Coming to 9 years in CS. All my postings so far have been policy portfolios except for one many years back that was semi-operational (which I hated).

First and foremost, do your core work well. Everything else is secondary.

Other opportunities:

(1) Get involved in interdiv/agency committees, whether work-related or "ECA", e.g. those on OD/BE/CSR - these provide good platforms for other bosses to know you as the committees are usually chaired by a director not from your division

(2) Accept appointments when offered, e.g. snr mgt meeting secy, staffing snr mgt trips, COS secy (although in most cases, it's not really for the staff to turn it down anyway, unless there is a good reason, like going away on maternity leave)

(3) Attend tea sessions with snr mgt when invited, but neither be an attention whore nor blend into the background at the session

Pitfalls to AVOID:

(1) Backstabbing your peers - what goes around, comes around; and you need allies, not enemies, to build your career

(2) Appearing too eager to please or impress your bosses - most ppl can tell when someone is trying too hard to suck up or impress

(3) Trying to always outdo or outshine your immediate supervisor (especially if he is not too far from you in job grade) - it will not help your career if your immediate supervisor tries to stifle your progress because he feels intimidated and insecure