the attraction to move employers here for workers as reasons to choose Sioux Falls for the lab.

“Our authorization to conduct this kind of work has to be within 50 miles of Dakota State. So, the only place that really made sense was Sioux Falls, and it made perfect sense,” Griffiths said, noting that comparable cost of living and expenses here is about 40% less than coastal centers.

More: Dakota State University's cyber future closer to reality as Senate committee OKs 2 bills

These are not state jobs, technically

Jobs at the lab will not be state jobs, technically, Griffiths said.

A nonprofit will be established to get the payroll going. That nonprofit won't add to the state’s employment budget, but will instead be led by the Board of Regents and DSU.

Dakota State University expects to graduate hundreds of students into six-figure jobs doing work online to secure the nation’s major business, government and other computer systems.

DSU officials expect Madison and Sioux Falls will work in tandem to grow one another’s salary bases in its initial phases.

“So in addition to 500-plus, in Sioux Falls, we'll have 125 in Madison as compensation starting at $100,000. So that's a big impact on Madison as well,” Griffiths said. “It’s a win-win.”

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: 1,500 jobs to be created by DSU for cyber applied research by 2025

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