Well it's a large step up from outright telling the Romulan ambassador about classified prison break plans.
The fact that he’s clearly wearing a Starfleet badge, and one with apparently lower rank than Vance, suggests he’s a senior Starfleet officer. The civilian / non-uniform thing is just part of the deliberate obfuscation around that character. I guess it’s perfectly plausible for someone in an intelligence role not to be wearing uniform. The Trek Movie comments about him possibly being Federation President were based around the fact that they thought his gold badge was unique (it’s not, as we have seen above) plus they rather ignored and overlooked the presence of the single pip on the side of the badge. I also wouldn’t expect the civilian leader of the Federation to be wearing a Starfleet badge. The new version of the Federation seal? That I could believe. I like the character and I loved the quiet nonchalance of Cronenberg’s portrayal. Great scene! Given Oh was a one-pip commodore, I think they’ve tried to use the same here. My money is still on head of Starfleet Intelligence (and, just maybe, Section 31 — although I’d be quite happy if they deliberately steered clear of that, although I strongly suspect they won’t...!).
Having said all that, it’s also perfectly possible that the badge itself is another part of the obfuscation and so it’s possible he could be something else entirely! But, if we take the badge at face value, then he ought to be a Commodore, whatever his actual role.
I never thought about him being S31 until I read that article and it's starting to make sense if they wanna go ahead on that section 31 series.
The asymmetric colored stripe running down the gray tunics keeps reminding me of the Romulan uniform and their sashes in TOS.
Behind the scenes picture: https://twitter.com/majavrvilo/status/1328593653078650887 Depicted is the actress portraying Lieutenant Willa without the shoulder pad, and the officers behind her have unzipped their collars? I wonder if the the shoulder pad is meant to be removable in-universe, too.
I'm beginning to think they should call the new badge a MultiBadge, since it does just about everything.