Senior Exercise Planner - Regional Exercise Lead

Primary Responsibilities

• Lead all exercise design, development, conduct, and evaluation as required for the exercises in their assigned region.
• Participate in initial meetings with leadership, CISA, and exercise stakeholders to determine scope, team requirements, resources, schedule, etc., for each exercise in their assigned region.
• Support PM and DPM/IM in identifying and allocating appropriate personnel and resources to each exercise support team for each exercise in their region, based on type, size, complexity.
• Identify roles in each exercise support team and staff to assume those roles for the lifetime of the exercise cycle, including a lead for meetings, documentation, content development, etc.
• Lead coordination of planning meetings (as appropriate), such as C&O, IPM, MPM, MSEL Meeting, and all supporting documentation, including agendas, presentations, and notes. Work with identified team lead for this role.
• Lead coordination for the development of core exercise documentation and artifacts (e.g., CONOPS, EXPLAN, SITMAN, MSEL, COSIN, evaluation forms, invitations/sign-in sheets). Work with identified team lead for this role.
• Focus on managing multiple concurrent exercises across their assigned region.
• Communicate and coordinate with other Regional Exercise Leads and PM/DPM to ensure appropriate resource allocation and deconflict schedules.
• Maintain communications with regular meetings with exercise stakeholders in their region.
• Report regularly to management based on communications plan.
• Establish own battle rhythm for meetings and coordination/communications with regional exercise teams.
• Fill in as a SME and Exercise Facilitator if necessary.
• Support development of new CISA Tabletop Exercise Packages (CTEPs) and maintenance of the CTEP scenario library.
• Provide SME input to internal training activities to improve facilitation and planning skills across NCEP staff.

Required Experience, Skills, And Education

• Active TS/SCI clearance.
• Ability to obtain DHS EOD.
• 10+ years experience in HSEEP exercise design, development, conduct, and evaluation.
• 8+ years experience in exercise management or leadership, including managing multiple exercises, exercise teams, schedules, and concurrent execution.
• FEMA HSEEP Certified.
• Demonstrated experience planning and delivering exercises or exercise-like events that require structured documentation, coordination, and post-event reporting.
• Strong writing skills to develop polished exercise materials and documents (such as EXPLANs, SITMANs, MSELs, and controller/observer instructions) and post-exercise products (including AAR drafting support).
• Demonstrated ability to lead high-level meetings, exercise facilitation, and give customer-facing presentations.
• Demonstrated ability to manage time, meet deadlines and milestones, and hold team members accountable to requirements.
• Ability to meet DHS suitability and the clearance requirement applicable to the assigned role (TS/SCI for designated personnel; otherwise Public Trust fitness type), as described in the SOW.

Preferred Experience, Skills, And Education

• FEMA Master Exercise Practitioner (MEP).
• Experience supporting cybersecurity-focused scenarios and stakeholder engagement across government and private sector partners.
• Experience contributing to strategic plan maintenance and innovation projects in support of leadership requests.
• Cybersecurity Certifications CISSP, CEH, GIAC.