He served as the first director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management from 2011 to 2014 and as chief of staff of the United States Department of the Interior from 2014 until the end of the Obama administration.

[1] His father took a job to work in the Prudhoe Bay Oil Field,[2] and Beaudreau was raised in the Bear Valley neighborhood of Anchorage, Alaska.

From 2014 until the end of the Obama administration in 2016, Beaudreau served as acting Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management, and chief of staff of the United States Department of the Interior.

[2] In March 2021, after Elizabeth Klein's nomination for United States Deputy Secretary of the Interior was withdrawn by the Biden administration, it was reported that Beaudreau was selected as the nominee.

[8][9] Lisa Murkowski (R, Alaska) helped to convince Biden to nominate Beaudreau for assistant secretary instead of Liz Klein.

[10] In 2021, he reported working for 35 clients, including numerous companies "from fossil fuel drilling and pipeline firms to offshore wind" which might pose a conflict of interest before the Interior Department.