Chief Information Security Officer

Current or Former Political Appointees: The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) must authorize employment offers made to current or former political appointees. If you are currently, or have been within the last five (5) years, a political Schedule A, Schedule C, Noncareer SES or Presidential Appointee employee in the Executive Branch, you must disclose this information on your resume and to the Human Resources Office.

As a basic requirement for entry into the SES, applicants must provide evidence of progressively responsible executive leadership and supervisory experience that is indicative of senior executive level managerial capability. This experience should be sufficiently broad in scope and at a major management level in a large or complex organization. The ideal candidate will have experience supervising many employees through subordinate supervisors and have experience hiring, developing, and evaluating employees. Typically, experience of this nature is at the GS-15 or equivalent level in the federal service or its equivalent in the private sector.

Your application should demonstrate that you possess the knowledge, skills, and abilities to successfully fulfill responsibilities inherent in SES positions such as:

• Leading the work of an organizational unit
• Ensuring the success of one or more specific major programs or projects
• Monitoring progress toward strategic organizational goals, evaluating organizational performance and taking action to improve performance
• Supervising the work of employees, developing policy and other executive functions

If your experience does not include these basic qualifications, you will not be determined qualified for this position.

YOU MUST FULLY ADDRESS EACH MTQ AND ECQ TO BE RATED FOR FURTHER CONSIDERATION.

Current or former career SES employees, or OPM/QRB Candidate Development Program (CDP) candidates are not required to address the ECQs, but MUST fully address the MTQs.

In addition to the qualifying experience, applicants must possess the following technical qualifications that represent the knowledge, skills, and abilities essential to perform the duties and responsibilities of the position.

MANDATORY TECHNICAL QUALIFICATIONS (MTQs): All applicants must submit a written narrative addressing each MTQ separately, not to exceed one (1) page per MTQ. You must fully address each MTQ to be rated for further consideration.

MTQ 1 - Experience in building and managing cyber security programs and information technology projects.

MTQ 2 - Experience leading complex cyber security programs/projects and to quickly and accurately analyze technical, budgetary, and performance objectives in order to arrive at factual conclusions pertaining to agency objectives.

MTQ 3 - Experience leading management processes and techniques for improving business processes and measuring and evaluating program performance as it relates to cyber security architectures and oversight of major systems and infrastructure.

MTQ 4 - Experience supported by examples of a situations where you personally managed the identification, mitigation, and communication efforts, both inside and outside your agency, involving a complex real-time cyber exploit.

EXECUTIVE CORE QUALIFICATIONS (ECQs): All applicants must submit a written narrative addressing each ECQ, not to exceed two (2) pages per ECQ for a total of no more than 10 pages. You must fully address each ECQ to be rated for further consideration. Current or former career SES employees, or OPM/QRB Candidate Development Program (CDP) candidates are not required to address the ECQs.

Introduction: The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has identified five Executive Core Qualifications (ECQs). The ECQs were designed to assess executive experience and potential - not technical expertise. They measure whether an individual has the broad executive skills needed to succeed in a variety of SES positions - not whether they are the most superior candidates for a particular position. Successful competence in the SES requires competence in each ECQ. Candidates must demonstrate executive experience in all five (5) ECQs. Your application should reflect an overall record of the knowledge, skills and abilities necessary to succeed in the SES.

Examples of good qualifications statements and the use of the C-C-A-R model (Challenge/Context/Action/Results), the preferred method of writing your ECQs, is provided in OPM's Guide to SES Qualifications.

Format: For each of the five ECQs, provide two examples of your qualifications using the four C-C-A-R elements.

1. Challenge - Describe a specific problem or goal.

2. Context - Talk about the individuals and groups you worked with, and/or the environment in which you worked to tackle a particular challenge (e.g., clients, co-workers, members of Congress, shrinking budget, low morale).

3. Action - Discuss the specific actions you took to address a challenge.

4. Results - Give specific examples of the results of your actions. These accomplishments demonstrate the quality and effectiveness of your leadership skills.

NOTE: Your responses to the five ECQs must describe the context and the results of your achievements in lay terminology, free of jargon and excessive reliance on acronyms.

ECQ 1 - LEADING CHANGE - This core qualification involves the ability to bring about strategic change, both within and outside the organization, to meet organizational goals. Inherent to this ECQ is the ability to establish an organizational vision and to implement it in a continuously changing environment. (Competencies: creativity and innovation, external awareness, flexibility, strategic thinking and vision).

ECQ 2 - LEADING PEOPLE - This core qualification involves the ability to lead people toward meeting the organization's vision, mission, and goals. Inherent to this ECQ is the ability to provide an inclusive workplace that fosters the development of others, facilitates cooperation and teamwork, and supports constructive resolution of conflicts. (Competencies: conflict management, leveraging diversity, developing others and team building).

ECQ 3 - RESULTS DRIVEN - This core qualification involves the ability to meet organizational goals and customer expectations. Inherent to this ECQ is the ability to make decisions that produce high-quality results by applying technical knowledge, analyzing problems, and calculating risks. (Competencies: accountability, customer service, decisiveness, entrepreneurship, problem solving and technical credibility).

ECQ 4 - BUSINESS ACUMEN - This core qualification involves the ability to manage human, financial, and information resources strategically. (Competencies: financial management, human capital management and technology management).

ECQ 5 - BUILDING COALITIONS - This core qualification involves the ability to build coalitions internally and with other Federal agencies, State and Local governments, nonprofit and private-sector organizations, foreign governments, or international organizations to achieve common goals. (Competencies: partnering, political savvy and influencing/negotiating).

Detailed information on the Executive Core Qualifications is available here.

Should you require additional guidance in writing your ECQs, please click below:ECQ Template