Deputy Director of Staff, HQSF/S347

The United States Space Force (USSF) at the Pentagon is searching for a Deputy Director of Staff to support HQSF/S347 (NH-0343-04, GS 14/15 equivalent).

Description:
The Office of the Deputy Chief of Space Operations for Operations is seeking an accomplished Deputy Director of Staff to help lead the integration, planning, and execution of a high-tempo headquarters organization. This is a senior, non-supervisory opportunity for a professional who can independently organize complex work, shape strategic outcomes, and turn broad leadership priorities into coordinated actions, clear decisions, and measurable results.

As the Deputy Director of Staff, you will work directly with senior military and civilian leaders to integrate competing priorities, lead complex staff actions, resolve cross-functional challenges, and sustain momentum on high-visibility initiatives. You will develop strategic plans, executive correspondence, decision-quality briefings, policies, and recommendations that improve organizational effectiveness and enable mission success.

The successful candidate is a trusted advisor, relationship builder, and collaborative problem-solver who performs well amid ambiguity and compressed timelines. You will thrive in this role if you bring mature judgment, strong accountability, exceptional communication skills, and the ability to influence outcomes while remaining aligned with leadership intent and the needs of the broader team.

Ideal Candidate:
The ideal candidate is an exceptionally capable, accountable, and collaborative senior professional who can independently lead complex, high-visibility staff actions in a fast-paced headquarters environment. The candidate will bring sound judgment, initiative, strategic perspective, and the ability to translate broad leadership intent into coordinated action, practical solutions, and decision-quality products.

The candidate must demonstrate success operating in ambiguity; managing multiple competing priorities; and leading through influence, expertise, and relationships rather than formal authority. They will be an effective integrator and negotiator who builds trust across organizational boundaries, gains consensus among stakeholders with differing interests, and strengthens the performance of the broader team.

The ideal candidate will possess:
- Demonstrated experience independently leading complex initiatives at Service Headquarters, Combatant Command, Joint Staff, or OSW-levels
- Exceptional personal accountability and follow-through; proactively identifies issues, develops options, manages risk, and drives actions to completion.
- Ability to influence, integrate, negotiate, and build consensus among senior leaders, action officers, mission partners, and external stakeholders.
- Exercises independent judgment and drives outcomes decisively, while remaining aligned with leadership intent, responsive to evolving priorities, and constructive in incorporating diverse perspectives.
- Excellent relationship-building skills and a collaborative leadership style that earns trust, facilitates teamwork, and enables mission outcomes.
- Ability to take broad or ambiguous direction and turn it into executable plans, milestones, coordinated taskings, governance processes, and decision products.
- Experience in strategic planning, organizational effectiveness, policy development, workforce and workload analysis, resource prioritization, and senior-leader support.
- Superior oral and written communication skills, including preparation of executive correspondence, briefings, decision memoranda, position papers, staff packages, reports, and recommendations.
- Experience representing an organization in senior-level forums and communicating effectively with military, civilian, joint, interagency, and other mission partners.
- Ability to mentor, guide, and elevate the work of others through technical expertise, thoughtful feedback, and professional example.

Conditions of employment

• Must be a U.S. Citizen.
• Must be able to obtain and maintain a Top-Secret security clearance with SCI access.
• PCS / Relocation funding is authorized and may be made available.
• This is a drug testing designated position. The incumbent is subject to pre-employment drug testing as a condition of employment, and participation in random drug testing.
• Eligible for situational telework only, including Emergency and OPM prescribed “Unscheduled Telework”.
• Incumbent may be required to work overtime on an unscheduled or emergency basis.
• May be required to travel by military or commercial aircraft in the performance of TDY assign.
• This position will close after 5 business days or 75 applications, whichever comes first.

Qualifications

The 0343 series does not have an individual occupational requirement that must be met. You can view the experience level requirements here. Please scroll down to the 3rd section titled Administrative and Management Positions.

How you will be evaluated

You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities (KSAs): Your qualifications will be evaluated on the basis of your level of knowledge, skills, abilities and/or competencies as related to the series and grade of the position being filled. Final qualifications determinations will be assessed based on OPM's General Schedule Qualifications Standards found here:

Interviews: You will be contacted by e-mail and/or telephone if your application is identified as qualifying for a position being filled. An interview may be conducted. If interviewed, you will be asked to address the same knowledge, skills, abilities and/or competencies used to initially qualify your application for the position.

Resume:You must submit a resume that may NOT exceed two pages, and the font size should not be smaller than 10 pts. You will not be considered for this vacancy if your resume exceeds two pages or is illegible/unreadable. Do NOT include photographs, inappropriate material, inappropriate content, nor personal information such as age, gender, religion, social security number, etc., on your resume. If the resume you submit contains such information you will not be considered for this vacancy. Your resume must provide:

1. Personal information - your full name, email and mailing addresses, phone number
2. Education information - the name of the school and the dates you attended
3. Work experience - paid and unpaid work with the following information:
   • Job title
   • Detailed duties and accomplishments
   • Employer's name and address
   • Supervisor's name and phone number
   • Starting and ending dates (If actual dates are not known, provide your best-estimated timeframes.)
   • Hours per week
   • Salary, if applicable
4. Other qualifications - skills, certifications/licenses, honors, awards, special accomplishments, and job-related training courses

College Transcripts (if applicable): Please see the Education section of this announcement for detailed information about transcripts.

Next steps