Planning Support Subject Matter Expert

Key Responsibilities

• Define planning-support standards (templates, quality gates, staffing checklists, traceability expectations, version-control conventions) for branch-wide use
• Advise government leads on complex planning-support approaches (staffing strategy, integration paths, decision points, adjudication methods)
• Perform senior technical review of high-visibility briefs, information papers, and final planning documents to ensure clarity, consistency, and decision-readiness
• Resolve the hardest integration problems (conflicting guidance, misaligned assumptions, incomplete inputs) and recommend defensible tradeoffs and mitigation paths
• Translate policy/guidance into actionable planning inputs and posture initiative implications (as directed by government leads)
• Strengthen Operational Planning Team (OPT)/working group outcomes by shaping narratives, analytical framing, and decision-quality criteria (not meeting administration)
• Coach Senior and junior staff on advanced staff writing, editorial judgment, and staffing discipline through targeted reviews and exemplars
• Audit systemic bottlenecks and recommend repeatable improvements to reduce rework and improve first-pass acceptance (without taking over daily execution)

Qualifications

• Masters and thirteen years or more experience; PhD or JD and ten (10) years or more experience.
• Career level and intermediate level military education (Expeditionary Warfare School, Marine Corps Command and Staff College (other service equivalents)) 10+ years deep experience supporting joint/service planning and senior-leader decision support, including production and critical review of staff products.
• Demonstrated mastery of JPEC planning forums and staffing dynamics (e.g., OPTs, joint planning groups (JPGs)).
• Knowledge and application experience in the Marine Corps Planning Process (MCPP) and Joint Planning Process (JPP).
• Expert capability drafting/editing planning products and enforcing consistency, traceability, and formatting discipline.
• Ability to comply with government workplace requirements and obtain/maintain any required access/eligibility.
• Strongly Preferred: Intermediate or top-level operational planning education (e.g., JAWS/SAMS/MAWS/SAASS/Service and Joint War Colleges or Fellowships), Senior PME (e.g., CGSC/ILE, USMC CSC, Naval/War College equivalents), Prior experience with USINDOPACOM, MARFORPAC, HQMC, a combatant command, Service component, or MEF HQ, Doctoral degree in a relevant field.

Skills & Competencies

• Deep functional expertise in deliberate planning support and posture planning integration.
• Advanced analytic framing and problem-solving under ambiguity.
• Expert-level writing/editing and product coherence management.
• Influence without authority; credible advisory presence with senior stakeholders.
• Standards-setting, coaching, and quality assurance mindset.
• Autonomy, Decision Authority & Accountability.

Pay

Target salary range $160,001 - $200,000. The estimate displayed represents the typical salary range for this position based on experience and other factors.