Robert Work, the current Navy undersecretary, does not expect to stay in the job thorough the balance of President Barack Obama’s second term.

He made public his plans to depart the office in response to an audience question Thursday at the Surface Navy Association’s 2013 symposium in Arlington, Va., which he said would be the last he would address as undersecretary.

He declined to disclose a precise timeline for his departure from the Pentagon.

“It’s the best job in the world. Walking away from it will be very hard, but I think after four years, I’m turning into an angry old man,” Work said. “I’ll do something for a while and then come back.”

Work, a retired Marine Corps officer, became the Navy Department’s No. 2 civilian when the President nominated him as Navy undersecretary in 2009. Before that, he served as the vice president for strategic studies at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a Washington think tank.

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