As the FBI builds a $1 billion campus at Redstone Arsenal, the bureau is reaching out to college students in Alabama to fill one of the potentially thousands of jobs in Huntsville.

During a visit to Auburn University on Friday, FBI Deputy Director David Bowdich signed a memorandum of understanding with the school that will “help address the demand for a larger future workforce trained in such disciplines as STEM and foreign language,” the school said in an announcement.

The FBI has said it is looking to fill more than 4,000 jobs over several years as the bureau creates an unofficial HQ2 behind the secured fences at the arsenal.

"The agreement calls Auburn a partner with the FBI as it expands its workforce and operations at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville," the announcement said. "The university will educate and train bureau employees, and provide the next generation of specialists needed to take on critical roles across the agency. The FBI and Auburn will also share mutually beneficial information, research and technology that advances criminal justice and student and faculty opportunities."

In December, the FBI described building a college-like campus at Redstone Arsenal. Seven construction projects are underway on the 243-acre campus.

The FBI already has 450 employees at Redstone and Rob Hamilton, the FBI's senior executive at Redstone, said in his presentation at the Redstone Update in December that 1,400 jobs are expected to be transferred from Washington in 2021.

“The FBI making a significant presence in Huntsville enables Auburn to take on a leadership role to work jointly on threats targeting critical infrastructure sectors such as power and telecommunications,” Rodney Robertson, executive director of the Auburn University Huntsville Research Center, said in the announcement. “The impact this partnership will have will not only benefit the state of Alabama, but the nation as a whole as threat intelligence for analysis leads to a better understanding of new and emerging threats targeting our networks.”

In speaking to students, Bowdich encouraged them to seek out opportunities to serve their country.

“We have an opportunity to serve the public and to serve the country, and if the college students out there hear nothing else, I would say this: Serve your country in some form or fashion. It doesn’t have to be with us, but this is a great country we’re in,” said Bowdich, according to the announcement. “Serve it, at least through part of your adult life, please, because it will provide you more gratification than that big check will, I promise you.

“It won’t relieve tension like that big check will, but I promise you at the end of the day you will go home feeling good about what you just did or about what you are doing, and that’s something that money cannot buy.”