NomCom 2025

Desired expertise

These pages contain the current summaries of desired expertise for open positions, provided to the NomCom by the IESG, IAB, and IAOC. As the NomCom proceeds, per BCP 10, we receive input from the community on the qualifications required for the positions. The NomCom bases selections on all of this information. These pages may be updated periodically.

The Internet Architecture Board (IAB) is chartered both as a committee of the IETF and as an advisory body of the Internet Society (ISOC). The IAB supports the operation of the IETF. It provides architectural input into IETF technical activities as well as sponsoring and organizing work in the IRTF. The IAB serves as a source of advice and guidance on technical, architectural and procedural matters related to the Internet and its enabling technologies.

Organizational Role

The IAB has various roles within the organizational structure of the IETF. While these roles require administrative rather than technical work, they form a significant part of the IAB's activities as specified in the IAB charter (RFC 2850).

  • The IAB has a role in the IETF Nominations Committee process: the IAB confirms the IETF Chair and the Area Directors (IESG).
  • The IAB serves as an appeal board for complaints of improper execution of the standards process, handling appeals related to IESG standards decisions.
  • The IAB appoints ISOC Board of Trustees (BoT) members and similar positions in other Internet governance bodies.
  • The IAB handles appeals on matters related to the IETF LLC.
  • The IAB provides direction for the administration of the IETF's protocol parameters registries (the IANA function).
  • The IAB selects the Independent Submission Editor (RFC 8730) as well as the Chair of the Internet Research Task Force (IRTF) and oversees the IRTF's activities (RFC 2014).
  • The IAB is responsible for interfacing with other organizations on behalf of the IETF. It does this primarily through its liaison process. When necessary, IAB members will engage more directly with other organizations.
  • The IAB reviews the charters of new and existing IRTF RGs. The IAB receives regular feedback and status overviews from IRTF RGs and provides input to the community from an architectural perspective.
  • The IAB is responsible for appointing one of the Chairs of the RFC Series Working Group (RSWG) and a voting member of the RFC Series Approval Board (RSAB) as specified in RFC 9280.

All IAB members need to be prepared to participate (to varying degrees) in these activities.

Architectural Role

A principal role of the IAB is to take a broad and long-range perspective, offering input into the planning and coordination among different areas of Internet activities, including those of the IETF and IRTF. The sum of the expertise of IAB members encompasses a broad range of technologies under IETF and IRTF. The IAB is expected to pay attention to important long-term issues on the Internet and ensure that these issues are brought to the attention of the groups that are in a position to address them and that the right people within these groups are in contact with each other.

The IAB maintains open communications channels with other bodies engaged in Internet governance, including ICANN, the Regional Internet Registries, and ISOC, and provides technical and architectural input as appropriate. Members of the IAB also participate in outreach activities, primarily aimed at increasing the visibility of the IETF, representing the Internet's Technical Community while supporting the multistakeholder approach to Internet Governance.

As needed, the IAB collaborates with ISOC to offer advice and guidance to the Internet community on technical, architectural, and policy matters related to the Internet and its enabling technologies.

Organization of the IAB

To enhance institutional memory and facilitate the development of medium and long-term activities, the IAB organizes its work into several areas, including technical programs and administrative support groups (see https://www.iab.org/activities/programs/). A technical program is a long-term activity comprised of a body of technical experts from the wider community (see RFC 2850 Section 2.1). Program outputs can include IAB documents and statements. All IAB members are expected to review and comment on program outputs that represent the consensus of the IAB. Administrative support groups assist the IAB in carrying out its responsibilities to the community. To ensure that all IAB activities have IAB participation, members of the IAB are expected to actively participate in one or more programs or administrative support groups.

The IAB schedules workshops on topics of interest from time to time, and IAB members are encouraged to attend these as well.

In addition, the IAB selects a Chair for a one-year term at the March IETF meeting, after new members are seated. There should be at least two members (among the newly selected slate and the incumbents) who are willing and able to take the role of Chair.

IAB Member Qualities

The IAB is most effective when it is composed of a diverse set of individuals with a broad range of technical skills, architectural perspectives, and backgrounds.

The IAB should have members with technical leadership experience, operational management backgrounds, research or academic backgrounds, implementation experience, and experience in other bodies involved in Internet governance. Likewise, the IAB should have members who have had experiences with differing technical challenges and requirements, including those that vary by geographic region. IAB members must be willing and able to collaborate with one another to develop a shared viewpoint.

Some IAB activities are very specialized - for example, managing liaison relationships with other SDOs on behalf of the IETF. The IAB should have members with sufficient managerial skills to understand the issues that need to be addressed by the IAB, as well as to manage and document inter-SDO liaison relationships on a strategic basis.

While some IAB members should have expertise in the IAB's current technical program topics, it is more important for the IAB to have members who are experienced in building and managing teams of volunteers and who can motivate program work, and direct them even in the absence of in-depth knowledge about specific technical topics.

The IAB also has regular technical discussions with invited experts on selected topics that could be of interest to the Internet community. The IAB should have members with experience and an interest in organizing such information exchanges with industry, academia and civil society.

While these characteristics are all important, individuals have different strengths. The IAB, as a whole, benefits most from a complementary and diverse set of skills that are balanced across all aspects of the role.

Time Commitment

The time commitment for an IAB member ranges from at least 10% to 20% or more per week (with significant week-to-week variability), depending on involvement and activities. Full-time engagement is expected during retreats, and IAB workshops. Some positions and activities require a higher time commitment. These include chairing the IAB, liaison coordination, leading a program, organizing IAB workshops, and serving as IAB liaisons to the IESG and the Nomcom. It is expected that IAB members also actively participate in IETF activities. Simply tracking the various mailing lists and documents can take up to a day a week. About a quarter to half of the time is spent on organizational activities. Leading a program is an equivalent time commitment to chairing a working group; active participation in a program can take additional time.

The typical time commitment for the IAB Chair is three days a week, and this position may require more travel. The IAB Chair is an ex officio member of the IESG and must devote time to IESG meetings, including a yearly retreat, which is often but not always adjacent to the IAB retreat.

The IESG may call upon IAB members to aid in the evaluation of new work in the IETF by reviewing documents and charters, acting as IAB Shepherds for a BOF, and other tasks, potentially adding to those numbers.

IAB members should plan to arrive at IETF meetings at or before the start of the meeting week. The time commitment during the meeting week includes time on Sunday, early mornings during the week, during meal times, and Friday after scheduled meetings conclude. IAB members are expected to cover and report on BoFs during the week.

The IAB typically holds an annual retreat of one to three days, full-board meetings at least six times per year, and regular teleconferences as needed to fulfill its responsibilities.

Travel funding is not available from the IAB for any of its members to attend any of the activities described above.

The IETF Trust/IETF IPMC, operating through the IETF Intellectual Property Management Corporation (IPMC), is the nonprofit organization responsible for holding and managing intellectual property (IP) assets on behalf of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). These assets include copyrights, trademarks, software licenses, and domain names used by the IETF and IANA.

The Trust is not a revenue-generating entity and does not charge for the use of its assets. It is legally distinct from the IETF LLC and ISOC. Appointees will serve as Directors of the IPMC, a Delaware-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation.

There are 5 volunteers who serve on the IETF Trust/IPMC - 3 staggered IETF NOMCOM 3 year appointment, 1 IETF IESG 2 year appointment, 1 appointment by ISOC Board of Trustees.

The IETF IP policies for contributors are described in RFC 5378, while the TLP Licensing Provisions published by the IETF Trust/IPMC describe the outbound licensing terms.

For more information, visit https://trustee.ietf.org.

Role Overview

As a Trustee and IPMC Director, you will help oversee the stewardship of the IETF’s intellectual property assets and ensure the Trust operates in compliance with legal and regulatory obligations. This is a governance-focused role requiring strategic oversight, collaborative decision-making, and a working understanding of non-patent IP rights in the context of open standards development. The IETF IPMC does not hold patents or manage patents.

The current IETF Trust Chair/IPMC Chair is standing down and is not seeking reappointment by the IETF NOMCOM. The 5 IETF Trustees/IPMC Directors will select a new chair in March 2026 once the NOMCOM and IESG appointees are seated.

Key Responsibilities

  • IP Oversight & Guidance
    • Provide IP Rights management as part of the IETF IP Rights framework defined by RFC 5378 and related RFCs and the TLP Licensing Provisions.
    • Review and respond to reports of copyright and trademark infringement.
    • Provide guidance on IP rights related to IETF Contributions and RFCs.
    • Evaluate external requests to use Trust-held assets and ensure compliance with the Trust Legal Provisions (TLP).
    • Occasionally establish new licensing terms for novel use cases.
  • Governance & Operations
    • Oversee the administration of the IPMC, ensuring compliance with Delaware corporate law and U.S. federal nonprofit regulations.
    • Participate in strategic planning and operational oversight of the Trust’s activities.
    • Serve as a resource to IETF leadership, working groups, and the RFC Series Editor on IP-related questions.
  • Leadership Roles
    • Trustees elect a Chair/President, Treasurer, and Secretary from among themselves.
    • The Chair acts as the primary liaison with staff and legal counsel and manages meeting agendas and operational triage.
    • The Treasurer reviews financial statements and supports budget planning.
    • The Secretary manages meeting minutes and other administrative and governance activities.

Time Commitment

  • ~1–2 hours/week for email discussions and document reviews.
  • Monthly 1-hour teleconferences.
  • Participation in three ~2-hour meetings annually during IETF meeting weeks (in person or remote).
  • Occasional time-sensitive approvals (1–2 times/year).
  • Chair: Additional 2–3 hours/week, with occasional spikes of 5–15 hours.
  • Treasurer: ~1 hour/month, with 1–4 hours/week during budget season.

Ideal Candidate Profile

You do not need to be a lawyer. Most Trustees are not. Instead, we seek individuals with:

  • A strong understanding of the IETF’s RFC development process.
  • Familiarity with copyright and trademark law (especially U.S.-based), or a willingness to learn.
  • Appreciation for the IETF’s unique IP framework (e.g., RFC 5378, TLP, Note Well).
  • Experience with nonprofit or board governance is a plus.
  • A collaborative mindset and willingness to serve multiple terms to ensure continuity.

Desirable Skills & Knowledge Areas

  • IP rights provenance and licensing in open standards.
  • RFC publication process (e.g., RFC 8728).
  • Trust Legal Provisions and related documents (e.g., RFC 5738/BCP 78, RFC 8721).
  • Board-level decision-making and nonprofit compliance.
  • Ability to engage constructively with legal counsel and technical stakeholders.

This note describes the expertise desired in the candidates selected to fill the positions of all IESG members.

Under the Nominations Committee (NomCom) procedures defined in RFC 7437/BCP 10, the IESG is responsible for providing a summary of the expertise desired of the candidates selected for open IESG positions. This information is included below and is suitable for publication to the community with the NomCom request for nominations.

We realize that this is a long list of desires and that no one person will be able to meet all of the expertise for a specific position. We trust that the NomCom will weigh all of these qualities and choose IESG members who represent the best possible balance of them.

Generic IESG Member Expertise

The IESG members are responsible for managing the IETF standards process. They must possess a thorough understanding of IETF operations, recognize areas in which the organization needs to evolve, and excel in collaborative work. They must also be able to inspire and motivate volunteers to work together and be adept at handling strong personalities and loud voices, fostering an environment in which discussions regarding ideas and technical merit may be held freely. An important aspect of this is helping new participants become productive at the IETF and developing talent to fill important IETF roles in the future. And, of course, IESG members must also have sound technical judgment about IETF technologies and its relationship to technology developed elsewhere.

The Area Director (AD) role has a significant people management component, for which prior experience chairing a working group will be useful – although other people-management experience can be a reasonable substitute. ADs select the Working Group (WG) Chairs and then work with them to manage IETF WGs. Consequently, IESG members should possess sufficient interpersonal and management skills to manage 20 to 40 part-time volunteers. Most ADs are also responsible for the management of one or more directorates or review teams. The ability to identify good leaders and technical experts, and then recruit and rotate them for IETF work and leadership at all levels is crucial to the growth and success of the IETF.

ADs are also expected to recognize the need for changes in IETF processes or in the organization's overall role, in response to the evolving Internet and industry landscape.

An ideal IESG member has made significant technical contributions in more than one IETF Area. Similarly, the ability to review and usefully provide feedback on technical documents is a necessary skill for IESG members, for which serving as a document shepherd or on a directorate or review team would provide useful experience; active participation in working groups and other, non-IETF technical review activities can also help build such skills. A broad range of technical abilities and the capacity to quickly comprehend concepts outside their primary areas of expertise are more valuable than specific technical knowledge.

An AD need not be the ultimate expert and authority in any technical area. The abilities to manage, guide, and judge consensus, to know who the subject-matter experts are and to seek their advice, and to mentor other IETF participants to take the technical lead are at least as important as their technical abilities. Although the split varies from area to area, ADs can expect to spend approximately 30% of their IESG time on management tasks, with the remainder of their IESG time being spent on technical matters.

An AD must be able to thoroughly review every Internet Draft for which they are responsible, both those from their working groups and those that they sponsor directly. For other Internet Drafts, an AD combines personal review with the assistance of directorates to be satisfied that adequate review has taken place.

Experience attending multiple IETF meetings, creating Working Group (WG) session agendas, supervising WG sessions, and assisting in arranging interim WG meetings is highly beneficial for an IESG member.

IESG members must have strong oral and written communication skills. They must have experience leading and contributing to the consensus of diverse groups. They must be able to prioritize their work, and must reliably follow through and finish the important work items promptly.

An IESG member should be able to guide WGs to follow their charters and nurture new talent to fulfill IETF leadership roles in the future.

ADs are responsible for ensuring the review of errata; they may delegate the review or perform it personally. An AD should be able to process the errata, which will often require them to identify and reach out to relevant subject-matter experts.

ADs engage with IANA to identify and approve designated experts for registries created and modified by document actions, and to verify the correctness of IANA actions.

ADs support working group chairs with liaison statements between SDOs in coordination with the IAB.

Basic IESG activities consume significant time during a typical non-meeting week. Enough time must be allocated to manage approximately 10 to 15 working groups, review up to 400 pages of Internet Drafts every two weeks, and follow up on document processing tasks.There is a weekly 2-hour telechat for the full IESG, in addition to any meetings required to manage the area’s business. Many ADs allocate a minimum of 15 hours per week to such tasks and others up to 25 hours per week. Some ADs have been able to combine significant non-IETF responsibilities with an AD role and/or delegate work to area directorates, while others put a larger proportion of their hours into AD responsibilities. Additionally, an AD should plan to support their peer AD(s) in their area and those outside of their area by occasionally taking over part of their duties to address surges in load or to cover inevitable work or personal matters.

The time commitment varies by Area and by month, with the most intense periods immediately surrounding IETF meetings. ADs during their first year tend to spend more time per week on AD work. IESG members also participate in additional IETF leadership activities, further increasing the time commitment for those individuals. ADs may need to interact with external groups such as other standards development organizations (SDOs), which could entail additional travel. We have also found IESG member in-person attendance at most IETF meetings to be imperative, typically arriving one or two days early and leaving one day later (to allow for pre/post-meeting activities). IESG members also attend an annual IESG retreat, as well as occasional workshops and interim meetings. An IESG member should also be comfortable with working and developing professional relationships in a virtual environment. Because participants are in widely varying time zones, the ability to accommodate occasional meetings outside a normal 9-5 work day will be required.

All AD roles are volunteer positions and are expected to be self-funded by the AD or their respective sponsor or employer. No stipend, travel funding, or fee waivers are provided.

Applications and Real Time (ART) AD

See also general expertise for all area directors.

ART ADs are expected to take a lead role, guiding the community in the making of critical decisions about the scope of the IETF's applications-layer protocol work. Because of the breadth of the ART Area, the ART ADs need to deal with a large set of application-layer protocols, including many with which a particular AD may not have direct experience.

This description is careful to talk about the set of ART ADs as a collective, with a collective set of skills. No one AD will have all of them, and it would be best to look at a balanced skill set across the ART ADs. A generalist with good management skills and good working relationships within the community will be more successful than a narrow specialist.

The ART Area works on the application layer and related protocols:

  • Real-time applications. These are protocols that enable interactive human-to-human communication (see RFC 3550). Groups in this category are working on things such as real-time web communications, teleconferencing, emergency services communication, internet telephony, and instant messaging.
  • Traditional applications. These are the protocols we've generally thought of in relation to the application layer. They include such things as email, calendaring, directory services, provisioning and access protocols related to DNS and IP and support for constrained environments.
  • Application building blocks. These are designed to be used with a variety of more specific applications. They include compression, codecs, internationalization; JSON, XML, and CBOR; media types; URNs; and URI schemes.

The ART Area often discusses whether something is properly the realm of the IETF or "belongs" to other SDOs, as a result, the set of ART ADs needs to include the ability and experience to relate to a wide range of non-IETF organizations, such as the W3C, WHATWG, 3GPP, and the Unicode Consortium.

It is important that for each of the following there be at least one AD with some understanding of it and an ability to find and leverage expertise on it when needed: internationalization; URI schemes; SIP, SDP and related services; RTP; media types; and email.

Cross-area expertise with the Security and Web and Internet Transport Areas is also useful, as there are often dependencies between ART work and those areas, particularly with respect to authentication, confidentiality, privacy, network congestion issues, and newly evolving work in the Web and Internet Transport Area.

ART ADs should be prepared to spend between 40% to 50% of their time on IESG-related activities, with bursts of work especially around IETF meeting time.

ART ADs maintain and support the ART Area Review Team (artart). ARTART provides reviews on request and during Last Call that can be used by the ADs as input for their ballot positions.

The Internet Engineering Task Force Administration LLC ("IETF LLC") provides a corporate legal framework for facilitating current and future activities related to the IETF as well as its sister organizations, the Internet Architecture Board ("IAB") and the Internet Research Task Force ("IRTF"). IETF LLC exists to provide administrative support to these organizations. Its responsibilities are:

  • Operations. IETF LLC is responsible for supporting the ongoing operations of the IETF, including meetings and non-meeting activities.
  • Finances. IETF LLC is responsible for managing the IETF's finances and budget.
  • Fundraising. IETF LLC is responsible for raising money on behalf of the IETF.
  • Compliance. IETF LLC is responsible for establishing and enforcing policies to ensure compliance with applicable laws, regulations, and rules.
  • Reporting and Oversight. IETF LLC is responsible for transparent reporting on operations and finance and supports the work of external auditors during the IETF LLCʼs annual audit.

Relation to the Internet Society

IETF LLC is organized as a “disregarded entityˮ of the Internet Society ("ISOC"), which means it operates as a branch or division of ISOC for tax purposes. ISOC is a US 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization founded in 1992 that supports and promotes the development of the Internet as a global technical infrastructure, a resource to enrich peopleʼs lives, and a force for good in society.

IETF LLC Board Overview

All board directors are unpaid volunteers who are expected to be self-funded for the required travel to IETF Meetings.

The board is responsible for setting broad strategic direction for the IETF on administrative, legal, financial and other non-technical areas. The board is responsible for hiring and supervising an Executive Director. The Executive Director is responsible for managing the day-to-day affairs of IETF LLC, including hiring staff to carry out the LLCʼs responsibilities.

The boardʼs other responsibilities include adopting an annual budget, adopting employee benefit plans, consulting the IETF community on matters as appropriate, and approving entering into agreements that meet a significant materiality threshold. Ideally, some board directors are positioned to play an active role in helping to secure financial resources for the IETF and to leverage personal connections that help the staff identify and solicit potential funders. The boardʼs work is high-level and strategic; the board is expected to delegate management of day-to-day activities and related decision-making to staff.

Candidate Experience

Ideal candidates for the role of board director should have prior professional experience with:

  • Executive management, compensation, and performance review;
  • Financial management and budgeting on a seven-figure scale;
  • Working with legal counsel to address organization-related legal and compliance issues;
  • Fundraising in the non-profit sector;
  • Working with geographically and culturally diverse colleagues and populations; and
  • Communicating with a variety of audiences to build support for the mission of the IETF or a similar organization.

Non-profit or corporate board experience and/or experience with the IETF or other similar technical or standards development organizations is helpful in fulfilling this role.

It seems unlikely that any candidate will bring all of this experience individually. Candidates are encouraged to volunteer even if they don't meet all the requirements and expertise.

Candidate Requirements

Requirements for the role of board director include:

  • Taking on legal and fiduciary responsibility for IETF LLC.
  • Familiarity or the ability to familiarize him/herself with the IETFʼs mission, history, structure, and culture.
  • Traveling to board retreats at least once per year. The number of board retreats per year, their locations, decisions about co-locating them with IETF meetings, and availability of travel funding for board retreats will be decided at the boardʼs discretion.
  • Travel to at least one IETF Meeting per year, which must be self-funded.
  • Attending regular conference calls, potentially in different time zones outside of normal business hours.
  • Preparing for board meetings and calls in advance and actively participating in board discussions.
  • Making heavy use of email and other online communications tools as key means for advancing the work of the board and conversing with staff and IETF participants.
  • Operating transparently and engaging openly with the IETF community and staff.
  • Acting in compliance with all applicable laws, regulations, and board policies.

It is anticipated that board directors will spend an average of four hours per week on the boardʼs work.

This note describes the expertise desired in the candidates selected to fill the positions of all IESG members.

Under the Nominations Committee (NomCom) procedures defined in RFC 7437/BCP 10, the IESG is responsible for providing a summary of the expertise desired of the candidates selected for open IESG positions. This information is included below and is suitable for publication to the community with the NomCom request for nominations.

We realize that this is a long list of desires and that no one person will be able to meet all of the expertise for a specific position. We trust that the NomCom will weigh all of these qualities and choose IESG members who represent the best possible balance of them.

Generic IESG Member Expertise

The IESG members are responsible for managing the IETF standards process. They must possess a thorough understanding of IETF operations, recognize areas in which the organization needs to evolve, and excel in collaborative work. They must also be able to inspire and motivate volunteers to work together and be adept at handling strong personalities and loud voices, fostering an environment in which discussions regarding ideas and technical merit may be held freely. An important aspect of this is helping new participants become productive at the IETF and developing talent to fill important IETF roles in the future. And, of course, IESG members must also have sound technical judgment about IETF technologies and its relationship to technology developed elsewhere.

The Area Director (AD) role has a significant people management component, for which prior experience chairing a working group will be useful – although other people-management experience can be a reasonable substitute. ADs select the Working Group (WG) Chairs and then work with them to manage IETF WGs. Consequently, IESG members should possess sufficient interpersonal and management skills to manage 20 to 40 part-time volunteers. Most ADs are also responsible for the management of one or more directorates or review teams. The ability to identify good leaders and technical experts, and then recruit and rotate them for IETF work and leadership at all levels is crucial to the growth and success of the IETF.

ADs are also expected to recognize the need for changes in IETF processes or in the organization's overall role, in response to the evolving Internet and industry landscape.

An ideal IESG member has made significant technical contributions in more than one IETF Area. Similarly, the ability to review and usefully provide feedback on technical documents is a necessary skill for IESG members, for which serving as a document shepherd or on a directorate or review team would provide useful experience; active participation in working groups and other, non-IETF technical review activities can also help build such skills. A broad range of technical abilities and the capacity to quickly comprehend concepts outside their primary areas of expertise are more valuable than specific technical knowledge.

An AD need not be the ultimate expert and authority in any technical area. The abilities to manage, guide, and judge consensus, to know who the subject-matter experts are and to seek their advice, and to mentor other IETF participants to take the technical lead are at least as important as their technical abilities. Although the split varies from area to area, ADs can expect to spend approximately 30% of their IESG time on management tasks, with the remainder of their IESG time being spent on technical matters.

An AD must be able to thoroughly review every Internet Draft for which they are responsible, both those from their working groups and those that they sponsor directly. For other Internet Drafts, an AD combines personal review with the assistance of directorates to be satisfied that adequate review has taken place.

Experience attending multiple IETF meetings, creating Working Group (WG) session agendas, supervising WG sessions, and assisting in arranging interim WG meetings is highly beneficial for an IESG member.

IESG members must have strong oral and written communication skills. They must have experience leading and contributing to the consensus of diverse groups. They must be able to prioritize their work, and must reliably follow through and finish the important work items promptly.

An IESG member should be able to guide WGs to follow their charters and nurture new talent to fulfill IETF leadership roles in the future.

ADs are responsible for ensuring the review of errata; they may delegate the review or perform it personally. An AD should be able to process the errata, which will often require them to identify and reach out to relevant subject-matter experts.

ADs engage with IANA to identify and approve designated experts for registries created and modified by document actions, and to verify the correctness of IANA actions.

ADs support working group chairs with liaison statements between SDOs in coordination with the IAB.

Basic IESG activities consume significant time during a typical non-meeting week. Enough time must be allocated to manage approximately 10 to 15 working groups, review up to 400 pages of Internet Drafts every two weeks, and follow up on document processing tasks.There is a weekly 2-hour telechat for the full IESG, in addition to any meetings required to manage the area’s business. Many ADs allocate a minimum of 15 hours per week to such tasks and others up to 25 hours per week. Some ADs have been able to combine significant non-IETF responsibilities with an AD role and/or delegate work to area directorates, while others put a larger proportion of their hours into AD responsibilities. Additionally, an AD should plan to support their peer AD(s) in their area and those outside of their area by occasionally taking over part of their duties to address surges in load or to cover inevitable work or personal matters.

The time commitment varies by Area and by month, with the most intense periods immediately surrounding IETF meetings. ADs during their first year tend to spend more time per week on AD work. IESG members also participate in additional IETF leadership activities, further increasing the time commitment for those individuals. ADs may need to interact with external groups such as other standards development organizations (SDOs), which could entail additional travel. We have also found IESG member in-person attendance at most IETF meetings to be imperative, typically arriving one or two days early and leaving one day later (to allow for pre/post-meeting activities). IESG members also attend an annual IESG retreat, as well as occasional workshops and interim meetings. An IESG member should also be comfortable with working and developing professional relationships in a virtual environment. Because participants are in widely varying time zones, the ability to accommodate occasional meetings outside a normal 9-5 work day will be required.

All AD roles are volunteer positions and are expected to be self-funded by the AD or their respective sponsor or employer. No stipend, travel funding, or fee waivers are provided.

Web and Internet Transport (WIT) AD

See also general expertise for all area directors.

The Web and Internet Transport (WIT) area covers protocols that provide the functions of the Transport Layer of the Internet, such as QUIC, TCP, UDP, SCTP, and DCCP, including congestion control and queue management. It also has responsibility for protocols that implement the World Wide Web (like HTTP) and adjacent technologies.

Unlike most IETF areas, the Web and Internet Transport Area is logically divided into two separate functions: Web Protocols and Transport Protocols. This year, the Transport Protocol AD role is open.

Together, the WIT Area Directors are expected to effectively charter, manage, and review current and new transport and web protocol work, including congestion control, loss recovery, Quality of Service (QoS, including Differentiated Services and reservation signaling), proxying and tunneling, QUIC and HTTP protocol extensions, application-network interaction, real-time communication, and storage protocols for the Internet.

The Transport AD should have a broad understanding of core end-to-end transport topics and knowledge about the widely used transport protocols, such as TCP and QUIC, as well as how transport protocols interact with network-layer technologies and application layer protocols. The WIT area includes application-layer protocols that sit above transport protocols and should not themselves be considered "transport," but they are often or usually used by other application-layer protocols as a layer between applications and transport named “infrastructure protocols.” Current work in this category includes evolution, maintenance, and extensions to HTTP, Audio/Video Transport, and the network file system (nfs). A good understanding of infrastructure protocols would be advantageous, as the WIT ADs assist each other in various situations. However, they are not expected to be experts on all or even most of these topics. Rather, they are expected to work well with WIT Area participants who are experts and to have enough familiarity with the principles involved to exercise their judgment about what should be done and why.

Because the transport protocol part of the WIT area working groups often have common interests with IRTF research groups, especially ICCRG, MAPRG, and PANRG, familiarity with these research groups and their subject areas is helpful. Having at least one WIT Area AD with some background in the broader research community is also helpful. There are also open-source communities that implement transport area-related protocols which are beneficial to have contact with.

The Transport AD will manage and recruit volunteers in order to maintain the Transport Area Review Team (TSV-ART). The TSV triage team provides support for the ADs by assigning document reviews to TSV-ART, and TSV-ART provides reviews on request and during Last Call that can be used by the ADs as input for their ballot positions.

Having an overall architectural view of security and privacy, NAT and Firewall, encapsulation and tunneling, and higher-layer technologies are of added value.

The WIT Area often discusses topics that involve other SDOs. As a result, the set of WIT ADs needs to include the ability and experience to relate to a wide range of non-IETF organizations, such as the W3C, 3GPP, and ITU-T.

Together, the WIT ADs are expected to organize their workload, e.g., document review, email discussions as follow-up to document review, IESG emails, WG management, etc., in such a way that the average workload for each AD is about 20 to 30 hours per week.

This note describes the expertise desired in the candidates selected to fill the positions of all IESG members.

Under the Nominations Committee (NomCom) procedures defined in RFC 7437/BCP 10, the IESG is responsible for providing a summary of the expertise desired of the candidates selected for open IESG positions. This information is included below and is suitable for publication to the community with the NomCom request for nominations.

We realize that this is a long list of desires and that no one person will be able to meet all of the expertise for a specific position. We trust that the NomCom will weigh all of these qualities and choose IESG members who represent the best possible balance of them.

Generic IESG Member Expertise

The IESG members are responsible for managing the IETF standards process. They must possess a thorough understanding of IETF operations, recognize areas in which the organization needs to evolve, and excel in collaborative work. They must also be able to inspire and motivate volunteers to work together and be adept at handling strong personalities and loud voices, fostering an environment in which discussions regarding ideas and technical merit may be held freely. An important aspect of this is helping new participants become productive at the IETF and developing talent to fill important IETF roles in the future. And, of course, IESG members must also have sound technical judgment about IETF technologies and its relationship to technology developed elsewhere.

The Area Director (AD) role has a significant people management component, for which prior experience chairing a working group will be useful – although other people-management experience can be a reasonable substitute. ADs select the Working Group (WG) Chairs and then work with them to manage IETF WGs. Consequently, IESG members should possess sufficient interpersonal and management skills to manage 20 to 40 part-time volunteers. Most ADs are also responsible for the management of one or more directorates or review teams. The ability to identify good leaders and technical experts, and then recruit and rotate them for IETF work and leadership at all levels is crucial to the growth and success of the IETF.

ADs are also expected to recognize the need for changes in IETF processes or in the organization's overall role, in response to the evolving Internet and industry landscape.

An ideal IESG member has made significant technical contributions in more than one IETF Area. Similarly, the ability to review and usefully provide feedback on technical documents is a necessary skill for IESG members, for which serving as a document shepherd or on a directorate or review team would provide useful experience; active participation in working groups and other, non-IETF technical review activities can also help build such skills. A broad range of technical abilities and the capacity to quickly comprehend concepts outside their primary areas of expertise are more valuable than specific technical knowledge.

An AD need not be the ultimate expert and authority in any technical area. The abilities to manage, guide, and judge consensus, to know who the subject-matter experts are and to seek their advice, and to mentor other IETF participants to take the technical lead are at least as important as their technical abilities. Although the split varies from area to area, ADs can expect to spend approximately 30% of their IESG time on management tasks, with the remainder of their IESG time being spent on technical matters.

An AD must be able to thoroughly review every Internet Draft for which they are responsible, both those from their working groups and those that they sponsor directly. For other Internet Drafts, an AD combines personal review with the assistance of directorates to be satisfied that adequate review has taken place.

Experience attending multiple IETF meetings, creating Working Group (WG) session agendas, supervising WG sessions, and assisting in arranging interim WG meetings is highly beneficial for an IESG member.

IESG members must have strong oral and written communication skills. They must have experience leading and contributing to the consensus of diverse groups. They must be able to prioritize their work, and must reliably follow through and finish the important work items promptly.

An IESG member should be able to guide WGs to follow their charters and nurture new talent to fulfill IETF leadership roles in the future.

ADs are responsible for ensuring the review of errata; they may delegate the review or perform it personally. An AD should be able to process the errata, which will often require them to identify and reach out to relevant subject-matter experts.

ADs engage with IANA to identify and approve designated experts for registries created and modified by document actions, and to verify the correctness of IANA actions.

ADs support working group chairs with liaison statements between SDOs in coordination with the IAB.

Basic IESG activities consume significant time during a typical non-meeting week. Enough time must be allocated to manage approximately 10 to 15 working groups, review up to 400 pages of Internet Drafts every two weeks, and follow up on document processing tasks.There is a weekly 2-hour telechat for the full IESG, in addition to any meetings required to manage the area’s business. Many ADs allocate a minimum of 15 hours per week to such tasks and others up to 25 hours per week. Some ADs have been able to combine significant non-IETF responsibilities with an AD role and/or delegate work to area directorates, while others put a larger proportion of their hours into AD responsibilities. Additionally, an AD should plan to support their peer AD(s) in their area and those outside of their area by occasionally taking over part of their duties to address surges in load or to cover inevitable work or personal matters.

The time commitment varies by Area and by month, with the most intense periods immediately surrounding IETF meetings. ADs during their first year tend to spend more time per week on AD work. IESG members also participate in additional IETF leadership activities, further increasing the time commitment for those individuals. ADs may need to interact with external groups such as other standards development organizations (SDOs), which could entail additional travel. We have also found IESG member in-person attendance at most IETF meetings to be imperative, typically arriving one or two days early and leaving one day later (to allow for pre/post-meeting activities). IESG members also attend an annual IESG retreat, as well as occasional workshops and interim meetings. An IESG member should also be comfortable with working and developing professional relationships in a virtual environment. Because participants are in widely varying time zones, the ability to accommodate occasional meetings outside a normal 9-5 work day will be required.

All AD roles are volunteer positions and are expected to be self-funded by the AD or their respective sponsor or employer. No stipend, travel funding, or fee waivers are provided.

Security (SEC) AD

See also general expertise for all area directors.

The Security Area primarily focuses on protocols that provide one or more security services such as integrity, identification, authentication, authorization, confidentiality, access control and privacy.

Specific expertise required for a Security AD includes a strong working knowledge of IETF security protocols and mechanisms that have been developed in the Security Area, other Areas of the IETF, and outside the IETF. It is also important for Security ADs to understand the practical aspects of securing Internet resources and communication, including the use of common classes of cryptographic primitives and common misuse of such primitives. A good understanding of threat modeling and risk assessment as well as operational and industry practices is also beneficial.

Between the two Security ADs there will ideally be one who is knowledgeable about major IETF security protocols and building blocks such as TLS, IPsec, SSH, OAuth, HPKE, EDHOC, EAP, and S/MIME. Ideally, at least one AD would be knowledgeable about governance, policy, and risk management; security and privacy controls in complex systems; the web security model; security operations and monitoring; incident response; and security in a systems development lifecycle.

The Security Area intersects with all other IETF Areas and some IRTF Research Groups, and the Security ADs are expected to review, assess and improve the security properties of all documents produced by all IETF Areas. Security ADs become personally involved with coordinating the involvement of security experts in the work of other Areas. Broad knowledge of IETF areas and technologies and the ability to assimilate new information quickly are imperative for a Security AD.

This note describes the expertise desired in the candidates selected to fill the positions of all IESG members.

Under the Nominations Committee (NomCom) procedures defined in RFC 7437/BCP 10, the IESG is responsible for providing a summary of the expertise desired of the candidates selected for open IESG positions. This information is included below and is suitable for publication to the community with the NomCom request for nominations.

We realize that this is a long list of desires and that no one person will be able to meet all of the expertise for a specific position. We trust that the NomCom will weigh all of these qualities and choose IESG members who represent the best possible balance of them.

Generic IESG Member Expertise

The IESG members are responsible for managing the IETF standards process. They must possess a thorough understanding of IETF operations, recognize areas in which the organization needs to evolve, and excel in collaborative work. They must also be able to inspire and motivate volunteers to work together and be adept at handling strong personalities and loud voices, fostering an environment in which discussions regarding ideas and technical merit may be held freely. An important aspect of this is helping new participants become productive at the IETF and developing talent to fill important IETF roles in the future. And, of course, IESG members must also have sound technical judgment about IETF technologies and its relationship to technology developed elsewhere.

The Area Director (AD) role has a significant people management component, for which prior experience chairing a working group will be useful – although other people-management experience can be a reasonable substitute. ADs select the Working Group (WG) Chairs and then work with them to manage IETF WGs. Consequently, IESG members should possess sufficient interpersonal and management skills to manage 20 to 40 part-time volunteers. Most ADs are also responsible for the management of one or more directorates or review teams. The ability to identify good leaders and technical experts, and then recruit and rotate them for IETF work and leadership at all levels is crucial to the growth and success of the IETF.

ADs are also expected to recognize the need for changes in IETF processes or in the organization's overall role, in response to the evolving Internet and industry landscape.

An ideal IESG member has made significant technical contributions in more than one IETF Area. Similarly, the ability to review and usefully provide feedback on technical documents is a necessary skill for IESG members, for which serving as a document shepherd or on a directorate or review team would provide useful experience; active participation in working groups and other, non-IETF technical review activities can also help build such skills. A broad range of technical abilities and the capacity to quickly comprehend concepts outside their primary areas of expertise are more valuable than specific technical knowledge.

An AD need not be the ultimate expert and authority in any technical area. The abilities to manage, guide, and judge consensus, to know who the subject-matter experts are and to seek their advice, and to mentor other IETF participants to take the technical lead are at least as important as their technical abilities. Although the split varies from area to area, ADs can expect to spend approximately 30% of their IESG time on management tasks, with the remainder of their IESG time being spent on technical matters.

An AD must be able to thoroughly review every Internet Draft for which they are responsible, both those from their working groups and those that they sponsor directly. For other Internet Drafts, an AD combines personal review with the assistance of directorates to be satisfied that adequate review has taken place.

Experience attending multiple IETF meetings, creating Working Group (WG) session agendas, supervising WG sessions, and assisting in arranging interim WG meetings is highly beneficial for an IESG member.

IESG members must have strong oral and written communication skills. They must have experience leading and contributing to the consensus of diverse groups. They must be able to prioritize their work, and must reliably follow through and finish the important work items promptly.

An IESG member should be able to guide WGs to follow their charters and nurture new talent to fulfill IETF leadership roles in the future.

ADs are responsible for ensuring the review of errata; they may delegate the review or perform it personally. An AD should be able to process the errata, which will often require them to identify and reach out to relevant subject-matter experts.

ADs engage with IANA to identify and approve designated experts for registries created and modified by document actions, and to verify the correctness of IANA actions.

ADs support working group chairs with liaison statements between SDOs in coordination with the IAB.

Basic IESG activities consume significant time during a typical non-meeting week. Enough time must be allocated to manage approximately 10 to 15 working groups, review up to 400 pages of Internet Drafts every two weeks, and follow up on document processing tasks.There is a weekly 2-hour telechat for the full IESG, in addition to any meetings required to manage the area’s business. Many ADs allocate a minimum of 15 hours per week to such tasks and others up to 25 hours per week. Some ADs have been able to combine significant non-IETF responsibilities with an AD role and/or delegate work to area directorates, while others put a larger proportion of their hours into AD responsibilities. Additionally, an AD should plan to support their peer AD(s) in their area and those outside of their area by occasionally taking over part of their duties to address surges in load or to cover inevitable work or personal matters.

The time commitment varies by Area and by month, with the most intense periods immediately surrounding IETF meetings. ADs during their first year tend to spend more time per week on AD work. IESG members also participate in additional IETF leadership activities, further increasing the time commitment for those individuals. ADs may need to interact with external groups such as other standards development organizations (SDOs), which could entail additional travel. We have also found IESG member in-person attendance at most IETF meetings to be imperative, typically arriving one or two days early and leaving one day later (to allow for pre/post-meeting activities). IESG members also attend an annual IESG retreat, as well as occasional workshops and interim meetings. An IESG member should also be comfortable with working and developing professional relationships in a virtual environment. Because participants are in widely varying time zones, the ability to accommodate occasional meetings outside a normal 9-5 work day will be required.

All AD roles are volunteer positions and are expected to be self-funded by the AD or their respective sponsor or employer. No stipend, travel funding, or fee waivers are provided.

Routing (RTG) AD

See also general expertise for all area directors.

Routing Area Overview

The Routing Area is tasked with ensuring the efficient operation of the Internet routing system. This involves maintaining and enhancing the scalability and stability of existing routing protocols, as well as developing new protocols, extensions, and errata. The area encompasses forwarding methods (e.g., destination-based unicast and multicast forwarding, MPLS, pseudowire), Source Routing and associated routing and signaling protocols (e.g., OSPF, IS-IS, BGP, RSVP-TE, LDP, PIM, RPL, and VPNs at Layer 2 and Layer 3). Both centralized and distributed routing architectures, for intra- and inter-domain scenarios, including those addressing virtualization, service chaining, traffic engineering, and data center routing, fall within its scope. The Routing Area also manages interactions with configuration and orchestration platforms, such as routing-related device YANG models and path computation engines, and focuses on Generalized MPLS used in the control plane of optical networks, as well as the security and manageability of the routing system. The Working Groups (WGs) in this area cover a wide range of data plane technologies and control protocols.

Requirements for a Routing Area Director (AD)

A Routing Area Director must possess a comprehensive understanding of the Internet routing system and its operations. Proficiency in at least two mainstream routing protocols or technologies, such as BGP, OSPF, IS-IS, MPLS, GMPLS, Segment Routing, or multicast, is essential. Knowledge of routing services (e.g., pseudowire, L2VPN, L3VPN) and familiarity with recent routing trends (e.g., new routing management models, compute/network integration, time-sensitive routing) are beneficial. Experience in implementing routing protocols, while not mandatory, is highly valuable, as is operational experience and significant contributions to the Routing Area WGs. Experience in non-traditional environments, such as Artificial Intelligence, mobile, ad hoc, and sensor networks, and an understanding of interactions with other network systems, including security and service oriented management, are advantageous. Demonstrated experience in routing protocol security is also valuable.

Management and Coordination

The Routing Area is managed by three Area Directors who typically distribute WG responsibilities based on workload and expertise. An active Routing Area directorate supports the ADs by providing technical reviews on demand. Given the broad range of related technical topics, the Routing ADs coordinate closely on the overall direction of the area and routinely engage with WG Chairs. In addition to IESG-level commitments, the Routing ADs hold periodic meetings and organize training and other informal sessions with the WG Chairs.

Interactions with Other Areas and SDOs

The Routing Area frequently intersects with the Internet Area, the Operations and Management Area, and the Security Area. Interaction with the Internet Area mainly involves IP forwarding and encapsulation, while work with the Operations and Management Area focuses on developing device and service YANG models and considering the management and operation of the routing infrastructure. Collaboration with the Security Area emphasizes routing protocol security and its broader role in ensuring the authentication, integrity, and authorization of both Internet and local network routing infrastructure. Cross-area expertise in any of these areas is beneficial. The Routing Area's work often overlaps with other Standard Development Organizations (SDOs), particularly the Broadband Forum (BBF), IEEE, and ITU-T, making knowledge of these organizations' workings advantageous.

This note describes the expertise desired in the candidates selected to fill the positions of all IESG members.

Under the Nominations Committee (NomCom) procedures defined in RFC 7437/BCP 10, the IESG is responsible for providing a summary of the expertise desired of the candidates selected for open IESG positions. This information is included below and is suitable for publication to the community with the NomCom request for nominations.

We realize that this is a long list of desires and that no one person will be able to meet all of the expertise for a specific position. We trust that the NomCom will weigh all of these qualities and choose IESG members who represent the best possible balance of them.

Generic IESG Member Expertise

The IESG members are responsible for managing the IETF standards process. They must possess a thorough understanding of IETF operations, recognize areas in which the organization needs to evolve, and excel in collaborative work. They must also be able to inspire and motivate volunteers to work together and be adept at handling strong personalities and loud voices, fostering an environment in which discussions regarding ideas and technical merit may be held freely. An important aspect of this is helping new participants become productive at the IETF and developing talent to fill important IETF roles in the future. And, of course, IESG members must also have sound technical judgment about IETF technologies and its relationship to technology developed elsewhere.

The Area Director (AD) role has a significant people management component, for which prior experience chairing a working group will be useful – although other people-management experience can be a reasonable substitute. ADs select the Working Group (WG) Chairs and then work with them to manage IETF WGs. Consequently, IESG members should possess sufficient interpersonal and management skills to manage 20 to 40 part-time volunteers. Most ADs are also responsible for the management of one or more directorates or review teams. The ability to identify good leaders and technical experts, and then recruit and rotate them for IETF work and leadership at all levels is crucial to the growth and success of the IETF.

ADs are also expected to recognize the need for changes in IETF processes or in the organization's overall role, in response to the evolving Internet and industry landscape.

An ideal IESG member has made significant technical contributions in more than one IETF Area. Similarly, the ability to review and usefully provide feedback on technical documents is a necessary skill for IESG members, for which serving as a document shepherd or on a directorate or review team would provide useful experience; active participation in working groups and other, non-IETF technical review activities can also help build such skills. A broad range of technical abilities and the capacity to quickly comprehend concepts outside their primary areas of expertise are more valuable than specific technical knowledge.

An AD need not be the ultimate expert and authority in any technical area. The abilities to manage, guide, and judge consensus, to know who the subject-matter experts are and to seek their advice, and to mentor other IETF participants to take the technical lead are at least as important as their technical abilities. Although the split varies from area to area, ADs can expect to spend approximately 30% of their IESG time on management tasks, with the remainder of their IESG time being spent on technical matters.

An AD must be able to thoroughly review every Internet Draft for which they are responsible, both those from their working groups and those that they sponsor directly. For other Internet Drafts, an AD combines personal review with the assistance of directorates to be satisfied that adequate review has taken place.

Experience attending multiple IETF meetings, creating Working Group (WG) session agendas, supervising WG sessions, and assisting in arranging interim WG meetings is highly beneficial for an IESG member.

IESG members must have strong oral and written communication skills. They must have experience leading and contributing to the consensus of diverse groups. They must be able to prioritize their work, and must reliably follow through and finish the important work items promptly.

An IESG member should be able to guide WGs to follow their charters and nurture new talent to fulfill IETF leadership roles in the future.

ADs are responsible for ensuring the review of errata; they may delegate the review or perform it personally. An AD should be able to process the errata, which will often require them to identify and reach out to relevant subject-matter experts.

ADs engage with IANA to identify and approve designated experts for registries created and modified by document actions, and to verify the correctness of IANA actions.

ADs support working group chairs with liaison statements between SDOs in coordination with the IAB.

Basic IESG activities consume significant time during a typical non-meeting week. Enough time must be allocated to manage approximately 10 to 15 working groups, review up to 400 pages of Internet Drafts every two weeks, and follow up on document processing tasks.There is a weekly 2-hour telechat for the full IESG, in addition to any meetings required to manage the area’s business. Many ADs allocate a minimum of 15 hours per week to such tasks and others up to 25 hours per week. Some ADs have been able to combine significant non-IETF responsibilities with an AD role and/or delegate work to area directorates, while others put a larger proportion of their hours into AD responsibilities. Additionally, an AD should plan to support their peer AD(s) in their area and those outside of their area by occasionally taking over part of their duties to address surges in load or to cover inevitable work or personal matters.

The time commitment varies by Area and by month, with the most intense periods immediately surrounding IETF meetings. ADs during their first year tend to spend more time per week on AD work. IESG members also participate in additional IETF leadership activities, further increasing the time commitment for those individuals. ADs may need to interact with external groups such as other standards development organizations (SDOs), which could entail additional travel. We have also found IESG member in-person attendance at most IETF meetings to be imperative, typically arriving one or two days early and leaving one day later (to allow for pre/post-meeting activities). IESG members also attend an annual IESG retreat, as well as occasional workshops and interim meetings. An IESG member should also be comfortable with working and developing professional relationships in a virtual environment. Because participants are in widely varying time zones, the ability to accommodate occasional meetings outside a normal 9-5 work day will be required.

All AD roles are volunteer positions and are expected to be self-funded by the AD or their respective sponsor or employer. No stipend, travel funding, or fee waivers are provided.

Operations and Management (OPS) AD (Management)

See also general expertise for all area directors.

The primary technical areas covered by the Operations and Management Area include Network Management, AAA, and operations.

Unlike most IETF areas, the Operations and Management Area is logically divided into two separate functions: Network Management and Operations. This year, the Network Management AD role is open, so specific expertise desired for the open position includes a strong understanding of Network Management and measurement, as well as practical experience in Internet operations (covering both manageability and measurement).

A key focus for network management within the IETF relates to the YANG data modeling language and the associated network management protocols (e.g., NETCONF, RESTCONF, YANG Push). A strong understanding of these technologies and a vendor-neutral architectural background are desirable since the evolution of the Internet management architecture is expected to be one of the principal subjects of interest and work for the Operations and Management Area in the coming years.

The management of network devices is increasingly being driven by programmability and automation, and any background knowledge in this area is very helpful. Knowledge and interest in IoT systems are useful, given that IoT-related considerations span all IETF areas. Any knowledge of CoAP, CORECONF, and CBOR would be beneficial. Security knowledge is also helpful, but specific knowledge relating to how security pertains to IETF management protocols and models is particularly useful and relevant. Knowledge of historical network management protocols (e.g., SNMP, SMI), which are still widely deployed, is beneficial, but not required. Similarly, some knowledge of AAA, RADIUS, and Diameter could also be helpful.

The Management part of the Operations and Management Area intersects with all Areas. The Management AD needs to identify management issues regarding IETF protocols and documents in all Areas and to work with the other areas and ADs to resolve those issues. This implies a strong understanding of how new and updated protocols should be managed, including aspects related to configuration, monitoring, and alarms. It also implies a good understanding of the operational environment, a strong cross-area understanding of the Internet architecture, and a general understanding of IETF protocols. Note that breadth of technical ability is more helpful than specific technical expertise, especially when combined with manageability and serviceability.

To assist the ADs, there are active directorates (OPS directorate, AAA doctors, Performance Metrics directorate, MIB doctors, and YANG doctors). The role includes setting objectives for these directorates, coaching, and enhancing OPS-related reviews.

In terms of future challenges, recent shifts to the increased use of encryption (e.g., to counter Pervasive Monitoring) will likely have important implications for the operation and management of networks. Hence, considerations of the impact of this, and finding a pragmatic balance between encryption and manageability may be an important forward-looking part of the role. Likewise, interaction with the open source community is important to help develop required tooling for operations purposes, in general, and network management, in particular.

Externally, the Operations and Management Area also interacts with the operations community, operator organizations (e.g., NANOG, RIPE, and OpenConfig), and other SDOs doing work in network management (e.g., 3GPP, IEEE 802, BBF, ETSI, and MEF), and hence any existing relationships with these external communities are helpful.

This note describes the expertise desired in the candidates selected to fill the positions of all IESG members.

Under the Nominations Committee (NomCom) procedures defined in RFC 7437/BCP 10, the IESG is responsible for providing a summary of the expertise desired of the candidates selected for open IESG positions. This information is included below and is suitable for publication to the community with the NomCom request for nominations.

We realize that this is a long list of desires and that no one person will be able to meet all of the expertise for a specific position. We trust that the NomCom will weigh all of these qualities and choose IESG members who represent the best possible balance of them.

Generic IESG Member Expertise

The IESG members are responsible for managing the IETF standards process. They must possess a thorough understanding of IETF operations, recognize areas in which the organization needs to evolve, and excel in collaborative work. They must also be able to inspire and motivate volunteers to work together and be adept at handling strong personalities and loud voices, fostering an environment in which discussions regarding ideas and technical merit may be held freely. An important aspect of this is helping new participants become productive at the IETF and developing talent to fill important IETF roles in the future. And, of course, IESG members must also have sound technical judgment about IETF technologies and its relationship to technology developed elsewhere.

The Area Director (AD) role has a significant people management component, for which prior experience chairing a working group will be useful – although other people-management experience can be a reasonable substitute. ADs select the Working Group (WG) Chairs and then work with them to manage IETF WGs. Consequently, IESG members should possess sufficient interpersonal and management skills to manage 20 to 40 part-time volunteers. Most ADs are also responsible for the management of one or more directorates or review teams. The ability to identify good leaders and technical experts, and then recruit and rotate them for IETF work and leadership at all levels is crucial to the growth and success of the IETF.

ADs are also expected to recognize the need for changes in IETF processes or in the organization's overall role, in response to the evolving Internet and industry landscape.

An ideal IESG member has made significant technical contributions in more than one IETF Area. Similarly, the ability to review and usefully provide feedback on technical documents is a necessary skill for IESG members, for which serving as a document shepherd or on a directorate or review team would provide useful experience; active participation in working groups and other, non-IETF technical review activities can also help build such skills. A broad range of technical abilities and the capacity to quickly comprehend concepts outside their primary areas of expertise are more valuable than specific technical knowledge.

An AD need not be the ultimate expert and authority in any technical area. The abilities to manage, guide, and judge consensus, to know who the subject-matter experts are and to seek their advice, and to mentor other IETF participants to take the technical lead are at least as important as their technical abilities. Although the split varies from area to area, ADs can expect to spend approximately 30% of their IESG time on management tasks, with the remainder of their IESG time being spent on technical matters.

An AD must be able to thoroughly review every Internet Draft for which they are responsible, both those from their working groups and those that they sponsor directly. For other Internet Drafts, an AD combines personal review with the assistance of directorates to be satisfied that adequate review has taken place.

Experience attending multiple IETF meetings, creating Working Group (WG) session agendas, supervising WG sessions, and assisting in arranging interim WG meetings is highly beneficial for an IESG member.

IESG members must have strong oral and written communication skills. They must have experience leading and contributing to the consensus of diverse groups. They must be able to prioritize their work, and must reliably follow through and finish the important work items promptly.

An IESG member should be able to guide WGs to follow their charters and nurture new talent to fulfill IETF leadership roles in the future.

ADs are responsible for ensuring the review of errata; they may delegate the review or perform it personally. An AD should be able to process the errata, which will often require them to identify and reach out to relevant subject-matter experts.

ADs engage with IANA to identify and approve designated experts for registries created and modified by document actions, and to verify the correctness of IANA actions.

ADs support working group chairs with liaison statements between SDOs in coordination with the IAB.

Basic IESG activities consume significant time during a typical non-meeting week. Enough time must be allocated to manage approximately 10 to 15 working groups, review up to 400 pages of Internet Drafts every two weeks, and follow up on document processing tasks.There is a weekly 2-hour telechat for the full IESG, in addition to any meetings required to manage the area’s business. Many ADs allocate a minimum of 15 hours per week to such tasks and others up to 25 hours per week. Some ADs have been able to combine significant non-IETF responsibilities with an AD role and/or delegate work to area directorates, while others put a larger proportion of their hours into AD responsibilities. Additionally, an AD should plan to support their peer AD(s) in their area and those outside of their area by occasionally taking over part of their duties to address surges in load or to cover inevitable work or personal matters.

The time commitment varies by Area and by month, with the most intense periods immediately surrounding IETF meetings. ADs during their first year tend to spend more time per week on AD work. IESG members also participate in additional IETF leadership activities, further increasing the time commitment for those individuals. ADs may need to interact with external groups such as other standards development organizations (SDOs), which could entail additional travel. We have also found IESG member in-person attendance at most IETF meetings to be imperative, typically arriving one or two days early and leaving one day later (to allow for pre/post-meeting activities). IESG members also attend an annual IESG retreat, as well as occasional workshops and interim meetings. An IESG member should also be comfortable with working and developing professional relationships in a virtual environment. Because participants are in widely varying time zones, the ability to accommodate occasional meetings outside a normal 9-5 work day will be required.

All AD roles are volunteer positions and are expected to be self-funded by the AD or their respective sponsor or employer. No stipend, travel funding, or fee waivers are provided.

Internet (INT) AD

See also general expertise for all area directors.

The primary technical topics covered by the Internet Area include the IP layer (both IPv4 and IPv6), implications of IPv6 adoption, co-existence between the IP versions, DNS, DHCP, IP mobility, multihoming, multicast, host and router configuration, time protocols, Internet of Things, store-and-forward networking along with various link-layer technologies.

The Internet Area is responsible for specifying how IP will run over new link-layer protocols as they are defined. New link-layer protocols still being defined now are in emerging technologies like IoT or constrained networking.

Between them, the Internet ADs are expected to have a solid understanding of these technologies, including issues related to IP addressing, name resolution, forwarding, tunneling, fragmentation, and wireless link-layers.

Since the Internet Area includes a broad range of technical topics, the Internet Area ADs typically divide the WGs that they manage based on workload and expertise. To assist the ADs, there are Internet, DNS, and IoT directorates. However, with the large number of WGs, the Internet Area has historically required considerable time commitment and breadth of expertise from its ADs. The Internet Area intersects frequently with all of the other Areas:

  • Web and Internet Transport (WIT) Area on CoAP, tunneling, address translation, fragmentation, ICMP, and multihoming mechanisms.
  • Routing Area on the relationship between the operation of the IP layer and routing functionality, as well as some specific touchpoints related to routing for constrained devices.Operations and Management Area on operations required for IPv6 adoption, new sub-IP technologies, YANG models development, and AAA interactions.
  • Security Area on topics such as DNS security and privacy, IPsec usage, and network access control.
  • Apps and Real Time (ART) area on DNS and about the IoT space where there are tight interactions between application-layer protocols such as IPv6-over-constrained-link-layer adaptations in order to provide better efficiency.

Cross-area expertise in any of these areas is particularly useful.

The Internet Area is also often involved in the adaptation of a variety of technologies to IP, some of which may require interactions with many other organizations such as 3GPP, IEEE, BBF, ETSI, and CableLabs. There are also ad-hoc interactions with several standardization organizations in the IoT space. Expertise with liaison processes and an understanding of how Internet Area protocols are used in various networks (such as broadband, wireless & cellular networks, low-power networks, large data centers, and the "Internet of Things"), is highly desirable.

The Internet Area also includes working groups focusing on high delay and disruption tolerant communications. Experience with these kinds of protocols and operation regimes, as well as with organizations like CCSDS, is an important qualification.

Given all of the above an ideal candidate, in this cycle, should have a deep understanding of IPv6, mobile, IoT, time protocols, store-and-forward delay tolerant networks, and constrained devices and networks.

This note describes the expertise desired in the candidates selected to fill the positions of all IESG members.

Under the Nominations Committee (NomCom) procedures defined in RFC 7437/BCP 10, the IESG is responsible for providing a summary of the expertise desired of the candidates selected for open IESG positions. This information is included below and is suitable for publication to the community with the NomCom request for nominations.

We realize that this is a long list of desires and that no one person will be able to meet all of the expertise for a specific position. We trust that the NomCom will weigh all of these qualities and choose IESG members who represent the best possible balance of them.

Generic IESG Member Expertise

The IESG members are responsible for managing the IETF standards process. They must possess a thorough understanding of IETF operations, recognize areas in which the organization needs to evolve, and excel in collaborative work. They must also be able to inspire and motivate volunteers to work together and be adept at handling strong personalities and loud voices, fostering an environment in which discussions regarding ideas and technical merit may be held freely. An important aspect of this is helping new participants become productive at the IETF and developing talent to fill important IETF roles in the future. And, of course, IESG members must also have sound technical judgment about IETF technologies and its relationship to technology developed elsewhere.

The Area Director (AD) role has a significant people management component, for which prior experience chairing a working group will be useful – although other people-management experience can be a reasonable substitute. ADs select the Working Group (WG) Chairs and then work with them to manage IETF WGs. Consequently, IESG members should possess sufficient interpersonal and management skills to manage 20 to 40 part-time volunteers. Most ADs are also responsible for the management of one or more directorates or review teams. The ability to identify good leaders and technical experts, and then recruit and rotate them for IETF work and leadership at all levels is crucial to the growth and success of the IETF.

ADs are also expected to recognize the need for changes in IETF processes or in the organization's overall role, in response to the evolving Internet and industry landscape.

An ideal IESG member has made significant technical contributions in more than one IETF Area. Similarly, the ability to review and usefully provide feedback on technical documents is a necessary skill for IESG members, for which serving as a document shepherd or on a directorate or review team would provide useful experience; active participation in working groups and other, non-IETF technical review activities can also help build such skills. A broad range of technical abilities and the capacity to quickly comprehend concepts outside their primary areas of expertise are more valuable than specific technical knowledge.

An AD need not be the ultimate expert and authority in any technical area. The abilities to manage, guide, and judge consensus, to know who the subject-matter experts are and to seek their advice, and to mentor other IETF participants to take the technical lead are at least as important as their technical abilities. Although the split varies from area to area, ADs can expect to spend approximately 30% of their IESG time on management tasks, with the remainder of their IESG time being spent on technical matters.

An AD must be able to thoroughly review every Internet Draft for which they are responsible, both those from their working groups and those that they sponsor directly. For other Internet Drafts, an AD combines personal review with the assistance of directorates to be satisfied that adequate review has taken place.

Experience attending multiple IETF meetings, creating Working Group (WG) session agendas, supervising WG sessions, and assisting in arranging interim WG meetings is highly beneficial for an IESG member.

IESG members must have strong oral and written communication skills. They must have experience leading and contributing to the consensus of diverse groups. They must be able to prioritize their work, and must reliably follow through and finish the important work items promptly.

An IESG member should be able to guide WGs to follow their charters and nurture new talent to fulfill IETF leadership roles in the future.

ADs are responsible for ensuring the review of errata; they may delegate the review or perform it personally. An AD should be able to process the errata, which will often require them to identify and reach out to relevant subject-matter experts.

ADs engage with IANA to identify and approve designated experts for registries created and modified by document actions, and to verify the correctness of IANA actions.

ADs support working group chairs with liaison statements between SDOs in coordination with the IAB.

Basic IESG activities consume significant time during a typical non-meeting week. Enough time must be allocated to manage approximately 10 to 15 working groups, review up to 400 pages of Internet Drafts every two weeks, and follow up on document processing tasks.There is a weekly 2-hour telechat for the full IESG, in addition to any meetings required to manage the area’s business. Many ADs allocate a minimum of 15 hours per week to such tasks and others up to 25 hours per week. Some ADs have been able to combine significant non-IETF responsibilities with an AD role and/or delegate work to area directorates, while others put a larger proportion of their hours into AD responsibilities. Additionally, an AD should plan to support their peer AD(s) in their area and those outside of their area by occasionally taking over part of their duties to address surges in load or to cover inevitable work or personal matters.

The time commitment varies by Area and by month, with the most intense periods immediately surrounding IETF meetings. ADs during their first year tend to spend more time per week on AD work. IESG members also participate in additional IETF leadership activities, further increasing the time commitment for those individuals. ADs may need to interact with external groups such as other standards development organizations (SDOs), which could entail additional travel. We have also found IESG member in-person attendance at most IETF meetings to be imperative, typically arriving one or two days early and leaving one day later (to allow for pre/post-meeting activities). IESG members also attend an annual IESG retreat, as well as occasional workshops and interim meetings. An IESG member should also be comfortable with working and developing professional relationships in a virtual environment. Because participants are in widely varying time zones, the ability to accommodate occasional meetings outside a normal 9-5 work day will be required.

All AD roles are volunteer positions and are expected to be self-funded by the AD or their respective sponsor or employer. No stipend, travel funding, or fee waivers are provided.

IETF Chair / GEN AD

See also general expertise for all area directors.

The IETF Chair has seven major roles:

  • overseeing the work of the IETF as a whole
  • representing the IETF to the outside world
  • overseeing the work of the IESG in particular
  • serving as the General AD
  • serving as a voting member of the IAB
  • serving as an IETF Administration LLC Board member (if appointed by the IESG)
  • serving as the IETF RFC Stream representative on the RFC Series Approval Board (RSAB)

Serving as IETF Chair requires a near-full-time commitment. A candidate for this position needs to be willing to put aside his or her own technical work and other major professional roles for the duration of the term.

Chairing the IETF requires excellent communications skills, strong leadership skills, the ability and willingness to keep the community informed of all issues that are important to the IETF as a whole, the ability to establish community consensus on issues important to the IETF as a whole, and the ability to speak and act in accordance with that consensus. Among other things, this involves planning plenary sessions and leadership retreats and effectively running meetings with over 1000 attendees.

In the IESG Chair role, the IETF Chair is responsible for coordinating the activities of the other ADs and providing top-level management for the IETF standards process. The IETF Chair must be capable of intervening when difficulties arise between ADs or between an AD and a WG Chair. The IETF Chair also oversees the handling of appeals sent to the IESG, the mechanisms for IESG internal process change, and the production of any statements issued by the IESG.

The General Area consists of a few WGs and other activities focused on supporting, updating and maintaining the IETF standards development process. As General AD, the IETF Chair should meet the generic requirements for an IESG member listed above, and is expected to play a full role in IESG document review and approval. The General AD must also have a strong understanding of the IETF standards process and a commitment to maintain and improve that process. The General AD manages the General Area Review Team (Gen-ART); the Education and Outreach (EO) Directorate; and also provides the organizational home for several other teams and activities related to outreach and meeting execution.

The IETF Chair is a voting member of the Internet Architecture Board (IAB). The IETF Chair brings important perspective to the oversight of the IANA functions and the liaison process with other SDOs.

The IESG typically appoints the IETF Chair to the IETF Administration LLC Board. As a board member, the IETF Chair would have fiduciary responsibility to the LLC and would be involved in strategic planning, budget approval, and fundraising on behalf of the IETF LLC. Although day-to-day management of administrative matters is handled by the LLC staff and IETF secretariat, the IETF Chair will spend some time each week on administrative business, particularly in the context of ensuring the IETF is properly supported by its staff and contractors.

The IETF Chair is invited to participate in conferences and workshops, and to represent the IETF to government officials, representatives of other standards bodies and the press. While the IETF Chair has control over which of these invitations they accept, any candidate for this position should be willing and able to represent the IETF effectively in these forums. As with all other IESG duties, engagement in these forums is self-funded.

The IETF Chair needs to be able to lead and work with others on communications related to the IETF and its visions, values, work activities, and successes. This includes being able to lead the community through difficult, contentious discussions. It also includes answering requests to explain the IETF to people who are not familiar with it or its work. To do this, the IETF Chair uses different communication styles and methods than those needed to effectively lead and work with others within the IETF. For example, the IETF Chair may be asked to communicate with news media, help develop approaches for and use channels such as social media, and speak with non-technical audiences beyond the immediate IETF community.

The Internet Engineering Task Force Administration LLC ("IETF LLC") provides a corporate legal framework for facilitating current and future activities related to the IETF as well as its sister organizations, the Internet Architecture Board ("IAB") and the Internet Research Task Force ("IRTF"). IETF LLC exists to provide administrative support to these organizations. Its responsibilities are:

  • Operations. IETF LLC is responsible for supporting the ongoing operations of the IETF, including meetings and non-meeting activities.
  • Finances. IETF LLC is responsible for managing the IETF's finances and budget.
  • Fundraising. IETF LLC is responsible for raising money on behalf of the IETF.
  • Compliance. IETF LLC is responsible for establishing and enforcing policies to ensure compliance with applicable laws, regulations, and rules.
  • Reporting and Oversight. IETF LLC is responsible for transparent reporting on operations and finance and supports the work of external auditors during the IETF LLCʼs annual audit.

Relation to the Internet Society

IETF LLC is organized as a “disregarded entityˮ of the Internet Society ("ISOC"), which means it operates as a branch or division of ISOC for tax purposes. ISOC is a US 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization founded in 1992 that supports and promotes the development of the Internet as a global technical infrastructure, a resource to enrich peopleʼs lives, and a force for good in society.

IETF LLC Board Overview

All board directors are unpaid volunteers who are expected to be self-funded for the required travel to IETF Meetings.

The board is responsible for setting broad strategic direction for the IETF on administrative, legal, financial and other non-technical areas. The board is responsible for hiring and supervising an Executive Director. The Executive Director is responsible for managing the day-to-day affairs of IETF LLC, including hiring staff to carry out the LLCʼs responsibilities.

The boardʼs other responsibilities include adopting an annual budget, adopting employee benefit plans, consulting the IETF community on matters as appropriate, and approving entering into agreements that meet a significant materiality threshold. Ideally, some board directors are positioned to play an active role in helping to secure financial resources for the IETF and to leverage personal connections that help the staff identify and solicit potential funders. The boardʼs work is high-level and strategic; the board is expected to delegate management of day-to-day activities and related decision-making to staff.

Candidate Experience

Ideal candidates for the role of board director should have prior professional experience with:

  • Executive management, compensation, and performance review;
  • Financial management and budgeting on a seven-figure scale;
  • Working with legal counsel to address organization-related legal and compliance issues;
  • Fundraising in the non-profit sector;
  • Working with geographically and culturally diverse colleagues and populations; and
  • Communicating with a variety of audiences to build support for the mission of the IETF or a similar organization.

Non-profit or corporate board experience and/or experience with the IETF or other similar technical or standards development organizations is helpful in fulfilling this role.

It seems unlikely that any candidate will bring all of this experience individually. Candidates are encouraged to volunteer even if they don't meet all the requirements and expertise.

Candidate Requirements

Requirements for the role of board director include:

  • Taking on legal and fiduciary responsibility for IETF LLC.
  • Familiarity or the ability to familiarize him/herself with the IETFʼs mission, history, structure, and culture.
  • Traveling to board retreats at least once per year. The number of board retreats per year, their locations, decisions about co-locating them with IETF meetings, and availability of travel funding for board retreats will be decided at the boardʼs discretion.
  • Travel to at least one IETF Meeting per year, which must be self-funded.
  • Attending regular conference calls, potentially in different time zones outside of normal business hours.
  • Preparing for board meetings and calls in advance and actively participating in board discussions.
  • Making heavy use of email and other online communications tools as key means for advancing the work of the board and conversing with staff and IETF participants.
  • Operating transparently and engaging openly with the IETF community and staff.
  • Acting in compliance with all applicable laws, regulations, and board policies.

It is anticipated that board directors will spend an average of four hours per week on the boardʼs work.

This note describes the expertise desired in the candidates selected to fill the positions of all IESG members.

Under the Nominations Committee (NomCom) procedures defined in RFC 7437/BCP 10, the IESG is responsible for providing a summary of the expertise desired of the candidates selected for open IESG positions. This information is included below and is suitable for publication to the community with the NomCom request for nominations.

We realize that this is a long list of desires and that no one person will be able to meet all of the expertise for a specific position. We trust that the NomCom will weigh all of these qualities and choose IESG members who represent the best possible balance of them.

Generic IESG Member Expertise

The IESG members are responsible for managing the IETF standards process. They must possess a thorough understanding of IETF operations, recognize areas in which the organization needs to evolve, and excel in collaborative work. They must also be able to inspire and motivate volunteers to work together and be adept at handling strong personalities and loud voices, fostering an environment in which discussions regarding ideas and technical merit may be held freely. An important aspect of this is helping new participants become productive at the IETF and developing talent to fill important IETF roles in the future. And, of course, IESG members must also have sound technical judgment about IETF technologies and its relationship to technology developed elsewhere.

The Area Director (AD) role has a significant people management component, for which prior experience chairing a working group will be useful – although other people-management experience can be a reasonable substitute. ADs select the Working Group (WG) Chairs and then work with them to manage IETF WGs. Consequently, IESG members should possess sufficient interpersonal and management skills to manage 20 to 40 part-time volunteers. Most ADs are also responsible for the management of one or more directorates or review teams. The ability to identify good leaders and technical experts, and then recruit and rotate them for IETF work and leadership at all levels is crucial to the growth and success of the IETF.

ADs are also expected to recognize the need for changes in IETF processes or in the organization's overall role, in response to the evolving Internet and industry landscape.

An ideal IESG member has made significant technical contributions in more than one IETF Area. Similarly, the ability to review and usefully provide feedback on technical documents is a necessary skill for IESG members, for which serving as a document shepherd or on a directorate or review team would provide useful experience; active participation in working groups and other, non-IETF technical review activities can also help build such skills. A broad range of technical abilities and the capacity to quickly comprehend concepts outside their primary areas of expertise are more valuable than specific technical knowledge.

An AD need not be the ultimate expert and authority in any technical area. The abilities to manage, guide, and judge consensus, to know who the subject-matter experts are and to seek their advice, and to mentor other IETF participants to take the technical lead are at least as important as their technical abilities. Although the split varies from area to area, ADs can expect to spend approximately 30% of their IESG time on management tasks, with the remainder of their IESG time being spent on technical matters.

An AD must be able to thoroughly review every Internet Draft for which they are responsible, both those from their working groups and those that they sponsor directly. For other Internet Drafts, an AD combines personal review with the assistance of directorates to be satisfied that adequate review has taken place.

Experience attending multiple IETF meetings, creating Working Group (WG) session agendas, supervising WG sessions, and assisting in arranging interim WG meetings is highly beneficial for an IESG member.

IESG members must have strong oral and written communication skills. They must have experience leading and contributing to the consensus of diverse groups. They must be able to prioritize their work, and must reliably follow through and finish the important work items promptly.

An IESG member should be able to guide WGs to follow their charters and nurture new talent to fulfill IETF leadership roles in the future.

ADs are responsible for ensuring the review of errata; they may delegate the review or perform it personally. An AD should be able to process the errata, which will often require them to identify and reach out to relevant subject-matter experts.

ADs engage with IANA to identify and approve designated experts for registries created and modified by document actions, and to verify the correctness of IANA actions.

ADs support working group chairs with liaison statements between SDOs in coordination with the IAB.

Basic IESG activities consume significant time during a typical non-meeting week. Enough time must be allocated to manage approximately 10 to 15 working groups, review up to 400 pages of Internet Drafts every two weeks, and follow up on document processing tasks.There is a weekly 2-hour telechat for the full IESG, in addition to any meetings required to manage the area’s business. Many ADs allocate a minimum of 15 hours per week to such tasks and others up to 25 hours per week. Some ADs have been able to combine significant non-IETF responsibilities with an AD role and/or delegate work to area directorates, while others put a larger proportion of their hours into AD responsibilities. Additionally, an AD should plan to support their peer AD(s) in their area and those outside of their area by occasionally taking over part of their duties to address surges in load or to cover inevitable work or personal matters.

The time commitment varies by Area and by month, with the most intense periods immediately surrounding IETF meetings. ADs during their first year tend to spend more time per week on AD work. IESG members also participate in additional IETF leadership activities, further increasing the time commitment for those individuals. ADs may need to interact with external groups such as other standards development organizations (SDOs), which could entail additional travel. We have also found IESG member in-person attendance at most IETF meetings to be imperative, typically arriving one or two days early and leaving one day later (to allow for pre/post-meeting activities). IESG members also attend an annual IESG retreat, as well as occasional workshops and interim meetings. An IESG member should also be comfortable with working and developing professional relationships in a virtual environment. Because participants are in widely varying time zones, the ability to accommodate occasional meetings outside a normal 9-5 work day will be required.

All AD roles are volunteer positions and are expected to be self-funded by the AD or their respective sponsor or employer. No stipend, travel funding, or fee waivers are provided.

Internet (INT) AD

See also general expertise for all area directors.

The primary technical topics covered by the Internet Area include the IP layer (both IPv4 and IPv6), implications of IPv6 adoption, co-existence between the IP versions, DNS, DHCP, IP mobility, multihoming, multicast, host and router configuration, time protocols, Internet of Things, store-and-forward networking along with various link-layer technologies.

The Internet Area is responsible for specifying how IP will run over new link-layer protocols as they are defined. New link-layer protocols still being defined now are in emerging technologies like IoT or constrained networking.

Between them, the Internet ADs are expected to have a solid understanding of these technologies, including issues related to IP addressing, name resolution, forwarding, tunneling, fragmentation, and wireless link-layers.

Since the Internet Area includes a broad range of technical topics, the Internet Area ADs typically divide the WGs that they manage based on workload and expertise. To assist the ADs, there are Internet, DNS, and IoT directorates. However, with the large number of WGs, the Internet Area has historically required considerable time commitment and breadth of expertise from its ADs. The Internet Area intersects frequently with all of the other Areas:

  • Web and Internet Transport (WIT) Area on CoAP, tunneling, address translation, fragmentation, ICMP, and multihoming mechanisms.
  • Routing Area on the relationship between the operation of the IP layer and routing functionality, as well as some specific touchpoints related to routing for constrained devices.Operations and Management Area on operations required for IPv6 adoption, new sub-IP technologies, YANG models development, and AAA interactions.
  • Security Area on topics such as DNS security and privacy, IPsec usage, and network access control.
  • Apps and Real Time (ART) area on DNS and about the IoT space where there are tight interactions between application-layer protocols such as IPv6-over-constrained-link-layer adaptations in order to provide better efficiency.

Cross-area expertise in any of these areas is particularly useful.

The Internet Area is also often involved in the adaptation of a variety of technologies to IP, some of which may require interactions with many other organizations such as 3GPP, IEEE, BBF, ETSI, and CableLabs. There are also ad-hoc interactions with several standardization organizations in the IoT space. Expertise with liaison processes and an understanding of how Internet Area protocols are used in various networks (such as broadband, wireless & cellular networks, low-power networks, large data centers, and the "Internet of Things"), is highly desirable.

The Internet Area also includes working groups focusing on high delay and disruption tolerant communications. Experience with these kinds of protocols and operation regimes, as well as with organizations like CCSDS, is an important qualification.

Given all of the above an ideal candidate, in this cycle, should have a deep understanding of IPv6, mobile, IoT, time protocols, store-and-forward delay tolerant networks, and constrained devices and networks.