From 2010-2012, he served in the Pentagon as Senior Advisor to the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manufacturing and Industrial Base Policy, where he led initiatives to better understand the complex defense supply chain and to apply that understanding in the budget process. He also focused on policy regarding reimbursement of industry's Independent Research and Development (IR&D) expenditures. Before working in the Pentagon, he directed the LBJ School's master’s program in global policy studies from 2007–2010.