On July 13, 2021, President Joe Biden announced that he would nominate former Department of Defense official Alan Estevez to the role and he was confirmed unanimously by the Senate on March 31, 2022.

The Under Secretary promotes American national security objectives by ensuring an effective export control and treaty compliance system and promoting continued strategic technology leadership.

This includes primary focus on Export restrictions, export administration, anti-boycott enforcement, implementation of certain treaty requirements, defense priorities and allocations, strategic trade, and promotion of the defense-industrial base of the United States.

With the rank of Under Secretary, the USC(IS) is a Level III position within the Executive Schedule.

The position of Under Secretary, as well as the Bureau of Industry and Security, was created in 1985 to move the national security and export control functions away from the International Trade Administration which performs trade promotion among other activities.