Chief of Staff / Senior Program Manager

Location: National Capital Region

Level: Senior Manager / Director

Clearance: Secret

All candidates must already possess a Secret clearance. All candidates must be able to obtain and maintain their current clearance and any clearance level designated by Montcure at any given time during their employment.

Job Summary

Montcure, LLC is hiring a Chief of Staff / Senior Program Manager to support clients within the Department of War (DoW). This dual role combines internal, personnel-focused leadership as Chief of Staff with external, client-facing program management responsibilities.

As Chief of Staff (internal), you will report to the Director of Client Solutions and the Director of Strategic Growth and will work alongside all directors, particularly the Director of Strategic Growth. You will focus on personnel management, staff standards, firm-wide contractual and quality oversight, and internal coordination. You will set performance and quality standards for all staff, partner with HR on formal performance management, coordinate with Operations, IT, the Facility Security Officer (FSO), and other internal functions, and establish formal processes to monitor delivery quality, timeliness, and contractual performance across all firm contracts.

As Senior Program Manager (external), you will lead client-facing program delivery and support. This includes coordinating the executive's time, priorities, and decision points; managing battle rhythm and briefing materials; providing program management of client initiatives; and supporting IT efforts that streamline audit response operations.

Our core value of Dependability is paramount in both dimensions of the role.

Key Responsibilities

Internal - Chief of Staff (Personnel, Staff Standards & Quality Oversight Focus)

• Set and uphold clear standards for quality, responsiveness, confidentiality, and accuracy for all staff across the organization.
• Own the organization's senior staff meeting cadence, offsites, and all-hands communications, ensuring clear follow-up and accountability on action items.
• Work alongside all directors, particularly the Director of Strategic Growth, to support aligned execution of leadership priorities.
• Translate leadership priorities into structured implementation plans with owners, milestones, dependencies, and success metrics; track execution and escalate risks before they become crises.
• Coordinate across internal teams and components to break down silos, resolve cross-cutting issues, and keep interdependent workstreams synchronized.
• Prepare the executive for internal and external engagements with tight, decision-ready briefing materials.
• Filter, synthesize, and prioritize the volume of issues, requests, and correspondence competing for the executive's attention, ensuring nothing critical is missed.
• Represent the executive in meetings and forums as needed, with authority to speak to priorities and relay decisions.
• Build and maintain trusted working relationships with internal stakeholders and external partners as required.
• Manage sensitive personnel, political, and interagency matters with discretion, escalating appropriately and protecting the executive's credibility and options.
• Diagnose organizational and process bottlenecks within the executive office and broader organization, and design and implement practical fixes.
• Lead or oversee special projects and rapid-response taskings directed by leadership, standing up temporary teams as needed.
• Partner with Human Resources to conduct formal staff performance reviews twice per year, ensuring timely, documented feedback and accountability.
• Oversee the formal new-hire performance program (implemented by the HR team) featuring structured 30-, 60-, and 90-day reviews following each employee's official start date.
• Collaborate with Operations, IT, the Facility Security Officer (FSO), and other internal functions to address performance concerns or matters requiring leadership coordination when performance impacts delivery quality, clearances, or the IT tools required for effective service delivery.
• Interact with all firm clients to monitor and assess delivery quality, timeliness, and contractual performance against core client areas and the applicable statements of work.
• Establish and lead a formal quality review function that periodically engages client representatives to address service quality and contract compliance.
• Design and implement a formal quality program featuring quantifiable scoring criteria to evaluate service quality and performance across each of the firm's contracts, and use the resulting data to drive continuous improvement and accountability.

External - Senior Program Manager / Client Delivery

• Serve as the primary coordinator and gatekeeper for the executive's time, priorities, and decision points, managing the daily/weekly battle rhythm, briefing schedule, and pre-decisional materials.
• Provide program management support for client initiatives, including standing up governance structures (steering committees, milestone reviews, risk logs) and tracking execution.
• Support client delivery of IT initiatives designed to streamline audit response operations, improve data integrity, and enhance reporting efficiency.
• Coordinate across client organizations and stakeholders as needed to resolve cross-cutting issues and keep interdependent workstreams synchronized.
• Prepare decision-ready materials and support client executives for key engagements as required.

Qualifications

Education

• Bachelor's degree required; or 20+ years of progressively responsible executive-level program management experience in lieu of a bachelor's degree.
• Master's degree in public administration, business, policy, or a related field preferred.

Experience

• 10+ years of progressively responsible experience in program/project management, operations, executive-level staff roles, or related fields (or the 20+ years of executive program management experience noted above).
• 3-5 years in a senior government, military, deputy, chief-of-staff, front-office, or comparably complex large-organization environment.
• Demonstrated experience managing multi-stakeholder programs with competing priorities and tight timelines.
• Proven track record advising senior executives (Cabinet/sub-Cabinet level, flag/general officer, or C-suite equivalent) and supporting executive leadership teams.
• Experience with personnel performance management, new-hire onboarding programs, and cross-functional coordination involving HR, Operations, IT, and security functions preferred.

Skills

• Exceptional judgment and discretion in handling sensitive, confidential, or politically charged information and personnel matters.
• Executive presence and communication-writing and speaking with the clarity and brevity senior leaders need to decide quickly.
• Systems thinking, with the ability to see how people, processes, and priorities interact across a large organization and anticipate second-order effects.
• Strong interpersonal and process-improvement acumen, with the ability to drive accountability and continuous improvement.
• Bias for execution: turning strategy into a tracked plan with owners and dates and following through until it is done.

Preferred Qualifications

• PMP, PgMP, or equivalent program management certification.
• Prior experience in an executive secretariat, front office, chief of staff, or similar role within a federal department, military service, or complex organization.
• Experience establishing or managing formal quality assurance, contract performance monitoring, client satisfaction, or internal staff performance-management programs.
• Experience supporting client delivery of IT or process-improvement initiatives, including those related to audit response operations.
• Consulting or advisory support experience in a large government or defense environment.

Job Type: Full-time

Salary Range: $185,000 - $205,000.