Ms. Dea Merchant assumed the role of Deputy Director, Office of Contract Services (OCS) in February of 2017. She is part of the OCS Senior Leadership Group and advises and assists the Senior Procurement Executive and Component Acquisition Executive on matters of acquisition strategy, policy and workforce development. Prior to this assignment, she served a six-month deployment in Afghanistan as the NGA Task Force Afghanistan Country Lead. Ms. Merchant has been with NGA since 2006 and has held several positions in the OCS organization. Before becoming the OCS Deputy Director, she served as the Chief, IT and Mission support overseeing the Infrastructure Service Provider and Application Service Provider contracting support. Prior to that, she was the Division Chief of the Acquisition Contract Technology Division and then the Division Chief of the OCS Readiness and Remote Sensing Division. In these roles she oversaw the contracting support for the Agency Research and Development efforts and the Commercial Imagery and Mission Support programs. Ms. Merchant entered federal service as a Contract Specialist Intern with the US Navy, Space and Naval Warfare Systems Co mand. In 1996, she went to work for the Naval Sea Systems Command where she was the Contracting Officer for two major shipbuilding programs. In 2001, she went to work for the Missile Defense Agency as the Division Chief and Senior Contracting Officer for the Target and Countermeasures Program. Ms. Merchant has been recognized with the National Intelligence Community, National Intelligence Certificate of Distinction and the Acquisition Leadership Award. She is a member of the Defense Acquisition Corps and holds a Level III DAWIA certification in contracting. Ms. Merchant is a graduate of George Mason University with a B.S. in Marketing and a M.S. in Organizational Learning.