Associate Director, Trust Decision (Adjudications)

About the role

The Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) is a separate Agency of the Department of War (DoW) under the direction, authority, and control of the Under Secretary of War for Intelligence and Security (USW (I&S)). This position is located in DCSA's Personnel Vetting, Trust Decision Office and reports to DCSA's Director. This is a Tier 1 position.

What you will do

• The Associate Director, Trust Decision (Adjudications) will serve as the head of the Trust Decision organization and be the principal advisor to senior management on how best to assure delivery of timely, consistent, legally sufficient, risk-informed trust determinations and security review services for the Department of War and other federal customers.
• In this regard, the incumbent will advise on and research ways and means of effecting business transformation consistent with the DCSA strategic and business plans.
• Responsibilities Include: Lead the Trust Decision organization in support of DCSA's personnel-vetting mission and the Director's strategic intent by translating agency priorities into measurable outcomes and aligning workforce, technology, and funding to mission demand.
• Directs a high-volume, knowledge-based service-delivery operation responsible for adjudicative determinations, issue resolution, and security reviews by establishing a disciplined operating system that connects demand, inventory, and capacity to mission commitments.
• Lead outcome-based capacity planning and monitor performance standards specifically targeting defect rate, exit rate, capacity utilization, and backlog.
• Uses operational indicators to mitigate emerging risks, direct recovery plans, and ensure the resilience of mission-essential services.
• Establishes an enterprise quality-management system measuring accuracy, consistency, and systemic risk while ensuring all adjudicative and security-review activities fully comply with applicable statutes, federal directives, and security policies.
• Analyze requests for additional and supplemental information to develop continuous-improvement strategies, improve performance analytics, and partner with investigative leaders to produce adjudicative ready products that minimize avoidable rework and delay.
• Leads the transformation of Trust Decision processes, services, and operating models by partnering with technical, acquisition, and security leaders to define and prioritize operational requirements.
• Establish business ownership for technology investments in workflow tools, automation, and artificial intelligence, utilizing pilots and phased implementations to ensure these capabilities address validated mission problems with measurable benefits.
• Modernizes data systems to improve decision-making quality while ensuring that human judgment remains central to consequential trust decisions and that all automated processes are secure, explainable, and fully compliant with law and policy.
• Serves as DCSA's senior Trust Decision interface, representing the agency in senior-level governance forums, negotiations, and interagency initiatives with DoW components, federal customers, and intelligence partners.
• Build strategic coalitions to resolve cross-organizational challenges affecting timeliness, quality, reciprocity, and technology while establishing clear service expectations and transparent reporting on performance and risk.
• Promotes reciprocity and consistency across the personnel-vetting enterprise, communicating directly and credibly regarding performance trade-offs, resource constraints, and practical solutions Develops, justifies, and executes the Trust Decision budget by connecting resource requests to workload forecasts, productivity, and risk reduction to prioritize hiring, technology, and contract investments.
• Oversee contractor performance to ensure support is integrated without displacing inherently governmental responsibilities, while maintaining sound internal controls and proactively identifying resource trade-offs for informed senior-leader decision-making.
• Preserves the integrity and independence of case-level determinations while improving the broader systems, standards, and training that safeguard national security and public trust.
• Leads, develops, and holds accountable a diverse workforce of subordinate executives, managers, and technical experts by building a high-performance culture grounded in integrity, accountability, and inclusion.

Education

This position does not have a positive education requirement.

How you will be evaluated

You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above. We will review your resume and supporting documents for quality and extent of your total accomplishments, experience, and education as it relates to the fundamental competencies required for this position.

Your application will be evaluated by a rating and ranking panel, and highly qualified candidates may undergo an interview and a reference check process.

Documents you must provide

• The documents you are required to submit vary based on the authority you are using to apply (i.e., applying as a veteran, applying as a current permanent Federal employee, applying as a reinstatement, etc.).
• Your complete application includes your COMPLETE resume, your responses to the online questionnaire, and documents which prove your eligibility to apply.
• If you fail to provide these documents, you will be marked as having an incomplete application package and you will not be considered any further.
• Resume: IMPORTANT UPDATE: Your resume must not exceed two (2) pages.
• If your resume exceeds the two-page limit, you will be removed from consideration for this announcement.
• The resume and required supporting documentation should provide the minimum qualifications and relevant experience for the announced position.
• Must include the work schedule, hours worked per week, dates of employment, and duties performed.
• If multiple resumes are submitted by an applicant, only the last resume submitted will be reviewed for qualifications and referred for selection consideration, if eligible.
• The resume must not be more than 5MB and should be saved and uploaded as a PDF to maintain formatting and number of pages.
• We also accept GIF, JPG, JPEG, PNG, RTF, TXT, PDF, ODT or Word (DOC or DOCX).
• We do not accept PDF portfolio files.
• Page margins should be 0.5 inches, and font styles must be legible.
• Consider using 14-point size font for titles and 10-point for the main text.
• We recommend using a font like Lato, if available.
• Other widely available options are Calibri, Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, Open San Source Sans Pro, Roboto or Noro Sans.
• Additional guidance on writing a federal resume can be found at: USAJOBS Help Center - How do I write a resume for a federal job?
• The resume builder can help you create a resume using these recommendations and uses the information in your USAJOBS profile to help you get started.
• SF50 All current and former civilian Federal employees must submit a copy of your MOST RECENT SF50 (Notification of Personnel Action) showing your tenure, grade and step, salary, and type of position occupied (i.e., Excepted or Competitive); or similar Notification of Personnel Action documentation, i.e., Transcript of Service, Form 1150, etc. This is also a requirement to verify your Time in Grade (TIG).
• Joint Duty Credit Information If selected, additional documentation may be required prior to appointment.
• DO NOT submit additional information (i.e. awards, appraisals).

What to expect next

Once you successfully complete the application process, you will receive a notification of receipt. Your application package will be reviewed to ensure you meet the basic eligibility and qualifications requirements, and you will receive a notification. A review will be made of the documentation you submitted to support your responses.

A list of qualified applicants will be created and sent to the selecting official. All applicants reviewed and/or referred will receive a notification letter. The selecting official may choose to conduct interviews, and once the selection is made, you will receive a notification of the decision.

REGARDING INTERVIEWS: Interviews may be required for this position. Accommodations may be made to conduct telephonic interviews to preclude travel hardships for applicants. Note: Declining to be interviewed or failure to report for a scheduled interview will be considered as a declination for further consideration for employment against this vacancy.

The Defense Counterintelligence Security Agency provides reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the application and hiring process, please notify the point of contact for this job announcement. Your requests for reasonable accommodation will be addressed on a case-by-case basis.

Additional information

Other Notes: If selected, Federal employees currently serving in the competitive service must acknowledge that they will voluntarily leave the competitive service by accepting an offer of employment for a DCIPS excepted service positions.

If selected, non-DCIPS candidates must acknowledge in writing that the position they have been selected for is in the excepted service and covered by DCIPS. Selection under this appointment authority does not confer civil service competitive status. Veteran's preference is not applicable to the Defense Intelligence Senior Executive Service (DISES).

Joint Duty Credit: All DCSA executive level positions require Joint Duty Credit. Only those candidates who meet the Joint Duty Credit requirement will be eligible to compete/be considered for a senior executive position.

Employees will receive joint duty credit for many almost any rotational assignments assignment to another IC component and may also be eligible to receive credit for service outside the IC (military, other government, or private sector) that was at least at the GS/GG-1113 or DCIPS Pay Band 3 level, that and it occurred on or after September 11, 2001.

An external candidate, if selected, will be required to immediately apply for Joint Duty credit. Note: Employees without Joint Duty Credit may apply for the position and can be considered. If selected, a waiver would be required prior to final appointment.

DCSA seniors without Joint Duty at the same tier level may lateral into the position if selected without requesting a waiver. This position is subject to an initial drug screening, and random testing thereafter. A negative drug test result must be received by HR within 30 calendar days after the EOD (i.e., start date).

The selectee's inability successfully pass; or refusal to conduct the test may result in: 1) the tentative or FJO being withdrawn during the recruitment process; or 2) subsequently being removed from Federal service for failure to meet a condition of employment. You may be required to sign a "Drug Test Statement of Understanding" if you are selected for this position.