US officials speaking to Reuters today said that Army General Keith Alexander has officially made plans to leave his position as head of the National Security Agency by next March or April. The sources also said that Alexander’s civilian deputy, John "Chris" Inglis, will retire at the end of the year.

That void of power would permit President Obama a chance to appoint new leaders to the NSA, which has suffered serious scrutiny in the aftermath of the leaks made by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. The leaks have detailed a dragnet approach to surveillance in which metadata of American communications are collected by the NSA en masse. Still, the NSA’s policies have been staunchly defended by Alexander since being made public.

General Alexander has led the NSA since 2005. There are apparently no plans to name a successor yet, although Reuters points to Vice Admiral Michael Rogers, currently commander of the US Navy's 10th Fleet and US Fleet Cyber Command, as a favorite. The news outlet notes that such a move could potentially lead to a combination of the NSA and Cyber Command, which is authorized to engage in both defensive and offensive operations. But internally at the NSA, that move might not be popular. “Many NSA veterans argue that having the same person lead the spy agency and Cyber Command diminishes the emphasis on the NSA's work and its unique capabilities,” writes Reuters.

Inglis, for his part, is a computer security scientist who was named the second-ranking official at the NSA in 2006. Both men are said to be leaving their positions voluntarily.