The Energy Department’s cleanup office will soon formally post openings for two leadership jobs, Assistant Secretary of Energy for Environmental Management Anne Marie White told Weapons Complex Monitor.
This week, the Office of Environmental Management also posted an updated organizational chart on its website, which includes a couple of significant additions to the last revision in June. Energy Department veteran Erik Olds is now listed as acting chief of staff, and James Hutton is now listed as director of the Office of Special Projects.
The office will launch the official government hiring process for its principal deputy assistant secretary post, often referred to as EM-2, White noted following her Sept. 4 presentation at the ExchangeMonitor’s RadWaste Summit in Henderson, Nev.
“Anyone is welcome to apply,” White said.
Last month, Energy Department veteran Jim Owendoff stepped down as EM-2 to become special adviser on nuclear cleanup issues at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. Another longtime DOE hand, Mark Gilbertson, associate principal deputy assistant secretary for EM’s Office of Regulatory and Policy Affairs, has assumed much of the EM-2 duties until someone takes the job on a permanent basis. The EM-2 post basically serves as the chief lieutenant of the assistant secretary.
A similar posting will also be made soon for the office’s associate principal deputy assistant secretary for corporate services (EM-5). That slot is held on an acting basis by Shari Davenport, according to EM’s most recent organizational chart, dated Sept. 12. The corporate services job involves overseeing essential business services at the multibillion-dollar office.
Neither job posting immediately turned up during a search of Energy Department openings Thursday on USAJobs.com.
The department has already advertised for its next associate principal deputy assistant secretary for field services, White said. The job, which involves oversight of operations at DOE’s 16 cleanup sites, is now held on an acting basis by DOE veteran Ken Picha.
Although White will make the final hiring decision, she declined to speculate on when the posts will be filled. The government hiring process takes time, she added.
White, who took office in March, is anxious to finalize her leadership team in order to fully consider how best to act upon a White House report in June on government reform. The report called for streamlining management at EM. “We’ve been looking at it. We are going to continue looking at it,” White said.
Olds, now listed as acting chief of staff on the just-released cleanup organizational chart, had previously held the post on an acting basis in 2015. Most recently he was chief of staff at the DOE Richland Office at the Hanford Site in Washington state. In June, EM senior adviser Angela Watmore was also listed as the acting chief of staff.
Hutton is now the head of the Office of Special Projects, which includes oversight of big jobs including construction of the Waste Treatment Plant at Hanford. He was previously listed as EM deputy assistant secretary for safety, security, and quality programs. Dae Chung previously led the special projects branch and is now listed as holding Hutton’s former job.
