ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR / PROFESSOR

Duties

• You will lead the development of the College's capability to design, conduct, assess, and integrate educational and analytical decision gaming addressing consequential Indo-Pacific security challenges.
• You will design and facilitate analytical games that examine consequential strategic problems and generate insights relevant to DKI APCSS leadership, IPSA, USPACOM, other U.S. defense stakeholders, and Indo-Pacific partners, as appropriate
• You will translate strategic problems and sponsor requirements into well-defined educational or analytical questions, game objectives, scenarios, player roles, decision environments, adjudication approaches, and data-collection plans.
• You will collaborate with department chairs, course managers, workshop leads, faculty, and subject-matter experts to align decision games and other structured approaches with educational objectives, strategic priorities, and sponsor requirements.
• You will develop common standards, processes, and practices for game design, facilitation, adjudication, data collection, assessment, after-action analysis, and reporting.
• You will analyze game results and translate observations into educational lessons, policy-relevant insights, and areas for further examination, strategic discourse, or institutional action.
• You will develop and maintain reusable scenarios, game materials, facilitation and adjudication guides, analytical frameworks, decision-support tools, and instructional resources.
• You will build faculty capacity in decision-game design, facilitation, experiential learning, systems thinking, and structured problem-solving, and related methods through mentoring, training, and collaborative design.
• You will responsibly integrate artificial intelligence, digital collaboration platforms, modeling and simulation, visualization, and other technologies into decision gaming and analysis, and executive education.
• You will develop curriculum and instructional materials and teach, facilitate, and mentor security practitioners from diverse national backgrounds using appropriate adult-learning methods.
• You will conduct research and publish scholarly and policy-relevant research on decision gaming, strategic analysis, executive education, and related national security challenges.
• You will assess the educational effectiveness of decision games and other experiential methods and apply findings to improve curriculum, instructional design, and outcomes.
• You will contribute to the effective administration and institutional development of the College.
• You will integrate educational decision games into courses, workshops, and programs to let Fellows apply concepts, exercise strategic judgment, face uncertainty, test assumptions, evaluate options, and learn through structured experiences
• You will support course managers, workshop leads, and faculty teams during design, development, execution, and assessment of decision-gaming and analytical activities of the College's portfolio of courses, workshops, and strategic engagements

Requirements

Conditions of employment

• Must be a US Citizen.
• Must be determined suitable for federal employment.
• Must participate in the direct deposit pay program.
• New employees to the Department of the Navy will be required to successfully pass the E-Verify employment verification check. To learn more about E-Verify, including your rights and responsibilities, visit e-verify.gov
• Within the Department of Defense (DoD), the appointment of retired military members within 180 days immediately following retirement date to a civilian position is subject to the provisions of 5 United States Code 3326.
• Males born after 12-31-59 must be registered for Selective Service.
• You will be required to obtain and maintain an interim and/or final security clearance prior to entrance on duty. Failure to obtain and maintain the required level of clearance may result in the withdrawal of a job offer or removal.
• This position may require travel from normal duty station to CONUS and OCONUS and may include remote or isolated sites. You must be able to travel on military and commercial aircraft for extended periods of time.
• This is a Key Security Cooperation Workforce (SCW) position and requires a DoD SCW Certification. Selectee must obtain and maintain certification within prescribed timeframes. SCW level required: 3

Qualifications

DKI APCSS seeks qualified candidates at the level of Associate Professor or Professor specializing in Executive Decision Gaming and Analysis.

The Center welcomes applications from established scholar-practitioners and exceptional early-career professionals. Academic rank and salary will be determined based on education, professional experience, scholarly record, teaching and facilitation experience, subject-matter expertise, leadership, and demonstrated capacity to contribute to the DKI APCSS mission.

The successful candidate will lead the development and integration of executive decision gaming and strategic analysis throughout the College of Security Studies, using structured decision experiences to strengthen executive education and examine consequential Indo-Pacific security problems.
The position encompasses two complementary applications. Educational decision gaming enables civilian and military security practitioners to apply concepts, exercise judgment, confront uncertainty and competing interests, test assumptions, and evaluate alternative courses of action. Analytical gaming brings faculty, Fellows, and other practitioners together to examine consequential strategic problems; explore actor behavior and interaction; challenge assumptions; identify vulnerabilities and opportunities; and generate insights relevant to DKI APCSS, U.S. defense stakeholders, and Indo-Pacific partners.

The position extends beyond traditional force-on-force or Red-versus-Blue wargaming constructs. Depending on the problem and objective, methods may include strategic decision games, tabletop exercises, matrix games, crisis simulations, negotiation exercises, policy games, scenario-based simulations, and other structured approaches.

The position spans the full process from problem framing and game design through execution, observation, analysis, and translation of findings into educational and policy-relevant insights.

Candidates are not expected to possess expertise in every gaming, analytical, educational, or technological methodology. DKI APCSS seeks individuals with demonstrated expertise in relevant decision-gaming or analytical methods and the intellectual breadth and professional commitment to develop and integrate complementary approaches appropriate to executive education and strategic inquiry.

Faculty members at DKI APCSS are educators, facilitators, curriculum designers, action officers, researchers, mentors, and institutional leaders. They plan and execute executive education courses, workshops, strategic dialogues, and regional engagements; develop and facilitate curriculum; conduct policy-relevant research; and build relationships with security professionals throughout the Indo-Pacific.

Essential Criteria

• An advanced degree in security studies, international relations, political science, public policy, military studies, education, instructional design, systems analysis, operations research, or another relevant field. A doctorate or other terminal degree is preferred.
• Demonstrated expertise or substantial professional experience in decision gaming, analytical gaming, strategic gaming, wargaming, exercise design, simulation, or closely related structured decision methodologies.
• Demonstrated ability or strong potential to translate complex strategic or policy problems into structured educational or analytical activities that support learning, inquiry, or decision-making.
• Demonstrated ability or strong potential to design and facilitate decision games, exercises, simulations, or comparable structured decision experiences.
• Demonstrated understanding of adult-learning principles, curriculum design, learning objectives, and educational assessment, or the ability to apply these principles effectively in executive education.
• Demonstrated ability or strong potential to teach, facilitate, and mentor adult learners from diverse professional, national, and cultural backgrounds.
• Demonstrated ability or strong potential to conduct research, analyze complex problems, and produce scholarly or policy-relevant work.
• Ability to communicate complex concepts clearly to practitioner audiences and translate them into effective learning experiences and analytical products.
• Strong organizational skills and demonstrated ability to plan, coordinate, and execute complex projects or programs.
• Ability to collaborate effectively with subject-matter experts and multidisciplinary teams.
• Ability to use contemporary technologies and digital tools in research, teaching, collaboration, decision gaming, analysis, and program execution.
• Demonstrated commitment to the DKI APCSS mission and to advancing security cooperation and understanding throughout the Indo-Pacific.

Desired Criteria
Demonstrated expertise, research, or professional experience in one or more of the following areas:

• Educational and analytical decision gaming
• Strategic game design and facilitation
• Strategic problem and sponsor requirement framing
• Analytical question development and research design
• Scenario and alternative-futures development
• Facilitation and adjudication
• Observation, qualitative data collection, and analysis
• Game analysis, after-action analysis, and reporting
• Executive education and adult learning
• Educational assessment and learning evaluation

Supporting Expertise
Additional expertise in one or more of the following areas is desirable:

• Systems thinking and systems analysis
• Strategic foresight
• Red teaming
• Structured analytic techniques
• Decision analysis
• Modeling and simulation
• Artificial intelligence and AI-enabled gaming and education
• Digital collaboration, visualization, and decision-support tools

Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., professional, philanthropic, religious, spiritual, community, student, social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment.

Education

Basic Requirements:

Degree: that included or was supplemented by major study in education or in a subject-matter field appropriate to the position

OR

Combination of education and experience -- courses equivalent to a major in education, in a subject-matter field appropriate to the position, plus appropriate experience or additional course work that provided knowledge comparable to that normally acquired through the successful completion of the 4-year course of study described in A above.

An advanced degree in security studies, international relations, political science, public policy, military studies, education, instructional design, systems analysis, operations research, or another relevant field. A doctorate or other terminal degree is preferred.

Additional information

This position is covered by the Department of Defense Priority Placement Program.

Several vacancies may be filled.

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.

Federal annuitant information: The selection of an annuitant is subject to the Department of Defense and Department of the Navy policy on the employment of annuitants. Policy information may be found at: .

Veteran's preference does not apply when selecting individuals under this specific hiring authority. However, if you claim veteran's preference, you will be required to submit supporting documentation with your application as described in the Required Documents section below.

The Department of War is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to any non-merit factor protected by applicable law. Reasonable accommodations for qualified applicants with disabilities are available upon request through the Human Resources Office.

the incumbent may be required to travel internationally and perform temporary duties throughout the Indo-Pacific region.

PCS may be authorized.

Applications may be retained for one year and considered against future faculty requirements.

This position is in the excepted service and does not confer competitive status.