Appointed by President Biden in June 2022, Piquero serves as head of BJS, leading the agency's efforts to collect, publish, and disseminate information on crime, victims of crime, people who commit criminal acts, and the operation of justice systems at all levels of government. Piquero is a nationally and internationally recognized criminologist with more than 25 years of experience. His expertise ranges from criminal careers to criminal justice policy and crime prevention to the intersection of race and crime, with a focus on quantitative methodology.

Piquero has held several academic appointments, most recently as Professor and Chair of the Department of Sociology and Criminology and Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor at the University of Miami. He has published over 500 scholarly articles and several books, and is a Fellow of the American Society of Criminology and the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences