Mark Sava is a former agent with the CIA.
If you asked him what he did, he would likely say he was a professor at Western University, a college in Baku, Azerbaijan teaching young adults from that region about his neck of the woods, which is quite correct. That does not change the fact that saying he was with the CIA for many years is also true.
Regarding his time with the Firm, despite the fact that he retired as station chief in Baku, he likes to downplay his activities and if in the few words he might say a person got the impression he had been an analyst who got lucky or kissed the right behinds to earn a posh position as a reward, so much the better. He was not an analyst, unless one considered he analyzed the considerable amount of information he gathered over the years. He spent his time before his final position wooing and running assets all over the Middle East including Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Iran. He was known and respected and often feared and hated by many in the intelligence field but he kept enough of a low profile that when he said he was 'just an analyst', many believe him.
As the series begins, he is enjoying rather idyllic life as a retired agent living off his pension and his salary as a professor, dating a lovely Azeri woman with a young son and not having any regrets about leaving his old world behind. He was in his mid 40's, still in very good shape considering his more sedentary lifestyle, and very content. His life would not stay so simple for long.
Two people will also take the interesting road that Sava will experience once things get going and his peaceful life changes. One is a former Navy Seal named Decker, living in region until he can find a way to correct a regrettable element in his past (he does so quite well). The other is Daria, a good looking young operative of Iranian-American descent, a woman who had at one time worked for Sava in the region and who stayed an operative after he retired. The two would either pull Sava into one mess after another or be pulled in by Sava, as the case may be.
But it remains Mark Sava is the main focus of this series and he will show over and over again that he may have been many things in his past but 'just an analyst' is not one of them.