You have a director seat open. A resume lands. The candidate ran a battalion. Or maybe a company. Or a brigade staff. Those words mean a lot. But they do not map to your org chart by themselves.

This is where most hiring managers stall on a military officer. The rank sounds senior. The titles sound foreign. So the resume gets parked, or worse, the officer gets slotted two levels too low.

This guide fixes that. It shows where company-grade and field-grade officers fit on the civilian org chart. Manager. Senior manager. Director. VP. You will learn how to read an officer's record and place them right the first time.

Two notes before we start. If you want to know WHERE to find officer candidates, read our guide on how to source junior enlisted, NCOs, and officers. That post owns the channels. And if you want to decode leadership scope for any rank, enlisted or officer, read how to assess leadership from a military background. This guide goes narrow. It is about officers and the org-chart question.

What Are Company-Grade and Field-Grade Officers?

Military officers sit in pay grades O-1 through O-10. For management and director hiring, you mostly care about O-1 through O-6. Those split into two groups.

Company-grade officers are O-1, O-2, and O-3. These are the junior officers. They lead small teams and run day-to-day operations. Think front-line management.

Field-grade officers are O-4, O-5, and O-6. These officers lead larger units. They run staff sections, set direction, and own budgets. Think senior management and above.

The titles change by branch. The Army, Air Force, Marines, and Space Force use one set. The Navy and Coast Guard use another. The pay grade is the constant. When in doubt, find the O-number. It travels across every branch.

You can check any rank against the official chart. The U.S. Army rank reference lays out command levels and team sizes for each grade. The Navy officer insignia page shows the sea-service equivalents. Bookmark both.

How Do Officer Ranks Map to Civilian Management Levels?

Here is the core of this guide. Each officer rank carries a rough span of control. That span tells you the right civilian level. The mapping is not exact. But it gives you a smart starting point.

O-1 and O-2 (2nd and 1st Lieutenant): These officers lead a platoon. That is 16 to 44 people, per the Army. They handle direct supervision and small-team execution. On your chart, this often maps to a team lead or front-line manager role. They have led people. They have not yet run a department.

O-3 (Captain, or Lieutenant in the Navy): A captain commands a company. The Army puts that at 60 to 200 people, with a senior NCO as the second-in-command. The captain owns training, readiness, equipment, and the unit budget. This is real management. It often maps to a manager or senior manager seat. Many captains have run an operation with more people and more equipment than a midsize team.

O-4 (Major, or Lieutenant Commander): A major is the primary staff officer at the brigade or task-force level. They plan operations, manage people and logistics, and brief senior leaders. This is cross-functional work. It often maps to a senior manager or director role, depending on the staff scope they owned.

O-5 (Lieutenant Colonel, or Commander): A lieutenant colonel typically commands a battalion. The Army sizes that at 300 to 1,000 people. They own the mission, the budget, and a full chain of subordinate leaders. This often maps to a director seat. Some land at senior director or even VP, based on the budget and headcount they owned.

O-6 (Colonel, or Navy Captain): A colonel typically commands a brigade. The Army sizes that at 1,500 to 3,200 people. That is a large organization with multiple departments and a major budget. This often maps to a VP or senior director role. A brigade commander has run something the size of a small company.

Read the mapping as a range, not a rule. A major on a small staff is not the same as a major who ran a large logistics shop. The rank sets the floor. The record sets the ceiling.

Why Should You Not Slot Officers Too Low?

This is the most common officer-hiring mistake. The titles look unfamiliar, so the safe move feels like starting them low. That move backfires two ways.

First, you lose the candidate. A lieutenant colonel who ran a 600-person battalion will not take a front-line supervisor role. They will see the gap and walk. You spent the sourcing time for nothing.

Second, you misprice the talent. An O-5 who managed a multimillion-dollar budget and a layered chain of leaders is director material. Slot them as a manager and you underpay a director-level operator. They leave inside a year for the title they earned.

The fix is simple. Stop reading the title. Read the scope behind it. That is the next section.

How Do You Read an Officer's Record for Real Scope?

An officer's resume holds four signals that translate cleanly to civilian terms. Pull these out and the right level becomes clear.

Command time. Did they command, or were they staff? Command means they owned a unit and its people. That is line management with full accountability. Staff means they advised and planned without direct ownership. Both are valuable. Command carries more org-chart weight. Look for words like "commanded," "company commander," or "battalion commander."

Billet. The billet is the job they held, not the rank they wore. A major might be a battalion operations officer or a brigade logistics lead. The billet tells you the function. Match it to your departments. Operations, logistics, HR, finance, and IT all have direct military mirrors.

Span of control. How many people reported to them? How many layers of leaders sat below? A captain over 150 people and three lieutenants is running a layered organization. That span maps to a senior manager or director who owns multiple teams.

Budget owned. Officers often manage real money. Equipment, supply, training, and facility budgets run into the millions. If the resume names a budget figure, weight it. Budget ownership is one of the clearest director-level signals on any resume.

What If the Officer's Resume Reads Too Military?

Many officer resumes still use military words. "Battalion S-3." "Brigade XO." "Company commander." Those terms are accurate. But they do not line up with your job description.

This matters for your tools, too. An applicant tracking system ranks resumes against the words in your posting. When the resume says "platoon leader" and your posting says "team manager," the match score drops. The resume does not get filtered out. It sinks lower in the rack, and your recruiter may never scroll to it.

So when you read an officer's resume, do the translation in your head. "Commanded a company" means "ran a 150-person operation." "Brigade operations officer" means "led planning across a 4,000-person organization." The civilian meaning is usually one layer up from what the military word suggests.

The good news is the candidate pool is already translating this for you. Veterans who build resumes on BMR rewrite military billets into civilian terms with the scope spelled out. More than 1,000 new profiles get added every month. Across the platform, over 60,000 resumes have been built. That gives you a deep, ready supply of officer candidates with scope you can read at a glance.

Where Do Officers Fit Best on a Civilian Team?

Officers are not a fit for every seat. They fit best where the role needs planning, people leadership, and decisions under pressure. A few patterns hold up well.

Operations and program management. Officers plan complex work and run it to a deadline. Many slot into operations director or program lead roles. We cover this in depth in our guide on hiring veterans for PMO and operations management roles.

Cross-functional leadership. A field-grade officer has briefed senior leaders, coordinated across departments, and owned outcomes they did not control alone. That is the heart of a director job. The leadership skills veterans bring map straight onto senior management work.

People and team building. Officers develop subordinate leaders as a core duty. That skill is rare in mid-career civilian hires. It makes them strong picks for roles where you need a manager who grows the team, not just runs it.

Management work pays well, which sets your offer band. The BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook puts the median wage for management occupations at $122,090 as of May 2024. About 1.1 million management openings come up each year. There is room to place strong officers, and the market rewards the level they earned.

How Do You Run a Smart Officer Hire?

Put the pieces together with a simple flow. This keeps you from slotting too low and keeps the candidate engaged.

One more step builds the long game. Officers talk to each other. Place one well and you earn a referral pipeline. To set that up before the next req opens, see our guide on how to build a veteran talent pipeline.

Place Officers Where They Belong

A military officer can be one of the strongest management hires on your slate. They have led people, owned budgets, and made hard calls under pressure. The only barrier is the translation. Get the org-chart placement right and you get that value.

Start with the pay grade. Then read the scope behind the title. A captain who ran a 150-person company is a manager today. A lieutenant colonel who ran a battalion is a director. A colonel who ran a brigade can carry a VP seat. Slot them where the work lands.

BMR gives you a fast way to find these officers. The pool grows by more than 1,000 new profiles every month, with over 60,000 resumes built and scope spelled out in civilian terms. When you are ready to fill a management or director seat, reach out to access BMR's veteran talent pool and place an officer at the level they earned.