Wolfgang Pierce is an agent with SPIRE.
We are told that SPIRE was "a private espionage service specializing in subterfuge, procurement, infiltration, retaliation, and entrapment", hence the acronym.
Pierce works for SPIRE under a man named Edric whom he calls Eddie, likely to get a rise out of the man. He has been with the organization for three years at the time we meet him initially, starting with Pierce was only 18 years old. Working for something like SPIRE sounded to the young man as a thrilling way to make a living but now after three years of, to him fairly mundane assignments, he is more than a tad bored.
In his mind, "dumping a laxative in a business executive's coffee felt more junior high than espionage elite, regardless of how effective the strategy was". His effective performance was marred by his now jaded attitude towards the work. He craved something a bit more interesting and challenging. He would be offered it.
Pierce's work with SPIRE had been up to this point strictly a one-man operation; he always worked alone with no back-up. He thought that was the way SPIRE did everything. Then he learned that this was largely for "petty corporate ops". For the big ticket items where the job was too large for one person, a team was needed. It is at this point that Pierce is introduced to Charlie Team.
Charlie Team executes "covert operations on behalf of SPIRE around the world. Next-level stuff. Stuff with a lot more risk and a lot more reward". It was already "fully operation" with the team leader, Edric, a tech guy, and three "ground-level operators". A mission three weeks prior to his being told about Charlie, an operation had gone badly in Damascus and the team was down one person. Charlie Team has a new assignment, Pierce is told, and they need a replacement third person. Pierce tells Edric, "lucky you! I'm free this weekend."
Pierce has a strong sense of humor as well as an appreciation for the absurd and a willingness to point out the latter often using the former. He has shown during his initial three years of work that he is clever, resourceful, and extremely competent. He is also, as mentioned, bored. He "had dreamed of fast jets, flying bullets, and exotic locales" but his simple assignments would "more likely to land him in Cleveland than Bangladesh. Hardly the stuff of James Bond movies".
He gets what he wishes for.