MSPB hiring new privacy chief

The Merit Systems Protection Board is seeking an experienced attorney to focus on privacy as chief privacy officer and director of information services.

The job comes with a heavy focus on how to manage, store and destroy personally identifiable information to keep it from falling into unauthorized hands.

The independent agency is responsible for investigating claims of wrongful termination or disciplinary action against federal civil servants, so MSPB handles a great deal of sensitive personal information.

The job posting comes as the new Federal Privacy Council is helping to push privacy issues to the federal fore.

MSPB Clerk of the Board Bill Spencer told FCW that officials hope to "double-down" on good privacy practices with the new hire. He said the previous job-holder left in August 2015, and back then the job was only director of information services.

The new dual position will not report to the MSPB CIO but will instead report directly to Spencer -- an independent set-up that is in line with White House declarations that "privacy is not a subset of cybersecurity or IT" but its own important field of work.

Qualified applicants must have a law degree in addition to leadership skills and privacy expertise. The position will pay between $108,887 and $160,300.

MSPB's job posting went live June 6, and the board plans to take applications through June 15.

Spencer noted that various regulations will apply to the hiring process, but he said that given MSPB's desire to stay abreast of the government's heightened focus on privacy, "obviously, we want to try to recruit as quickly as possible."