Skip to main content
HonestMOS
●InvestigationsCongress made VA disability claims free to file. An entire industry charges veterans anyway — and nobody can stop them.→
←Back to IT Information Systems Technician — overview, pay, training, civilian translation, reviews
ITE7

Information Systems Technician

E-7 (Sergeant First Class) · Navy

E1–E3E-4E-5E-6E-7E8–E9
HEADS UP

ITC is where the rating's culture changes more than at any other promotion. The gold-fouled anchors are the entry credential into the Chief's Mess — the goat locker is now your leadership institution, the wardroom calls you by name, and the cyber officer and CMC rely on you for senior enlisted ground truth on enlisted IT and cyber execution. The Senior Chief selection board reads paper across the full LCPO tour; CPO Academy is the chief-tier PME and the visible credential on the next brief sheet. Chief season was the induction; the LCPO tour is the credential.

The Honest MOS Read
Chief Information Systems Technician (ITC, E-7) is the rank where the job description, the cultural identity, and the institutional weight all shift at the same time. The gold-fouled anchors are not a higher chevron — they are the entry credential into the Chief's Mess, the Navy's senior enlisted leadership institution. The Chief's Mess at your command is your peer group, your accountability network, your professional development venue, and the institution that the CO, cyber officer, XO, and CMC rely on for senior enlisted ground truth. The goat locker is where the mess meets, where chief-level conversations happen, and where the standard is enforced before it ever reaches the wardroom. As LCPO of an IT department — ship's IT division on a CSG / ESG / amphib, surface combatant IT on a DDG or CG (the senior IT in a smaller-platform shop), submarine senior IT (IT-8404 lead) on a boat, NCTAMS or NCTS production element, NIOC (Navy Information Operations Command) senior enlisted IT cell, NIWC (Naval Information Warfare Center) staff senior IT, MEF G-6 detachment senior enlisted, BUMED IT, a Fleet Cyber Command / NAVIFOR / TENTH Fleet shore staff cell, or a joint cyber billet at NSA / DISA / unified-command J6 — you run 15-40 ITs and the IT1 LPOs under you. The IT1s execute; you set posture, defend the brief at department head sync, write the eEVALs that pick the next Chief slate, and walk the deck during inspections, real-world cyber contingencies, network outages, and contested-network exercises as the senior enlisted IT voice on scene. The promotion math from ITC to ITCS (E-8) runs through the centralized Navy Senior Chief selection board under MILPERSMAN — paper-record review of the full LCPO tour, with the chief's eEVAL profile, leadership billets, NEC stack, deployment record, command involvement, cyber readiness inspection posture, and PME (Chief Petty Officer Selectee Leadership Course at chief season, CPO Academy, applicable Navy COOL senior credentials) as the inputs. The board reads paper, and the LCPO tour is the credential the paper rests on. Selection rates for ITC to ITCS are published per the Senior Chief selection board NAVADMIN each cycle; pull the current cycle's eligible message to see the gates. The career-broadening fork at ITC is real and consequential. The most career-shaping broadening tours include: detailer billet at MyNavy HR / NPC BUPERS-3 (the senior enlisted detailing community is the institutional inside-baseball of the Navy senior enlisted career arc, and detailers shape who goes where at the chief and senior chief level); recruiter senior leadership at Navy Recruiting Command; CPO Academy faculty / cadre at the Center for Personal and Professional Development; Senior Enlisted Academy (SEA) preparatory cadre at the Naval War College Newport RI; A-school / C-school senior cadre at IWTC Corry Station or Naval Submarine School Groton; the FMTB-equivalent senior cadre seats; Fleet Cyber Command / NAVIFOR / TENTH Fleet staff senior enlisted; CSG / ESG / MEU / TYCOM staff senior enlisted; and the joint-duty senior enlisted billets at unified commands, the Joint Staff, DISA, NSA, or US Cyber Command. Each broadening tour reads loudly at the Senior Chief board. The Command Master Chief (CMC) and Chief of the Boat (COB) pipelines are the apex line senior-enlisted billets, opened at ITCS or ITCM, and the conversation about CMC / COB selection starts at the chief level. CMC is the command-team senior enlisted billet at a Navy command (ashore or afloat); COB is the senior enlisted billet on a submarine. Both are selection-based, both flow through the senior chief and master chief selection boards, and both require institutional credentials (CPO Academy, Senior Enlisted Academy, joint duty in some cases) plus the line LCPO and senior chief tour history. The IT-8404 submarine community's COB pipeline is the rate's distinct senior-enlisted afloat track. The post-service market at ITC with 14-18 years TIS is genuinely strong. Senior ITs with chief anchors, NEC stack (IT-8404 submarine, the senior network engineering NECs, CTN-aligned cyber NECs, advanced comm and cryptographic NECs), cert stack at the CISSP / CCNP-Security / CASP+ / SANS GIAC level, and clearance (TS/SCI on most billets, polygraph on the joint billets at NSA) are valuable to defense industry (Booz Allen, Leidos, SAIC, CACI, ManTech, Peraton, BAE, the long tail of cleared IT and cyber contractors), federal civil service (DISA civilian billets, NSA civilian billets, DoN civilian IT and cyber, VA enterprise IT, federal LE technical-investigations IT), civilian healthcare administration IT, and the senior-leadership roles at companies that hire from the senior NCO pool. The retirement math under BRS at 20 years TIS (2.0% per year of service, 40% multiplier at 20, plus TSP match) is the financial floor; the math of staying for ITCS / ITCM (E-8 / E-9) compounds the pension and post-service market access materially.
Career Arc
  • 01ITC pin-on via centralized Navy Chief selection board under MILPERSMAN — paper-record review of the full IT1 LPO tour.
  • 02Chief season (CPO 365 Phase II) — ~6-week induction into the Chief's Mess at the command goat locker.
  • 03LCPO tour: department LCPO at a CSG / ESG / amphib IT division, submarine senior IT (IT-8404 lead), surface combatant senior IT, NCTS / NCTAMS production element, NIOC / NIWC senior cell, MEF G-6, Fleet Cyber / NAVIFOR / TENTH Fleet staff, or joint cyber billet at NSA / DISA / unified-command J6.
  • 04Career-broadening: detailer at NPC, recruiter senior leadership, CPO Academy / SEA preparatory cadre, A-school / C-school senior cadre, Fleet Cyber / NAVIFOR staff, BUMED IT staff, joint duty senior enlisted at NSA / DISA / US Cyber Command.
  • 05CPO Academy completion (chief-tier institutional PME at the Center for Personal and Professional Development) and applicable Foundational Course for Senior Enlisted Leaders.
  • 06Senior Chief selection board package — full LCPO tour eEVAL profile, NEC stack, career broadening, PME, awards, command involvement.
  • 07ITCS pin-on if selected; CMC / COB pipeline conversation opens; SEA fellowship (Naval War College Newport RI) for senior-chief / master-chief / CMC-track PME.
Common Screwups
  • ×DUI / NJP / fraternization at this rank — terminal. The chief who cannot pass the integrity test does not pin senior chief regardless of board read; the CMC and the goat locker pull the slate immediately, the cyber officer does not defend the recovery, and the Senior Chief selection board absorbs the read inside the same cycle.
  • ×Phoning the LCPO tour. The Senior Chief board reads the LCPO eEVAL profile, the department's cyber readiness numbers (STIG / ACAS / IAVA posture, CCRI / CORA / Fleet Cyber assessment results, IAT / 8140 compliance, controlled-cryptographic-equipment accountability), the eEVAL pipeline output, and the goat locker's read of the chief's performance. A chief who lets the department drift does not pin ITCS at first look, and often does not pin at all.
  • ×Missing the CPO Academy slot, the SEA fellowship slot, or the relevant senior PME gate. The Senior Chief board reads the PME stack; the chief without the institutional credential reads as not-ready when the slate is named. The detailer at NPC and the rating senior leadership council push the slate toward chiefs who have CPO Academy on the brief sheet and SEA in motion for the CMC track.
  • ×Public disagreement with the cyber officer, department head, CO, or CMC. The chief disagrees in the office and walks out aligned in public. The chief who breaks this read is the chief the goat locker removes from the slate and the CMC stops defending — and the recovery window at this rank is narrow. The cyber officer also reads it; the IT community is small and the read propagates.
  • ×Treating the post-service market planning window as something that starts at 19 years TIS. The senior ITs who landed the strongest post-service careers planned 24-36 months ahead — clearance currency (TS/SCI maintenance, polygraph reinvestigation timeline), cert currency (CISSP continuing-ed, CCNP-Security continuing-ed, SANS GIAC short-courses), federal hiring or defense-industry relationship building, and the cleared-contractor recruiter network. The chief who waits until retirement orders is the chief who lands in the bottom tier of available billets.

A Day in the Life

  • 0500-0530Wake. PT gear on. Phone check — overnight department emergencies. IT3 in the brig? IT1 LPO with a section sailor in crisis? Controlled-cryptographic-equipment discrepancy from the off-going watch? CIRT escalation from the watch floor? CMC text? You are the senior enlisted IT voice the department looks to first. The cyber officer hears about it as you walk into morning sync.
  • 0530-0700Department PT or LCPO solo PT. On shore at a NCTAMS / NCTS / NIOC you run with the department two-to-three days a week and solo lift the rest; on a CSG / ESG / amphib you run the department PT plan with the IT1 LPOs; on a submarine you do crew PT plus your own. Visible PT habit is the deckplate read on whether the anchors are real.
  • 0700-0800Hygiene, breakfast, change uniforms. 20-30 minutes with the cyber officer and the JOs (information warfare officers, LDOs, CWOs in the office) — last shift's issues, today's readiness brief, this week's clinical-equivalent cyber concerns, the CMC's read on the climate.
  • 0800Department muster and quarters. The IT1 LPOs take accountability of their sections; you take accountability of the department and report to the cyber officer and the department head. The CMC walks the formation occasionally; she reads the department by reading the LCPO.
  • 0815-1100Department-level work. At the morning sync with the cyber officer, department head, and senior IWOs / LDOs / CWOs. At the COMSEC vault for a controlled-cryptographic-equipment posture review with the COMSEC custodian. At the readiness terminal pulling STIG / ACAS / IAVA / CCRI / CORA milestone numbers, IAT / 8140 compliance numbers, ticket SLA, change-management board output. At the CMC's office for a quarterly LCPO sync if it is on the calendar. Walking the spaces (IT-21 / ONE-Net racks, COMSEC vault, server room, comm spaces, network-operations center, NIOC / NIWC production cells) and spot-checking the IT1 LPOs' execution.
  • 1100-1300Chow. You eat with the LCPOs of sister departments — the CTN LCPO at a Fleet Cyber shore command, the OS LCPO afloat, the senior chief of a sister department if there is one. Conversation is command-level: training, slates, climate, the inspections coming up, the Senior Chief and CMC bench-building, the Warrant accession board read, the joint-cyber detailer slate.
  • 1300-1500Afternoon work. eEVAL drafting (chief-level eEVAL writing on the IT1 LPOs is the highest-leverage work of the week). Warrant 170-series / CTN / STA-21 / LDO / CWO packet review for IT1s and IT2s under the LCPO's mentorship. Climate-survey or sensing-session results review with the CMC and cyber officer. Sailor-in-crisis intervention if needed (the LCPO's office is where the sailor-in-crisis is sent first by the IT1 LPOs).
  • 1500-1630Final department formation or LCPO sync. The cyber officer briefs the next day's priorities; you brief department-level adjustments; the IT1 LPOs brief their sections. Sensitive-item accountability — keymat, controlled-cryptographic-equipment, classified-handling spot checks — and end-of-day cyber posture turnover.
  • 1630-1800Department release. You stay 60-90 minutes with the cyber officer and department head — AAR on the day, prep for tomorrow, command-team coordination if needed. The LCPO who closes out the day with the cyber officer every evening is the LCPO whose cyber officer does not surprise the CO.
  • 1800-2000Personal time. Married ITCs: family. Single ITCs: gym, study (CPO Academy curriculum if not yet complete, SEA reading list, senior-PME credentialing, CISSP / CCNP-Security / SANS GIAC continuing-ed). If you are 18-24 months out from the Senior Chief selection board, you are reviewing past board results and eEVAL patterns. If you are 12-24 months out from retirement, you are running the post-service market conversation with cleared-IT-contractor recruiters and federal hiring managers.
  • 2000-2200After-hours coordination with the cyber officer, the IT1 LPOs, the CMC, or a sailor in crisis. The chief's phone is always on. Family-emergency calls, after-duty NJP notifications, casualty-notification preparation, Red Cross messages, CIRT escalations from the watch floor. The chief who lets the phone go to voicemail at this rank stops being the chief the command trusts.
  • 2200Lights out.
  • Field rotation / deployment / patrol / contested-network exerciseThe clock collapses. You are the senior enlisted IT voice on scene during a CSG deployment, a submarine patrol, a MEU forward-deployed evolution, a Fleet Cyber Command contingency response, or a CCRI / CORA / Joint Cybersecurity Assessment. Sleep in 4-hour shifts at sea, 2-hour shifts in the field at a NAVIFOR / Fleet Cyber forward billet. The Fleet Cyber assessor, the cyber officer, the CMC, and NAVIFOR liaisons read the department through the LCPO. The Senior Chief board reads the deployment eEVAL.

Weekly Cadence

The Mon-Fri rhythm at ITC LCPO level is the department-senior-NCO version of the CMC rhythm. Monday is the heaviest planning day — you read the CMC's Friday release, adjust the department's plan to match the command-team tasking, brief the cyber officer, the department head, and your IT1 LPOs by mid-morning. Tuesday-Wednesday are watch execution and training; you observe, the IT1s run their sections, the IT2s run their cells, you spot-check the spaces and the COMSEC vault. Thursday is administrative — chief-level eEVAL drafting, NEC and commissioning packet review, readiness reconciliation, COMSEC and controlled-cryptographic-equipment accountability audit, cyber officer sync on Friday's brief. Friday is the command brief, the weekly readiness roll-up at the command-team meeting, and department release. The week's second rhythm is the Senior Chief and CMC bench work the CMC is running. The ITC on the Senior Chief bench is at the CMC's office at least monthly for a mentoring conversation, at the cyber officer's office weekly, and at the goat locker daily. The ITC who is not on the bench is missing the briefing he needs to compete. The Senior Chief selection board reads paper across the LCPO tour, and the bench-mentoring conversation is where the CMC and the senior chief mess tell the ITC which gaps in the paper to close. The week's third rhythm is the department climate and mess work — sensing sessions (the IT1 LPOs run them, you roll up to the cyber officer and CMC), goat locker meetings (the mess governance, the chief season planning for the next cycle, the Senior Chief bench conversation among the mess peers), family-readiness coordination with the ombudsman or FRO, sailor-in-crisis interventions when needed, the chief season induction work if it is the chief season window (June-September historically per the chief season cycle). The ITC who treats the mess work as separate from the LCPO work is the ITC the goat locker reads as off-mission; the ITC who integrates the two is the ITC the mess defends at every conversation.

Key Skills — How to Drill Each

  1. 01
    Run an LCPO's IT department as the senior enlisted IT voice — accountability, training, readiness, discipline, family, finance — with weekly cadence the cyber officer and department head can predict.
    The LCPO owns enlisted execution at the department level. Weekly muster brief, weekly training brief with the IT1 LPOs, weekly cyber readiness roll-up (STIG / ACAS / IAVA posture, IAT / 8140 compliance, CCRI / CORA milestone tracking, controlled-cryptographic-equipment accountability, COMSEC posture, EKMS / KMI custody records, ticket SLA, change-management board output) to the cyber officer, monthly department brief at the command-level meeting. The LCPO whose readiness numbers the cyber officer can defend up the chain without rewriting is the LCPO the Senior Chief board reads as senior-ready. The LCPO whose numbers the cyber officer has to rebuild before briefing is the LCPO whose eEVAL absorbs the read at the next cycle.
  2. 02
    Walk a real-world cyber contingency, network outage, contested-network exercise, CCRI / CORA / Fleet Cyber assessment, or CIRT event as the senior enlisted IT voice on scene — and identify broken systems before the assessor does.
    On a Fleet Cyber Command / NAVIFOR / TENTH Fleet cyber assessment or a real-world CIRT event, the LCPO walks the deck with the LPO and the cyber officer. You identify weapons-accountability-equivalent gaps in cyber SOPs (STIG drift, IAVA closure gaps, IAT / 8140 work-role compliance gaps, COMSEC accountability gaps, cryptographic-equipment custody discrepancies, classified-spillage handling gaps), and the small-unit indicators the wardroom cannot see from the office. The LCPO who surfaces the gap before the assessor does is the LCPO the cyber officer defends at the next slate; the LCPO who finds out from the assessor is the LCPO the Senior Chief board absorbs the read on.
  3. 03
    Mentor four-to-six IT1s into Chief-board-competitive candidates and at least one Warrant Officer (170-series cyber), CTN conversion, submarine IT-8404, or commissioning (STA-21 / LDO / CWO IT-side) selectee per year from your shop.
    Each IT1 gets quarterly mentoring tied to his Chief board profile — eEVAL trait-mark progression, NEC stack, warfare device pin-on status, leadership-billet sequence, cert stack progression. The LCPO who graduates two IT1s to ITC in a single cycle is the LCPO the CMC names for the Senior Chief bench. The LCPO who runs one Warrant / CTN / submarine / commissioning packet to selection per year is the LCPO who builds the institutional cyber bench the Navy depends on for the next decade. Quarterly counseling is the work; documentation is the credential.
  4. 04
    Translate Surgeon-General-equivalent strategy (here: NAVIFOR / Fleet Cyber Command / TENTH Fleet / Type Commander / OPNAV cyber strategy) into deckplate decisions the ITs and IT1s rehearse without rewording.
    Read the current OPNAVINST 5239 series, the SECNAVINST 5239 series, the DoDI 8500.01 / 8510.01 / 8530.01 stack, the NIST SP 800-37 RMF documentation, the current DoDM 8140.03 cyberspace workforce qualification matrix, the NAVIFOR / Fleet Cyber Command policy memos, the TYCOM-level cyber operations guidance, and the OPNAV-level cyber strategy documents. Translate them into the department's weekly training plan, the quarterly cyber readiness brief, the LCPO sync, and the eEVAL bullets. The LCPO who can quote NAVIFOR or Fleet Cyber policy to the cyber officer without rehearsing is the LCPO whose department posture briefs without caveats. The LCPO who is out of date on policy is the LCPO whose authority erodes inside the same brief.
  5. 05
    Write Chief-quality eEVALs (the senior rater can defend at the wardroom EVAL board) and pick the next IT1 and ITC slate from your shop.
    Chief-level eEVAL writing is measurable, action-result-impact, and tied to the rate's senior-enlisted leadership criteria per NAVPERS 1610-series guidance and the MILPERSMAN articles on enlisted evaluations. Write the bullet during the rated event in measurable language; edit at quarterly midterm counseling; finalize at the wardroom EVAL board. The LCPO whose eEVALs read as generic IT-filler is the LCPO whose juniors get under-ranked at the Chief board; the LCPO whose eEVALs read measurably is the LCPO whose IT1s pin Chief at first look.
  6. 06
    Run a Red Cross / casualty notification, sailor-in-crisis intervention, or serious-incident response with the dignity it requires — you are the senior enlisted face the family sees.
    Casualty notification protocol is in MILPERSMAN-referenced procedures and the Navy Casualty Assistance Calls Officer (CACO) program guidance. The notification team includes a senior NCO (often a chief or senior chief) plus a chaplain. You wear service dress; you deliver the message verbatim from the script; you stay until the family is ready for you to leave. The chief who treats this as a checklist is the chief the CMC and the goat locker do not defend. The chief who treats this as the most important hour of the year is the chief the command names without thinking when the call comes.

Manuals & References — What Chapters Matter

  • OPNAVINST 5239 series — Navy Cybersecurity Program (current version).
    Full familiarity at the LCPO level. You are the chief the JOs (junior officers, including new cyber officers, IWOs / Information Warfare Officers, and information-systems-officer track LDOs in their first naval assignment) come to with the policy question. Fluent across the chapters that govern the department's billet — cybersecurity, IA, RMF, controlled cryptographic equipment accountability, classified-spillage handling, IAT / 8140 work-role compliance.
  • SECNAVINST 5239 series — Department of the Navy Cybersecurity / Information Assurance Program.
    The umbrella every Navy IT and cyber instruction inherits from. As LCPO you quote it less than you are quoted from it — the cyber officer asks you what SECNAVINST says, and the LCPO who knows the article number is the LCPO the wardroom trusts.
  • DoDI 8500.01 — Cybersecurity; DoDI 8510.01 — RMF for DoD IT; DoDI 8530.01 — Cybersecurity Activities; DoDM 8140.03 — Cyberspace Workforce Qualification.
    The DoD-level umbrella. Fluent across all four at the LCPO level. The cyber officer and the NAVIFOR / Fleet Cyber liaisons read the department posture against this stack; the LCPO who quotes DoDM 8140.03 work-role assignments cold is the LCPO whose accession and credentialing decisions hold up.
  • NIST SP 800-37 — RMF; SP 800-53 — Controls; SP 800-171 — CUI in Nonfederal Systems; SP 800-181 — NICE Framework; SP 800-61 — Computer Security Incident Handling Guide.
    The NIST publications under the DoD / Navy cyber program. The LCPO who reads NIST alongside the OPNAVINSTs is the LCPO whose architecture decisions, RMF accreditation defense, and CIRT-event AAR hold up at the cyber officer and TYCOM level.
  • MILPERSMAN — the enlisted-personnel-policy index.
    Fluent on the articles governing enlisted advancement, retention, separation, NJP, fraternization, and personnel actions at chief-level visibility. You are in the room when an IT1 is being processed for NJP, when an IT2 is being separated, when a sailor needs a humanitarian transfer, when an IT3 is requesting a hardship discharge, when an IT1 with a cyber-clearance issue is being reviewed for continued access. Quote the article number, not the general concept.
  • CPO 365 Phase I and Phase II guidance, CPO Academy curriculum, Senior Enlisted Academy (SEA) reading list, NAVPERS 18068F Vol II + current NEC source-rating NAVADMIN + current Senior Chief selection board NAVADMIN.
    The chief-tier institutional development pipeline and the current board cycle gates. CPO 365 Phase I runs before chief season; Phase II is the chief season induction. CPO Academy at the Center for Personal and Professional Development is the chief-tier PME. SEA at the Naval War College Newport RI is the senior-chief / master-chief / CMC-track PME. NAVPERS 18068 Vol II is the NEC catalog; the source-rating NAVADMIN and the Senior Chief board NAVADMIN open the cycles. You consume the curriculum, you read the reading list, you translate it down to the LPOs and you build your own Senior Chief board package off the current cycle's NAVADMIN.

Standards — How to Hit Each

  • CPO Academy or applicable Foundational Course for Senior Enlisted Leaders complete; SEA fellowship in motion for CMC / COB / senior-chief-track candidates.
    CPO Academy is the chief-tier institutional PME — the curriculum is at the Center for Personal and Professional Development and runs roughly 6 weeks. SEA at the Naval War College Newport RI is the senior-chief / master-chief / CMC-track institutional gate — selection-based via the rate's senior enlisted nomination chain. Without CPO Academy on the brief sheet and SEA in motion for senior chief / CMC track, the Senior Chief board absorbs the read. Plan the packet 18-24 months out from board eligibility; the LCPO and CMC nominate.
  • Department cyber readiness (STIG / ACAS / IAVA posture, IAT / 8140 compliance, CCRI / CORA / Fleet Cyber assessment milestones, controlled-cryptographic-equipment accountability, COMSEC posture) defensible at cyber officer, department head, and command-team level — every cycle, no caveats.
    Build a weekly readiness brief the IT1s populate from the source systems and you spot-check. The LCPO who briefs a STIG posture number the cyber officer refutes from the source system is the LCPO the wardroom stops trusting. The LCPO whose numbers the cyber officer defends up the chain without rebuilding is the LCPO the CMC names for the Senior Chief bench. The standard is binary at this rank.
  • Personal eEVAL profile that the senior rater can defend at the wardroom EVAL board — the bar for senior chief is whether the chiefs you rated as EP got selected.
    The senior rater profile at chief is judged by whether the IT1s and ITCs you rated as Early Promote or strong Must Promote actually got selected at their respective boards. If your IT1s are not pinning ITC at the rates your eEVAL profile implied, the wardroom EVAL board and the CMC pull back on your own defense at the Senior Chief board. The way to keep the profile defensible is honest writing — measurable bullets, accurate ranking, no inflation.
  • Pipeline producing at least one IT1 selectee per chief cycle and one Warrant Officer (170-series cyber), CTN conversion, submarine IT-8404, or commissioning (STA-21 / LDO / CWO IT-side) selectee per year from your department.
    The mentoring is the work. Each IT1 gets quarterly counseling on the Chief board profile (eEVAL, NEC, cert stack, warfare device, leadership billet); each Warrant / CTN / submarine / commissioning candidate gets a packet-build conversation. The LCPO whose department produces two IT1-to-ITC selectees in a single cycle and a Warrant or commissioning selectee per year is the LCPO the CMC quotes when the wardroom asks who is on the Senior Chief bench.
  • Zero chief-level integrity incidents — financial, fraternization, classified-handling, OPSEC, cyber-clearance, controlled-cryptographic-equipment. One ends the career permanently at this rank.
    Chief-level integrity is binary. Financial mismanagement (debt that requires command intervention, garnishments), fraternization (relationships across the enlisted-officer line or with subordinates), classified-handling violations (the chief who mishandles classified spillage or commits a CMI is the chief the cyber officer cannot defend), OPSEC findings (the chief who posts unit network or deployment details on social media), cryptographic-equipment accountability discrepancies (one missing vial of keymat, one missing destruction signature) — any one of these is terminal. The CMC and the goat locker do not protect chiefs through integrity failures at this rank.

Technical Mistakes — Concrete Consequences

  • Mistaking the goat locker for a private club.
    The Chief's Mess is a working leadership platform; chiefs who treat it as social will be the ones the department reads as off-mission. The CMC sees it inside the first quarter; the cyber officer reads the climate; the wardroom hears it; the slate at the next Senior Chief board absorbs the read. The mess enforces this internally — the chiefs who treat the mess as a club end up the chiefs the mess does not defend in the next selection conversation.
  • Stopping personal PT, BCA discipline, and technical study because 'I am a Chief now.'
    Sailors read the deckplate harder when the anchors go on, not less, and the cyber world does not stop changing because you stopped reading. The ITC who walks past PT formation in office shoes is the chief whose department stops believing the Navy's fitness standard applies. The cyber world also moves — the chief who stopped reading SANS / NIST / DISA STIG release notes is the chief the IT1s outpace inside six months and the cyber officer reads as out of date. The CMC hears about it from the LCPO of a sister department within a quarter; the Senior Chief board absorbs the read.
  • Letting an IT1 LPO run a bad division because he is 'your guy' or 'almost a Chief.'
    The cyber officer and the CMC see the climate first and the slate gets read at the Senior Chief level. The ITC who protects a problem IT1 out of personal loyalty creates the cyber readiness finding the next Fleet Cyber assessment will visit. The fix is to mentor the IT1 hard or replace him; protecting him is not an option at this rank.
  • Going public with disagreement with the cyber officer, department head, CO, or CMC.
    The disagreement happens in the office; you walk out aligned in public. The chief who breaks this is the chief the goat locker enforces against internally and the Senior Chief board reads the gap on. The cyber officer who is publicly contradicted by the LCPO is the cyber officer who pulls back on the LCPO's authority at the next sync; the wardroom EVAL board reads the gap; the CMC stops defending the chief at the slate. The fix is one private apology and a year of rebuilding; the year sometimes does not work, and the Senior Chief slate moves on.
  • Treating the Warrant / commissioning / CTN conversion mentoring conversation as a checkbox.
    The careers you support at this rank build the Navy's cyber and IT enlisted bench for the next decade and beyond. The ITC who runs a transactional mentoring conversation produces the IT1 who washes out of the Warrant board, OCS, or the CTN conversion at the first hard moment; the ITC who runs an honest mentoring conversation produces the 170-series cyber Warrant, the CTN, the submarine IT-8404 senior, the LDO IT-side, or the STA-21 commissioned officer who anchors the rate ten years from now. The goat locker remembers which kind of chief you were.

Career Decisions at This Rank

  • Career-broadening tour timing — detailer billet at NPC, recruiter senior leadership, CPO Academy / SEA preparatory cadre, A-school / C-school senior cadre at IWTC Corry Station, NAVIFOR / Fleet Cyber staff senior enlisted, BUMED IT staff, joint duty at NSA / DISA / US Cyber Command / unified-command J6.
    These are CMC-tracked tours that read loudly at the Senior Chief board. Detailer at NPC (BUPERS-3 senior enlisted detailing community) shapes the institutional read more than any other broadening tour — detailers know everyone, know every billet, and the detailer alumni network is the senior enlisted inside-baseball of the Navy. CPO Academy or SEA preparatory cadre is the institutional development tour. Recruiter senior leadership is the visible community-facing tour. A-school / C-school senior cadre at IWTC Corry Station is the rate-development tour. NAVIFOR / Fleet Cyber staff is the strategic cyber-policy tour. Joint duty at NSA / DISA / US Cyber Command / unified-command J6 is the cross-service credential. Most successful senior IT senior chiefs did at least one career-broadening tour at ITC.
  • CMC / COB pipeline pursuit vs LCPO senior staff track.
    CMC (Command Master Chief, the command-team senior enlisted billet ashore or afloat) and COB (Chief of the Boat, the senior enlisted billet on a submarine) are the apex line senior-enlisted billets. The pipeline opens at ITCS — selection-based, via the rate's senior enlisted nomination chain. The alternative is the LCPO senior staff track: senior chief / master chief LCPO at a major NCTAMS / NCTS / NIOC / NIWC, NAVIFOR / Fleet Cyber staff senior chief, TYCOM staff senior chief, MARFOR / MEF senior IT chief, joint cyber senior enlisted at NSA / DISA / US Cyber Command. Both are valid; both pin master chief eventually; the post-service market is comparable. The decision: do you want command-team enlisted leadership (CMC / COB diamond, ship's-company senior enlisted authority) or technical-senior-staff authority (LCPO at scale)? Talk to sitting CMCs and senior LCPOs before deciding.
  • Senior Enlisted Academy (SEA) fellowship application timing.
    SEA at the Naval War College Newport RI is the senior chief / master chief / CMC-track institutional gate. Selection-based via the rate's senior enlisted nomination chain. The CMC nominates, the rating senior leadership confirms. Resident program ranging in length per the current SEA curriculum (verify the current course length via the SEA / Naval War College website). Without SEA on the brief sheet, the CMC slate and the Senior Chief / Master Chief board absorb the read. The decision: build the packet 18-24 months out from board eligibility, accept the family-separation cost, and compete for the fellowship. The chief who declines SEA can still pin ITCS, but the CMC slate prefers SEA graduates and the Senior Chief board reads the credential.
  • Retirement timing — 20-year mark vs continue to 24-30.
    At ITC with 14-18 years TIS, the 20-year retirement is 2-6 years away. Under BRS the multiplier is 2.0% per year (40% at 20, 60% at 30), with the TSP match offsetting some of the difference. The continuation pay window at 12 years TIS is past you; the next financial inflection is the retirement decision at 20. The math: stay for ITCS / ITCM (full benefits, senior chief / master chief pin-on, post-service VA / clearance value compounded, CMC / COB potential) or retire at 20 (immediate post-service market, cleared-IT-contractor / federal civil service / senior IT contractor career on day one). Run the math with a Command Financial Specialist; the variables are real.
  • Post-service market planning — cleared IT contractor space, federal civil service at DISA / NSA / DoN, commercial enterprise IT, healthcare IT, technical consulting.
    Senior ITs with chief anchors, NEC stack (IT-8404 submarine, senior network engineering NECs, CTN-aligned cyber NECs, advanced comm and cryptographic NECs), cert stack (CISSP, CCNP-Security, CASP+, SANS GIAC), and clearance (TS/SCI, polygraph on joint billets) are valuable to multiple post-service markets. Cleared IT contractors (Booz Allen, Leidos, SAIC, CACI, ManTech, Peraton, BAE, MITRE, the long tail of cleared IT contracting) hire chief ITs into senior systems engineer, technical lead, and program manager roles ($110K-$160K entry, $140K-$200K senior). Federal civil service (DISA civilian billets at GS-12 to GS-13 entry, NSA civilian billets, DoN civilian IT and cyber at the GS-13 to GS-14 level) is the alternate path. Commercial enterprise IT translates with the cert stack and the leadership credential. Healthcare IT (Epic, Cerner / Oracle Health, the major healthcare IT integrators) hires chief ITs for the cleared-equivalent enterprise-IT skill set. The decision is target and timing; the senior ITs who landed the strongest post-service careers planned 24-36 months ahead.

How the Seat Varies by Unit Type

  • Carrier / amphib IT department LCPO (large ship — CVN, LHA / LHD, LPD)
    The LCPO of an IT department on a CVN or amphib runs 25-40 ITs across multiple sections, the IT-21 / ONE-Net infrastructure for a 5000-Sailor / Marine afloat command, the CSG / ESG cyber posture, and the COMSEC / cryptographic accountability at scale. The OPTEMPO is the carrier / amphib deployment cycle. The Senior Chief board reads the cruise eEVAL heavily; the LCPO who came off a successful CSG / ESG deployment with the department's cyber readiness posture in the upper third is the LCPO the CMC defends for the Senior Chief bench.
  • Small surface combatant IT (DDG / CG senior shop — the LCPO is often the senior IT aboard)
    On a DDG or CG, the IT shop is 8-15 ITs total; the ITC is often the senior IT aboard if there is no ITCS billet, or under a single ITCS at a destroyer-squadron staff. The scope is broader by displacement — the LCPO owns more of the platform's IT-21 / ONE-Net posture, the COMSEC vault, the cyber readiness inspection posture, and the network-status portion of the daily department-head sync. The cruise eEVAL profile reads heavily at the Senior Chief board; the small-combatant LCPO who came off a successful deployment as the senior IT aboard is the LCPO the cyber officer defends at the next slate.
  • Submarine IT (IT-8404, broader scope due to small crew)
    On a fast-attack or boomer, the IT shop is 2-4 ITs total. The ITC with the IT-8404 NEC is the senior IT aboard the boat — usually the only chief in the IT shop. The scope is broader by displacement than any other IT platform — the LCPO owns the boat's IT posture in patrol with no in-port reach-back, the cryptographic-equipment accountability under the EKMS / KMI process at sea, and the network and comm posture for a closed underwater platform. Submarine duty pay applies. The Senior Chief board reads the patrol eEVAL heavily for IT-8404 ITCs; the COB pipeline opens at the senior chief level for the IT-8404 community, and the COB selection is the apex senior-enlisted afloat billet on the boat.
  • NCTAMS / NCTS / NIOC shore senior LCPO billet (large-scale shore IT production)
    NCTAMS (Naval Computer and Telecommunications Area Master Stations — Pacific in Wahiawa HI, Atlantic in Norfolk VA), the NCTSes (Naval Computer and Telecommunications Stations) worldwide, and NIOC (Navy Information Operations Command) shore commands are the Navy's shore-side enterprise IT and information-warfare production commands. The ITC LCPO at one of these commands runs a department or production element — a server farm, a comm-suite cell, a network operations center, a cryptologic-watch element. The OPTEMPO is enterprise IT — uptime, change management, configuration control, inspection posture, IAT / 8140 compliance at scale. The Senior Chief board reads the production-element eEVAL on the basis of uptime, ticket SLA, inspection posture, and the bench the LCPO built.
  • Joint cyber billet (Fleet Cyber Command / TENTH Fleet, NSA, DISA, US Cyber Command, unified-command J6 staff)
    The ITC on joint duty at Fleet Cyber / TENTH Fleet (Fort Meade MD), at NSA (Fort Meade), at DISA (Fort Meade / Stuttgart / shore commands worldwide), at US Cyber Command (Fort Meade), or at a unified-command J6 staff (CENTCOM, INDOPACOM, EUCOM, AFRICOM, NORTHCOM, SOUTHCOM, SPACECOM, USCYBERCOM) is the rate's joint-duty senior-enlisted bench. The OPTEMPO is staff work, joint inter-service collaboration, and policy translation. The Senior Chief board reads joint duty as a clear differentiator on the brief sheet; the ITC who came off a successful joint tour with a strong eEVAL is the ITC the goat locker quotes when the wardroom asks who is on the Senior Chief bench with a joint credential. TS/SCI with polygraph is the clearance baseline at NSA / US Cyber Command billets.

What Good Looks Like at This Rank

The good Chief Information Systems Technician is the LCPO the CO calls by name and the goat locker defends in the mess. His department briefs without caveats. His IT1s pick up Chief at first look. His Warrant / CTN / submarine IT-8404 / commissioning packets select at rates above the type-command's average. His deckplate posture matches his liberty posture. The CMC quotes him when the wardroom asks who is on the Senior Chief bench, and the goat locker reads his standard before he speaks. His own eEVAL profile is honest — the senior rater can defend every measurable bullet, the rated chiefs got selected from his ratings, the wardroom EVAL board reads his rankings without question. The institutional credentials (CPO Academy, SEA fellowship in motion for senior-chief / CMC track, joint duty if applicable, detailer or recruiter senior leadership tour, A-school / C-school senior cadre tour, NAVIFOR / Fleet Cyber staff tour) are on his brief sheet. The Senior Chief bench is open because the CMC has named him; the post-service market is open because he started the conversation 24-36 months before the Senior Chief board even reads paper on his cycle. The ITC who is being groomed for senior chief looks different from the ITC who is competent at LCPO. The grooming chief is the one whose department's cyber readiness numbers are in the upper third of the command, who has built two IT1s into Chief-board-ready candidates, whose chief season induction produced a cohort that the mess reads as senior-chief-bench themselves, who has the SEA fellowship in motion, and whose eEVAL profile across the most recent 3-5 reports is the cleanest in the rate. The Senior Chief board reads paper; the ITC who built the paper through 36 months of disciplined LCPO work is the ITC who pins ITCS at first look and walks into the next consequential billet.

Preview — The Next Rank

ITCS (Senior Chief, E-8) and ITCM (Master Chief, E-9) are the apex enlisted ranks of the Information Systems Technician rating, and the gap between them is structurally narrow — pay grade E-8 to E-9, a few years TIS, and the assignment slate that separates the senior chief at a staff or department billet from the master chief at a command-team CMC / COB diamond, a Fleet / Force Master Chief tier, or a NAVIFOR / Fleet Cyber senior enlisted advisor seat. The Senior Chief selection board reads paper across the ITC LCPO tour; the Master Chief board reads paper across the ITCS senior chief LCPO tour at scale. The job content at ITCS is fundamentally different from ITC. As Senior Chief LCPO at scale — a major NCTAMS / NCTS / NIOC / NIWC department, a CSG / ESG / MEU staff senior IT, a TYCOM staff senior IT, a Fleet Cyber / NAVIFOR staff senior chief, a submarine squadron senior IT, a joint cyber senior enlisted at NSA / DISA / US Cyber Command — you run 30-60 ITs across multiple ITC LCPOs. You write senior-chief-quality eEVALs that pick the next ITC and ITCS slate; you sit at command-team sync as the senior enlisted IT voice; you walk the deck during a real-world contingency, contested-network event, or fleet-level cyber assessment as the senior NCO the CO calls by name. You build the next CMC, COB, or senior staff master chief. ITCM (E-9) and the CMC / COB / SEA-fellowship-graduate senior staff billets are the apex enlisted billets in the rate. CMC at a Navy command, COB on a submarine (the IT-8404 community track), Fleet / Force Master Chief tier for major Navy components, NAVIFOR senior enlisted advisor, Fleet Cyber Command senior enlisted advisor, joint duty senior enlisted at unified commands / US Cyber Command / NSA / DISA, MARFOR senior IT-rating advisor are the master-chief seats the rate fills. The post-service market at ITCS / ITCM with 22-30 years TIS, chief anchors with senior or master chief insignia, NEC stack, SEA fellowship, joint duty if applicable, and TS/SCI clearance with polygraph maintenance is the most lucrative civilian-career inflection in the rate. The senior ITs who plan the transition 24-36 months ahead land cleanly; the senior ITs who treat retirement as the next assignment slate are the ones whose post-service careers compound the pension into the final financial inflection of the career.
FAQ

IT E7 — Frequently Asked Questions

Q01What does a E7 IT (Information Systems Technician) actually do?
The job changes more between IT1 and ITC than at any other promotion in the rate.
Q02What's the most important thing to know as a E7 IT?
ITC is where the rating's culture changes more than at any other promotion.
Q03What does a typical day look like for a E7 IT?
Time-blocked day at the E7 IT rank tier: 0500-0530 Wake. PT gear on. Phone check — overnight department emergencies. IT3 in the brig? IT1 LPO with a section sailor in crisis? Controlled-cryptographic-equipment discrepancy from the off-going watch? CIRT escalation from the watch floor? CMC text? You are the senior enlisted IT voice the department looks to first. The cyber officer hears about it as you walk into morning sync, 0530-0700 Department PT or LCPO solo PT. On shore at a NCTAMS / NCTS / NIOC you run with the department two-to-three days a week and solo lift the rest;…
Q04What mistakes get E7 IT soldiers fired or relieved?
DUI / NJP / fraternization at this rank — terminal. The chief who cannot pass the integrity test does not pin senior chief regardless of board read; the CMC and the goat locker pull the slate immediately, the cyber officer does not defend the recovery, and the Senior Chief selection board absorbs the read inside the same cycle; Phoning the LCPO tour. The Senior Chief board reads the LCPO eEVAL profile, the department's cyber readiness numbers (STIG / ACAS / IAVA posture,…
Q05What career decisions matter most at the E7 IT rank tier?
Career-broadening tour timing — detailer billet at NPC, recruiter senior leadership, CPO Academy / SEA preparatory cadre, A-school / C-school senior cadre at IWTC Corry Station, NAVIFOR / Fleet Cyber staff senior enlisted, BUMED IT staff, joint duty at NSA / DISA / US Cyber Command / unified-command J6 — These are CMC-tracked tours that read loudly at the Senior Chief board. Detailer at NPC (BUPERS-3 senior enlisted detailing community) shapes the institutional read more than any other broadening tour — detailers know everyone, know every billet,…
Q06What's next after E7 for a IT (Information Systems Technician) in the Navy?
ITCS (Senior Chief, E-8) and ITCM (Master Chief, E-9) are the apex enlisted ranks of the Information Systems Technician rating, and the gap between them is structurally narrow — pay grade E-8 to E-9, a few years TIS, and the assignment slate that separates the senior chief at a staff or department billet from the master chief at a command-team CMC / COB diamond, a Fleet / Force Master Chief tier, or a NAVIFOR / Fleet Cyber senior enlisted advisor seat.
Q07What manuals and regulations does a E7 IT need to know cold?
OPNAVINST 5239 series — current Navy Cybersecurity Program.; SECNAVINST 5239 series — DON Cybersecurity / IA program (you are quoted from it more often than you quote it).; DoDI 8500.01, 8510.01, 8530.01 — Cybersecurity, RMF for DoD IT, Cybersecurity Activities (you live inside this stack).

Based on 23 tips from 0 contributors

Published by the Honest MOS Editorial DeskVerified against DoD/.gov sourcesUpdated May 2026Editorial standards