Vayl Oxford, a national security executive policy adviser at the Energy Department‘s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, will assume the director role at the Defense Threat Reduction Agency.
The Defense Department said Thursday Secretary James Mattis also appointed Oxford to the Senior Executive Service in line with the assignment to head DTRA.
Oxford most recently provided strategic advice regarding relevant policies on national security to the staff and leadership team at PNNL.
He joined the Battelle-operated DOE national laboratory in 2012 after work as a senior policy adviser to The Tauri Group for more than two years.
He also led the program on countermeasures for weapons of mass destruction at Northrop Grumman in 2009, the Department of Homeland Security‘s Domestic Nuclear Detection Office from 2004 to early 2009 and the White House’s counterproliferation efforts from 2002 to 2003.
Oxford will take over the DTRA director duties from Michael Bruhn, who has served as acting director alongside his current role of executive director at the agency.