Operations Research Analyst – Defense Analyst Support Hub (DASH)
JOA#: GS-2026-1515-123 (DASH)
Department: Department of War (DOW)
Agency: Office of the Secretary of War (OSW)
Hiring Organization: Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation (CAPE)
Open Period: 10/1/2026-10/26/2026
Pay Scale & Grade: GS-12/13/14/15
Salary Range$102,415 - $197,200
Series & Appointment Type: 1515 Operations Research, Permanent - Schedule B Excepted Service
Location: Pentagon, Arlington, VA
Work Schedule: Full Time
Clearance Requirements: Must be able to obtain and maintain a Top Secret/SCI; Special Access Program (SAP/SAR) access required
Citizenship Requirement: Open to all US Citizens
Relocation expenses reimbursed: No
Summary:
CAPE is hiring! We provide objective, analysis-based advice directly to the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of War on everything the Department of War does, and our work has a direct effect on the US budget and national security.
Within CAPE, an interdisciplinary and non-advocate organization, the Analysis and Innovation (A&I) Deputate is responsible for a standing strategic assessment of the Defense Program as a whole, focused on its long-term feasibility and its coherence with the defense strategy. A&I also maintains the analytic methods, standards, data infrastructure, and modeling and simulation tools on which CAPE’s analysis rests. It performs CAPE’s role as Executive Secretary of the Department’s Analysis Working Group (AWG), the body chartered to raise analytic standards across the Department.
This announcement is for positions in the Defense Analyst Support Hub (DASH), CAPE’s data-infrastructure division. DASH integrates and operates, on the War Data Platform, the analytic tools that CAPE’s Strategic Analysis and Analytic Innovation Division (SAID) builds to its methods. DASH serves as the operational engine and foundational data layer across CAPE and the wider Department analytic enterprise. DASH engineers, governs, and operates the enterprise analytic data layer, integrating authoritative defense datasets, managing automated data pipelines, operationalizing complex simulation models, and deploying intuitive self-service tools for defense analysts.DASH also develops and sustains the platform of CAPE's mission analysis environment, a contracted build under government architecture and acceptance authority, executes its simulation campaigns, and operates its emulation pipeline to SAID's specification.
This announcement covers multiple entry points across three related technical roles within DASH:
Data and Platform Engineers: Build and run the platform and data pipelines, integrate the analytic tools SAID builds (including external modeling environments and joint tools) into a shared platform, and develop self-service interfaces for CAPE analysts.One senior engineer carries the architecture and acceptance authority for the mission analysis environment's platform; another the engineering of its emulation pipeline.
Data Governance and Knowledge Management Lead: Owns data governance for the shared platform and establishes what data the governed layer accepts, to SAID’s analytic-data standards for how data is structured, documented, and validated. Curates CAPE’s governed reference copies of authoritative baselines (for example, Joint Country Operating Force Assessments and readiness baselines), manages the shared analytic repositories, and preserves the record of past CAPE analyses.
On-Call Tool Operators: Run analytic models (including whole-program models) on behalf of CAPE,execute simulation campaigns and operate the emulation pipeline to SAID's specification, define technical requirements for and review contractor modeling and simulation deliverables, and cross-train with the platform engineers so that no tool depends on a single operator.
Duties and Responsibilities:
The selectee serves as an expert data and platform engineer or operations research practitioner within DASH, responsible for the architecture, development, integration, and operational sustainment of CAPE’s shared data and tool ecosystem. Depending on the role and grade level, selectees will be responsible for:
ETL/ELT Pipeline Engineering: Designing, constructing, testing, and sustaining robust, automated data extraction, transformation, and ingestion pipelines into CAPE’s analytic layer, replacing fragile, manual spreadsheets with scalable, code-driven pipelines.
Tool Integration and Deployment: Applying modern data engineering, containerization, and workflow orchestration practices (for example, SQL, Python, Apache Airflow or dbt equivalents, and Git version control) to automate recurring data ingestion cycles, meeting documented timeliness, reliability, security, and data-quality requirements for recurring analytic support. Partnering with SAID methodologists to integrate advanced, code-based analytic tools (such as Python, R, MATLAB, and GAMS packages) into the platform’s production environment, establishing secure, self-service interfaces for analysts.
Data Governance and Standard Enforcement: Developing and enforcing the schema rules, taxonomies, and metadata definitions that hold CAPE’s governed data layer to SAID’s analytic-data standards: the rules for how data is structured, documented, and validated before analysis rests on it.
Reference Baseline Curation: Coordinating with the owning Department organizations to curate, reconcile, and maintain CAPE’s governed reference copies of authoritative defense baselines, such as the Joint Country Operating Force Assessment (JCOFA) and joint force readiness systems.
Analytic Operations (On-Call Execution): Running program, simulation, and strategic models (such as whole-program resource allocation models) on request for CAPE’s analysts, and returning the results accurately and on time.Executing the mission analysis environment's simulation campaigns and operating its emulation pipeline: storing and serving the emulators, re-fitting them when new simulation runs arrive, and launching the additional runs an emulator calls for, within the experiment SAID designed.
Contractor Technical Oversight: Defining operational and engineering requirements and conducting technical acceptance testing of contractor data, platform, and tool-integration deliverables, including the contracted build and sustainment of the mission analysis environment's platform; analytic methods and assurance standards remain with SAID.
Knowledge Management and Institutional Continuity: Cataloging past CAPE analyses and managing the shared analytic repositories that current study teams and the Analysis Working Group draw on.
Technical Cross-Training: Participating in cross-training across platform engineering and tool operation so that each fielded tool has at least two qualified government operators and no tool depends on a single person.
Mentorship (GS-14/15): Mentoring junior platform engineers and tool operators and managing their professional development within DASH.
Qualifications:
Basic Requirements:
A degree in operations research from an accredited college/university; or at least 24 semester hours in a combination of operations research, mathematics, probability, statistics, mathematical logic, science, or subject-matter courses requiring substantial competence in college-level mathematics or statistics. At least 3 of the 24 semester hours must have been in calculus.
Desired Skills:
Your qualifications will be evaluated on your knowledge, skills, abilities, and competencies in the following areas:
Data Engineering and Analytic Platform Architectures: Experience constructing, scheduling, and optimizing data pipelines, and working with enterprise data architectures, cloud data warehouses, or big-data platforms to feed, calibrate, and validate operations research statistical and simulation models. Experience with the War Data Platform or other DoW data systems is desirable.
Analytic Software Integration: Applied mathematical modeling and scientific software development (or DevOps experience) in an operations research context, including deploying, containerizing, or integrating R, Python, MATLAB, or GAMS models into shared computing environments.
Simulation and Emulation Pipeline Operation: Experience running large simulation campaigns on shared computing platforms, and operating model-serving pipelines for statistical or machine-learning surrogates: registries, versioning, monitoring, and scheduled re-fitting.
Analytic Data Foundations and Baseline Curation: Experience in curating authoritative, multidimensional analytic baselines for decision support; Detailed knowledge of data management principles, including database schema design, master data management, metadata standard enforcement to ensure mathematical consistency, data integrity, and provenance across disparate operational and budget data sets.
Operations Research and Tool Execution: Familiarity with executing operational models, wargaming frameworks, or mathematical program-evaluation tools, and ability to run, debug, and extract results from complex simulation models on deadline.
Collaboration: Ability to work with platform owners, data stewards, Operations research methodologists, and strategic analysts to align technical infrastructure with decision timelines.
Communication: Ability to translate complex operations research models, platform engineering, database, and software architecture concepts into plain language for senior executives, while effectively translating analyst requirements into technical specifications.
Specialized Experience: To qualify at a grade, you must have at least one year of specialized experience (12 months at 40 hours per week) equivalent to at least the next lower grade level, performing the duties and demonstrating the competencies listed for that grade:
Part-time or Unpaid/volunteer work experience:
Background Checks and Security Clearance
You will be required to obtain and maintain a Top Secret or Top Secret/SCI security clearance. For more information regarding security clearances click here.
How to Apply:
Required Documents:
1. Resume:
a. IN DESCRIBING YOUR EXPERIENCE, BE CLEAR, SPECIFIC AND DETAILED. WE MAY NOT MAKE ASSUMPTIONS REGARDING YOUR EXPERIENCE.
b. Include your name, address, and contact information, and for each position the hours worked per week and the dates of employment or volunteer service (month/year to month/year, or month/year to present). One year of specialized experience equals 2,087 hours, or 52 weeks at 40 hours per week; part-time hours are prorated. Experience that does not state exact hours per week, or lists them as "varies", will not be credited. For additional information see: How do I write a resume for a federal jobc. Do not include any photos and Personally Identifiable Information (i.e., Social Security Number, Birthdate) on your resume.
d. Resume must be limited to 2 pages and a minimum size 10 font. Please save your resume as a PDF file to preserve the 2-page length.
2. Transcripts: To count toward the qualification requirements, education must come from an institution accredited by an accrediting body recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. A copy of a diploma alone is not sufficient.
a. Foreign Education: Education completed at a foreign college or university may be used to meet the requirements if you provide proof that the credentials have been evaluated as at least equivalent to those earned in an accredited U.S. program.
3. Writing Sample:Demonstrate your analytic ability and writing skills in one page, addressing the following: Choose one problem and propose a practical operating design: (1) replace a fragile manual data pipeline while preserving lineage and reproducibility; (2) reconcile two conflicting authoritative baselines and govern future versions; or (3) eliminate dependence on a single model operator while preserving configuration control and output validation. Identify the controls, ownership, and evidence that would show the solution is working.
4. Veterans Preference:veteran eligibility documentation (DD-214 Member #4 Copy, VA Letter, Standard Form (SF) 15 as applicable). Please note: If you are a veteran who has not yet been discharged, you may provide a statement of intent to discharge from your agency to receive Veterans Preference under the VOW (Veterans Opportunity to Work) to Hire Heroes Act of 2011.
5. SF-50: Your latest SF-50 (if applicable) showing your tenure, grade and step, and type of position occupied. Remove all Personally Identifiable Information (Social Security Number and Birthdate). If you receive an updated SF-50 after initially applying, please provide the updated document to CAPE to be added to your application. If you’ve had a break in service – please provide your original appointment SF50 in addition to your resignation SF50. If you do not have your latest documents, you can submit a request to the National Personnel Records Center to obtain them – see guidance here: https://www.archives.gov/personnel-records-center/civilian-non-archival
6. Military Spouse Preference Eligibility documentation (if applicable). For Priority Placement Program, you must include a copy of the Military Spouse PPP Self-Certification Checklist along with the documents identified on the checklist to verify your eligibility for MSP, such as PCS orders/verification of duty location assignment and a copy of marriage certificate or license. For eligibility under Executive Order 13473, acceptable documentation includes: verification of marriage to the servicemember, verification of member’s 100 percent disability or verification of member’s death while on active duty.
7. Free Response Essay Questions: Optional section to demonstrate your commitment to improving the efficiency of the Federal government, passion about the ideals of our American republic, and commitment to upholding the rule of law and the United States Constitution. You will not be scored against your responses for this section.
Please visit the CAPE Careers website for more information on CAPE, our benefits and more.
How You Will Be Evaluated:
Subject matter experts will evaluate your qualifications before any referral. If you meet the minimum qualifications for this position, your application will be assessed in a multi-hurdle process that ends in a ranking and referral.
Resume Review (First Hurdle): Subject matter experts will review your resume to determine qualifications based on the required competencies identified above.
Qualifying Structured Interviews (Second Hurdle): If the subject matter experts determine that your resume reflects the required competencies, you will have a panel interview (virtual or by phone) to assess your experience against those competencies. The interview may include in-depth questions or an exercise or case study to measure your depth of knowledge.
Ranking and Preference: Qualified candidates receive a score between 70 and 100, before any points for veterans’ preference. Your answers are verified against the information in your application and by reference checks. Preference is applied to applicants who move forward after the qualifying interviews.
Selection Process: Hiring managers receive a certificate listing the qualified candidates eligible for selection. If you are not selected for this position, you may be considered for similar positions for up to six months from the certificate date, and the certificate may be shared with other CAPE hiring managers. If you are selected for an interview, you may be asked to give a presentation, analyze a case study, or take part in several rounds of interviews.
Agency contact information:
Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation (CAPE)
Email:
osd.pentagon.cape.mbx.esd-support@mail.mil?subject=CAPE%20ORSA%20Application
Additional Information:
Priority consideration programs will continue under their current operating procedures:
Military Spouse Preference (MSP) Eligible: Military Spouse Preference applicants, must be selected and placed at the highest grade level for which they have applied and been determined best qualified up to and including the full performance level. You must include a completed copy of the Military Spouse PPP Self-Certification Checklist dated within 30 days along with the documents identified on the checklist to verify your eligibility for Military Spouse Preference. Click here to obtain a copy of the Military Spouse PPP Self-Certification Checklist.
NOTE: Military spouses are eligible for one permanent noncompetitive appointment using their preference eligibility for the duration of the active-duty sponsor's assignment to a permanent duty station, as long as the military spouse has not declined or accepted a permanent Federal or non-appropriated fund position in the commuting area of the sponsor's current duty location. If you certify that you have not used your preference at your sponsor's current duty location and it is discovered to be untrue, you may be subject to loss of MSP and possible disciplinary action.
Military Spouses, under Executive Order (E.O.) 13473
You are eligible for this hiring category if you are a spouse of a member of the Armed Forces serving on active duty for more than 180 days other than for training; OR are a spouse of a 100 percent disabled service member injured while on active duty; OR are the un-remarried widow or widower of a service member who was killed while performing active duty.
Supporting documentation: You are required to submit acceptable documentation of your eligibility forE.O. 13473 which may include:
• Verification of the marriage to the service member (i.e., a marriage license or other legal documentation verifying marriage);
• Verification of the member's 100 percent disability; and/or
• Verification of the member's death while on active duty.
Additionally, you may need to submit a Standard Form-15 (SF-15), an Application for 10-Point Veterans' Preference, and applicable supporting documents as noted on the form.
To obtain a copy of SF-15, go to https://www.opm.gov/forms/pdf_fill/sf15.pdf.
Military Reserve (MR) and National Guard (NG) Technicians PPP Eligible: MR and NG technicians PPP applicants must be selected and placed at the full performance level if determined well qualified. You must include a completed copy of the Military Reserve and National Guard Technician PPP Self-Certification Checklist to verify your eligibility for Military Reserve and National Guard Technician preference. Click here to obtain a copy of the Military Reserve and National Guard Technician PPP Self-Certification Checklist.6.
Military Reserve (MR) and National Guard (NG) Technicians Receiving Disability Retirement PPP Eligible: MR and NG technicians receiving disability retirement PPP applicants must be selected and placed at the full performance level if determined well qualified. You must include a completed copy of the Military Reserve and National Guard Technician Disability PPP Self-Certification Checklist to verify your eligibility for Military Reserve and National Guard Technician Disability preference. Click here to obtain a copy of the Military Reserve and National Guard Technician Disability PPP Self-Certification Checklist.7.
Retained Grade PPP Eligible: Retained Grade PPP applicants, must be selected and placed at the full performance level if determined well qualified. You must include a completed copy of the Retained Grade PPP Self-Certification Checklist to verify your eligibility for Retained Grade preference. Click here to obtain a copy of the Retained Grade PPP Self-Certification Checklist
Schedule B Excepted Service Public Notice: Under this recruitment procedure, applications will be accepted, and selections are made for vacancies as they occur. A tentative offer of employment will be rescinded if the selectee fails to meet the pre-employment requirements, including failure to report to any of the scheduled appointments.
Employed Annuitants (Reemployed Annuitants): Applicants in receipt of an annuity based on civilian employment in the Federal Service are subject to the DoD Policy on The Employment of Annuitants.
Selective Service: Males born after 12-31-59 must be registered or exempt from Selective Service. For additional information, click here.
Employment Eligibility Verification: Washington Headquarters Services uses E-Verify to confirm the employment eligibility of all newly hired employees. To learn more about E-Verify, including your rights and responsibilities, visit: http://www.dhs.gov/E-Verify
Nepotism: Under the provisions of 5 USC 3110, an individual may not be appointed into a position if the position is under the supervisory chain of command of a relative.
Fair and transparent
The Federal hiring process is set up to be fair and transparent. Please read the following guidance.
Equal Employment Opportunity Policy
What is financial disclosure and why does this job require it
New Employee Probationary Period
Reasonable Accommodation Policy
Selective Service Registration
| Location | Washington, DC |
| Salary | $102,415–$197,200 Per Year |
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