# Wendy Noble The **20th Deputy Director of the [[NSA]]** — the agency's senior civilian and chief operating officer — removed from the post on April 3, 2025, the same day Trump fired her director, [[Timothy Haugh]]. A career NSA official with roughly three decades inside the agency, she was the third woman ever to hold the deputy directorship. ## Career The Secretary of Defense designated and President Biden approved Noble as deputy director in an announcement dated **August 30, 2023**, succeeding George C. Barnes. In the role she functioned as NSA's chief operating officer: strategy execution, policy, operations, and management of the senior civilian workforce. She had previously served as **NSA Executive Director from 2019 to 2022**, and most recently before her elevation held a Department of Defense post working on foreign partnerships. Her awards include NSA's Exceptional Civilian Service Award, a Meritorious Executive Presidential Rank Award, and the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal. ## Removal Reporting on April 3–4, 2025 — first by the Washington Post, then across the trade and mainstream press — described Noble as removed from the deputy directorship and offered reassignment to the **Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security**, with retirement as the alternative. No reason was given publicly, and none has been given since. NSA's own site now lists her as a former deputy director. > [!note] Two firings, one meeting, different mechanisms > Haugh was a commissioned officer relieved of command; Noble was a career civil servant moved sideways. The distinction matters for how the vault records the episode: the uniformed removal is visible and reportable, the civilian removal is an administrative reassignment that leaves no paper trail of cause. Where Noble actually landed — the OUSD(I&S) job or retirement — has not been publicly confirmed, and this page does not assert either. ## Why She Matters for the KB Noble is the civilian half of a decapitation. Removing a director and a deputy director on the same day takes out both the command and the continuity — the deputy is precisely the person who runs the agency while a director's seat is empty, and that seat then stayed empty for eleven months until [[Joshua Rudd]] was confirmed in March 2026. She also illustrates the quieter half of the pattern: **career officials with thirty-year records and no political profile are moved without a stated reason, and the absence of a reason is the point** — there is nothing to rebut. ## See Also - [[NSA]] — the agency where she spent her career - [[Timothy Haugh]] — the director fired the same day - [[Joshua Rudd]] — confirmed to the vacant directorship in March 2026 - [[Laura Loomer]] — the influencer whose Oval Office meeting preceded the removals