The Pentagon’s UAP investigative unit, the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), is looking to hire a new Deputy Director, according to a vacancy on the website of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) that expires on Friday.
The unclassified vacancy was posted in late April and outlines the responsibilities that will be required of the second in command under Sean Kirkpatrick, Ph.D., the director of the Office.
According to the posting, the AARO Deputy Director, “In coordination with ODNI as appropriate, subject to the direction of the AARO Director, and consistent with applicable coordination requirements,” will oversee the establishment of the Office’s objectives and its plans for intelligence collection and analysis of data, “including production and dissemination of UAP related intelligence.”
The position requires that the applicant, once selected, will work in cooperation with National Intelligence Managers from various agencies in order to “ensure maximum availability of, and access to, UAP intelligence information within the [intelligence community],” the posting states.
The Deputy Director will also be required to “Develop and sustain close working senior level relationships with staff counterparts within OUSD(I&S), ODNI, and across the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), the Joint Staff, the combatant commands, the uniformed services, the combat support agencies, the IC, and other applicable Interagency partners to ensure UAP activities are fully synchronized, coordinated, and deconflicted,” according to the posting.
Other duties the position will require include leadership, management, and supervision supplemental to Director Kirkpatrick, as well as the duty of monitoring “staff procedures to ensure all AARO staff actions are timely and complete.”
On April 19, just days before the vacancy posting appeared online, a Senate Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities hearing led by U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) focused on the Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO).
Shortly after the hearing, in a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, Senators Mark Warner (D-VA) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) expressed concerns about “the slow implementation of the fiscal year 2023 (FY23) National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) guidance on the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO).”
“Nearly four months after enactment of the FY23 NDAA, we are concerned not to have seen more tangible evidence of the implementation of the Act,” the senators wrote in their letter.
Among the specific concerns Warner and Rubio outlined had been the lack of progress made by the Director of National Intelligence to “appoint a Deputy Director of AARO from the IC.”
“[T]o date, a Deputy Director has not been identified,” the Senators wrote.
“The Deputy Director of AARO is intended to be the focal point for IC integration and to be fully empowered by the PDDNI to convene the IC on the UAP issue.”
“We ask that you update us on the timeline for appointing a Deputy Director,” Rubio and Warner said in the letter. Just seven days later, the vacancy posting appeared on the ODNI website.
According to the vacancy, the Deputy Director of AARO will also become the official responsible for the preparation of “classified and unclassified testimony” for all future congressional hearings, as well as “staff briefings, speeches, and reports on defense intelligence and defense intelligence-related Collection, Special Programs, and Sensitive Activities related to UAP to inform government officials, the public, and international partners.”
The Senior National Intelligence Service position will require TOP SECRET//SCI clearance and will be based primarily at the Pentagon, according to the posting.
There have been no further announcements by AARO or the Pentagon to date about its prospective applicants and whether any have been selected for the position.
The vacancy will expire this Friday, May 26, 2023.
Micah Hanks is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of The Debrief. He can be reached by email at micah@thedebrief.org. Follow his work at micahhanks.com and on Twitter: @MicahHanks.