Senior enlisted intelligence specialist responsible for managing intelligence operations and personnel.
ASVAB GT: 110
Catalog listing, not a contract offer. Explore entry-level paths in Marines.
Intelligence Chiefs are senior enlisted Marines who run an intelligence section rather than work a single analytic seat. You arrive here after years in one of the intelligence specialties, so the job is about managing Marines, standards, and the product as a whole. A week involves reviewing assessments before they go forward, allocating people against competing requirements, training junior analysts, and advising the officer in charge. You handle the unglamorous infrastructure too: accreditation of secure spaces, clearance paperwork, equipment accountability, and the readiness reporting nobody else wants. When the section is short handed and a deadline lands, you are still an analyst as well.
Leading an intelligence section teaches personnel management, workload triage, quality control, and how to develop analysts who end up better than you were. You learn to run secure facilities and programs, which means security regulation, information handling rules, and audit readiness. Advising a commander directly sharpens the ability to say what matters in two sentences without losing the caveats. Mentoring across several intelligence disciplines broadens your technical range even as your own hands leave the keyboard. You also learn budget and equipment stewardship at a scale that translates cleanly to civilian middle management.
Years in the field build the kind of professional judgment that no course or certificate can install in anyone. You develop the confidence to push back on a bad requirement and the tact to do it without damage. Responsibility for other people's careers makes you deliberate about feedback, fairness, and follow through. The job builds resilience, because you carry the section's mistakes as your own and hold the standard anyway. Long experience also grows humility about certainty, since you have watched confident assessments turn out flatly wrong more than once.
A senior intelligence leader with an active clearance is a strong hire in the cleared contracting world. Analytic team lead, program manager, and security manager roles at defense firms are common landing spots. Federal agencies hire experienced intelligence professionals into analyst and supervisory positions, and veterans' preference points apply there. Corporate security, insider threat, and threat intelligence teams want someone who can build a function rather than just fill a seat. Facility security officer work is another well paid route that maps almost exactly onto duties you already performed.
You begin by reviewing the intelligence section's workload and setting priorities with your analysts. As the senior enlisted lead, your day is spent managing collection efforts, quality-checking products before they reach the commander, and mentoring junior Marines. Much of the work is orchestrating the section so intelligence flows accurately and on time.
Related career-field video—not specific to Marines 0291.
No suitable exact-MOS video was verified in the recorded search. This does not establish that none exists.
Related field: Marine intelligence — CI/HUMINT perspective. Source occupation: Marines 0211.
A counterintelligence/human intelligence Marine describes his journey of lateral moving and his experiences in the 0211 job field on Camp Foster, Okinawa, Japan, June 28, 2022. CI/HUMINT Marines detect and/or deny espionage, terrorism, sabotage and subversion by an adversary, and collect information through interpersonal contact. (U.S. Marine Corps video by Cpl. Colton K. Garrett)
Official publisher description and direct video page checked; playback not independently watched. Checked 2026-10-25. This assignment may not reflect every posting in this career.
$43,902–$74,948
2026 basic pay only; the same grade and service time pay the same across jobs. Promotions are assumed, not promised. Excludes allowances, bonuses and special pays.
Possibilities for serving Marines, including those in support roles—not guaranteed admission or awards. Individual eligibility, assignment, selection, available training or competition places and successful qualification apply.
Earned skill levels: tan, gray, green, brown and black belt. Applies across combat and support specialties.
Belts require documented training, sustainment and performance testing under authorized instructors. Higher belts have additional prerequisites, including applicable grade and professional-education requirements; neither promotion nor elapsed service awards a belt. Confirm the current requirements for the next belt with your instructor.
Sources reviewed . Confirm current course and badge requirements with official school guidance and your unit.
For Marines 0291 Intelligence Chief, official service-wide guidance and any exact feeder-list matches are distinguished below from unverified specialty-specific requirements. Ranks are not separate jobs, and these possibilities are not guaranteed promotions or available contracts.
Examples of higher service ranks
These are service-wide rank names, not a verified promotion ladder for this specialty. Examples are not exhaustive; appointments sharing a pay grade are not additional promotion steps.
Official military rank referenceMarine NCO grades are E-4 and E-5; staff NCO grades are E-6 through E-9. At E-8 and E-9, first sergeant/sergeant major and master sergeant/master gunnery sergeant have distinct leadership roles. Warrant and commissioned officers are separate career tracks. This service-wide structure is not a verified promotion ceiling for this MOS.
Marine Corps ranks and career-track distinctionsService-level application reference—not a verified next step for this listing
The FY27 regular warrant program requires technical and professional qualifications for the requested warrant MOS and selection. A listed warrant destination does not establish an enlisted feeder match. The February 2026 deadline has passed; this announcement documents a selection route, not a currently open opportunity.
Marine FY27 regular warrant selection announcementSpecialty-specific advancement, senior assignments, and eligibility for a different personnel category have not been verified for this listing. No feeder eligibility or automatic transition to another specialty is implied.
Advancement depends on current service rules, performance, required education, qualifications, selection, and authorized positions—not simply years served. Confirm current requirements with an official recruiter or career counselor.
Related military jobs below are for exploration, not promised progression or confirmed transfer paths.
Sources reviewed 2026-10-03. This is a partial evidence review, not verification of every advancement route for this specialty. Source retrieval dates do not replace policy effective dates.
Career-field mappings, not automatic qualifications. Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (May 2024 national medians). O*NET links explain each occupation; military experience does not guarantee a job or salary.
Senior enlisted intelligence specialist responsible for managing intelligence operations and personnel.
Intelligence Chiefs are senior enlisted Marines who run an intelligence section rather than work a single analytic seat. You arrive here after years in one of the intelligence specialties, so the job is about managing Marines, standards, and the product as a whole. A week involves reviewing assessments before they go forward, allocating people against competing requirements, training junior analysts, and advising the officer in charge. You handle the unglamorous infrastructure too: accreditation of secure spaces, clearance paperwork, equipment accountability, and the readiness reporting nobody else wants. When the section is short handed and a deadline lands, you are still an analyst as well.
Leading an intelligence section teaches personnel management, workload triage, quality control, and how to develop analysts who end up better than you were. You learn to run secure facilities and programs, which means security regulation, information handling rules, and audit readiness. Advising a commander directly sharpens the ability to say what matters in two sentences without losing the caveats. Mentoring across several intelligence disciplines broadens your technical range even as your own hands leave the keyboard. You also learn budget and equipment stewardship at a scale that translates cleanly to civilian middle management.
A senior intelligence leader with an active clearance is a strong hire in the cleared contracting world. Analytic team lead, program manager, and security manager roles at defense firms are common landing spots. Federal agencies hire experienced intelligence professionals into analyst and supervisory positions, and veterans' preference points apply there. Corporate security, insider threat, and threat intelligence teams want someone who can build a function rather than just fill a seat. Facility security officer work is another well paid route that maps almost exactly onto duties you already performed.
ASVAB GT: 110. This is the catalog's listed requirement, not an individual eligibility decision. Confirm the current standard and any exceptions with the service.
You do not enlist into this specialty. Servicemembers reclassify into it after serving. Confirm the current status of this specific classification with an official recruiter.
Catalog sources consulted: 2026-09-26. This is not an entry-by-entry verification date. No record-specific verification date is recorded. Occupation audit evidence reviewed: 2026-09-26; this does not re-verify every requirement.
Official branch occupation evidence
NAVMC 1200.1L, FY26 Military Occupational Specialties Manual (effective October 1, 2025), chapter 1 · reviewed 2026-09-26
Confirmed. Catalog evidence is not an inventory of open contracts.
You do not enlist into this specialty. Servicemembers reclassify into it after serving.
No dated public inventory confirmed a currently open recruiting contract for this role. This does not mean there are no openings. Confirm current eligibility and offers with an official recruiter.
Deployment likelihood: Moderate*
* Estimated. Rank progression and specialty-pay eligibility are illustrative assumptions. Deployment likelihood, when shown, is inferred from similar specialties in the branch and career field, not a published specialty deployment rate.
Descriptions may change. No military role is free from risk of injury or death, including non-combat work. Catalog review dates do not establish current openings or re-verification of every requirement.
Recruiting signals reflect what each branch published on the dates shown. They are not offers, and they do not mean a contract is open for you. Eligibility depends on your ASVAB scores, medical qualification, security clearance eligibility, and ship date. Confirm everything with an official recruiter. See our Disclaimer and Terms.