The life of a whistleblower is hardly the glamorous stuff of Hollywood. Often it’s a life spent looking over one’s shoulder, hoping for small victories while withstanding reprisals.

What’s so unusual about the plight of Ken Pedeleose, an industrial engineer and whistleblower at the Defense Contract Management Agency, is that he scored a big victory last month from a federal mediation panel in a little-noticed ruling by the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board.