Chief of Staff

Orbis is a practitioner-led company that moves at mission tempo and is looking for a Chief of Staff to join the Federal Intel Leadership team and act as a force multiplier by improving organizational effectiveness, driving strategic initiatives, facilitating executive decision-making, and ensuring key business priorities are executed effectively. The Chief of Staff is a mid-level leadership role that plays a key part in supporting operations, growth, people, and customer relations, must operate with discretion, and drive initiatives to closure.

The Chief of Staff is a high-trust, high-visibility position that sits at the operational center of the business unit. The Chief of Staff must be comfortable operating in an environment where priorities shift, ambiguity is the norm, and execution is expected without a detailed playbook. This role does not manage staff directly; it creates leverage by driving cross-functional alignment, owning strategic projects, and ensuring the organization acts on what the leadership team decides.

The ideal candidate is a highly analytical, business-minded leader who can operate across strategy, operations, communications, and cross-functional execution while building strong relationships throughout the organization. The person must thrive in both collaborative and independent settings, taking ownership of initiatives and driving them to completion.

Duties/Responsibilities

• Drive Strategic Priorities & Special Projects: Lead cross functional initiatives from planning through execution, ensuring alignment with organizational goals and removing barriers to progress.
• Translate Strategy Into Actionable Plans: Convert leadership priorities into clear workstreams, milestones, owners, and measurable outcomes.
• Provide Situational Awareness & Risk Management: Monitor organizational dynamics, surface emerging issues early, and proactively flag risks, conflicts, or misalignments.
• Serve as a Strategic Thought Partner: Deliver insights, analyses, business cases, and data driven recommendations to support executive decision making.
• Synthesize Information for Executive Consumption: Produce concise, decision ready briefings, summaries, and talking points that distill complex information across the business.
• Manage Operating Cadence & Organizational Rhythm: Oversee staff meetings, planning cycles, program reviews, and action item tracking to maintain operational discipline and accountability.
• Lead Internal & External Communications: Draft, refine, and coordinate high priority communications, ensuring consistent messaging to employees, customers, and stakeholders.
• Support Talent Processes & Organizational Health: Partner with HR on hiring, onboarding, and identifying organizational inefficiencies; recommend improvements backed by analysis.
• Oversee Federal Intel-Specific Processes: Manage the Federal Intel material repository, document procedures, administer awards programs, and participate in PMR processes to understand financial performance.
• Enhance Engagement & Executive Preparedness: Support leadership in communication and engagement strategies; prepare pre briefs, background materials, and decision memos for high stakes interactions.

Competencies

• Strategic Leadership & Initiative
  
  
  
  • Proven self-starter who delivers outcomes from high-level guidance, independently or as part of a team, with a track record of leading cross-functional teams through strategic initiatives
  • Thrives in ambiguity, brings order from chaos, and demonstrates agility in fast-paced, mission-driven environments
  
  
  
  
• Business Acumen & Domain Knowledge
  
  
  
  • Strong decision-making and strategic thinking grounded in a solid grasp of federal contracting environments, including BD lifecycle, program execution rhythms, and government client relationship dynamics
  • Ability to gather and analyze data, identify issues, and develop actionable solutions that support intel-focused program and business objectives
  
  
  
  
• Communication, Collaboration & Stakeholder Engagement
  
  
  
  • Outstanding verbal and written communication skills, with a proven ability to produce concise, decision-quality documents under time pressure
  • Builds and sustains relationships across internal teams, external stakeholders, and government clients, fostering collaboration and serving diverse program and employee needs
  
  
  
  
• Execution & Adaptability
  
  
  
  • Manages multiple competing priorities and delivers results on schedule with a flexible, versatile approach to change
  • Comfortable operating within dynamic program execution environments with shifting requirements and stakeholder demands
  
  
  
  
• Discretion & Integrity
  
  
  
  • High discretion with a demonstrated track record of handling sensitive personnel, financial, and strategic information with confidentiality, particularly critical in an intel business context
  
  
  
  
• Technology Fluency
  
  
  
  • Familiar with data and AI-enabled decision tools and comfortable operating within Orbis's technology landscape, with the ability to learn new tools, platforms, and processes quickly
  
  
  
  

Success Metrics

• Strategic initiatives delivered on time and within scope
• Priorities translated into measurable business outcomes.
• Improved cross-functional collaboration and decision-making speed.
• Information & Knowledge Management - Critical documents, decisions, and action items captured and retrievable
• Leadership Bandwidth & Effectiveness - Reduction in time leadership spends on administrative and coordination tasks, Increased organizational alignment and operational efficiency, and meeting agendas, pre-reads, and follow-through actions managed without prompting

Required Qualifications

• 5 - 10 years of progressive leadership experience
• 5 - 10 years embedded at Intelligence Community customer site(s)
• Bachelor's degree
• An active TS/SCI clearance with Polygraph

Desired Qualifications

• Advanced degree and/or PMP

Physical Requirements

• Prolonged periods of sitting and working at a computer
• Participation in virtual and in-person meetings
• Ability to attend planned meetings and work in classified space for prolong time periods within the Washington Metro Area region.
• Ability to travel to support proposal efforts, primarily in the Washington Metro Area (WMA), to work on classified responses

Orbis Operations is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, marital status, disability, veteran status, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.

Orbis Operations is committed to creating an inclusive and diverse workplace where all employees are valued and respected. We encourage applications from all qualified individuals, including those from underrepresented groups.

In accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Orbis Operations will provide reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities throughout the application and employment process. If you require an accommodation, please contact us at hr@orbisops.com.