David Ceasar

David is a Senior States Initiatives Advisor at Recoding America, where he partners with states to modernize civil service systems and build the government capacity needed to deliver on policy goals. He brings more than 15 years of experience in federal government management operations.

Most recently, he served as Senior Advisor to the Under Secretary for Management at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) (2022–2025), also serving as Senior Counselor to the Deputy Secretary, supporting the operational leadership of a 268,000-employee organization with a $105 billion annual budget.

At DHS, David led implementation of six organizational capacity priorities spanning workforce modernization, infrastructure, service delivery, and AI governance. He built performance measurement systems with 60-80 measurable annual goals tracked across all organizational levels. His work contributed to DHS being named the most-improved large agency in the Partnership for Public Service’s 2023 “Best Places to Work” rankings. Through this effort, he helped reduce time-to-hire by 14% year-over-year, oversaw facility improvements across 80 locations, and helped redesign a major public-facing digital platform that cut average user completion time by 36%.

Prior to DHS, David spent a decade at the State Department (2011–2021) managing complex multilateral programs, leading cross-functional teams of up to 40 professionals, and aligning operational execution with strategic foreign policy objectives. He has also provided consulting services to the Executive Office of the President and a range of political and advocacy campaigns.

David holds a master’s degree in political management and a Bachelor of Arts in political communication from George Washington University. David has been deeply engaged in the local community, providing pro bono support to the Arlington Public Health Division during the Covid-19 pandemic as well as volunteering at a D.C. food pantry since 2003.