Managing Workforce and Delivery Across a 175-Person CISA Stakeholder Engagement Program

On a 175-person CISA Stakeholder Engagement Mission Support contract, I directly supervised 12 employees, including eight Team Leads, and managed more than 160 FTEs through those managers. I set workforce priorities, changed staffing and reporting structures, managed executive and performance reporting, and coordinated major cybersecurity programs supporting a $22 million federal program. Schedules for the cybersecurity workforce, cybersecurity education, and FedVTE programs finished four months before their baseline due dates.

Challenge

The contract combined headquarters and regional support, cybersecurity education and workforce programs, public campaigns, major events, and changing client priorities. Delivery depended on coordinated decisions about schedules, staffing, performance, risks, and resources across a 175-person workforce.

I directly supervised 12 employees, including eight Team Leads, while more than 160 FTEs reported through those managers. The challenge was to keep delivery predictable while giving managers clear priorities and adjusting teams as requirements changed.

Approach

I used the Team Lead structure to connect contract-wide priorities to branch-level execution. I set priorities, reviewed schedules and workload, conducted performance reviews, addressed performance problems, and made decisions about staffing, team assignments, capacity, and reporting relationships. I also participated in hiring and termination decisions when workforce changes required them.

I connected workforce decisions to schedule, risk, performance, and financial information. For the $22 million federal program, I reviewed burn, forecasts, invoices, staffing costs, budget variance, funding status, and resource allocation to inform staffing and delivery decisions.

I also coordinated major public cybersecurity programs. For Cybersecurity Awareness Month, I managed global campaign planning, partner participation, content delivery, educational activity, performance reporting, and leadership follow-through. For the CISA Cybersecurity Summit, I managed schedules, contributors, risks, outreach, and delivery across an international audience.

My Role

I served as Chief of Staff for CISA Stakeholder Engagement Mission Support. I directly supervised 12 employees, including eight Team Leads, and managed more than 160 FTEs through those managers.

I held authority over manager performance, work assignments, staffing changes, team structure, reporting relationships, workload allocation, quality, schedule coordination, and escalation. I conducted performance reviews, addressed personnel issues, and participated in hiring and termination decisions. Federal officials retained final authority over government mission, funding, and program decisions.

Results

The work contributed to measurable results across schedules, national programs, and major events:

• Completed scheduled work for the cybersecurity workforce, cybersecurity education, and FedVTE programs four months before baseline due dates by integrating staffing, schedule, risk, and performance management.

• Coordinated global campaign planning and delivery for Cybersecurity Awareness Month, contributing to a 414% increase in social-media KPIs, a 250% increase in use of training materials and courses, and more than 300 educational engagements.

• Increased CISA Cybersecurity Summit attendance by 44% year-over-year to more than 55,000 stakeholders across 44 countries, with my work coordinating schedules, contributors, risks, outreach, and delivery.