Hunt Begins for New 18F Director

The government’s internal tech consultancy, 18F, will be getting a new leader in the new year, with the search beginning next week.

On Monday, the General Services Administration outfit will begin accepting applications for a new executive director. The current executive director, Angela Colter, has been in the role since July 2018. However, 18F employees are term appointments, and Colter’s time at GSA runs out in February.

To get ahead of the vacancy, 18F posted an announcement about the upcoming job search.

The post will be working out of GSA headquarters in Washington, D.C., at the GS-15 level, with a salary of $137,849 to $166,500, depending on the step.

“The Executive Director of 18F oversees a consulting organization of federal employees whose mission is to improve the lives of the public and public servants by transforming how government uses technology,” the posting reads. “The work involves advocating for an iterative, human-centered approach to building and buying software in government, and running the cost-recoverable consulting organization as a business. 18F helps partner agencies improve how they build and buy effective, user-centered software that interfaces between the government and the people and organizations it serves.”

The job listing also cites three core objectives for the position: Determining the team’s vision; building and maintaining working relationships with agencies, local and foreign governments, subject matter experts, industry and the private sector; and providing leadership and cultivate a diverse workforce.

The posting offers detailed breakdowns of what is entailed under each objective.

The position is open to all U.S. citizens and nationals. However, current GSA employees and contractors are not eligible to apply.

Applicants must also have at least one year of “specialized experience” at the GS-14 level. They also must be able to demonstrate experience in all of the following areas:

• Experience ensuring effective communication of a large organization’s mission, priorities, strategies and progress to various internal stakeholders, as well as external stakeholders. This experience must include all of the following:
  • Serving as spokesperson representing the organization to the community.
  • Advocating for issues relevant to the organization, its services, and its customers.
  • Initiating, developing, and maintaining relationships with key stakeholders.
  • Experience managing controversial situations, customer negotiations, or influencing and persuading other senior-level managers.
• Experience leading a fee-for-service program. This experience must include all of the following:
  • Experience leading a consulting or systems integration business with yearly revenues of $10 million or more.
  • Accountable for achievement of cost recoverability targets.
  • Leading the development and execution of staffing plan resource requests
  • Ability to develop new business opportunities and grow revenues within an existing client base.
  • Demonstrated ability to create long-term vision and strategies for building program effectiveness (e.g. capacity planning and building out succession plans).
  • Demonstrated project management skills (e.g. able to manage multiple tasks, priorities and stakeholders effectively).
  • Ensuring the team completes projects and deliverables for clients within deadlines.
• Experience navigating highly ambiguous or uncertain situations to deliver results. This experience must include all of the following:
  • Leading stakeholders through organizational change.
  • Garnering support for teams by persuading others to provide approval, funding or resources.
  • Adjusting strategy based on qualitative or quantitative strategy.
  • Previous experience leading client-facing consulting (i.e. researching, designing and executing to solve a specific problem for a client) projects or initiatives.
  • Previous experience collaborating with cross-functional teams (i.e. developers, product managers, designers, clients) to achieve organizational or project objectives.
• Experience leading teams that use modern software design and development methodologies, including human-centered design and iterative development (e.g. agile, lean, kanban, user research, journey mapping, personas, user stories).

The official application process will open at 9 a.m. Nov. 18.