WASHINGTON—The Biden administration expects to name Alan Estevez, a former Pentagon official in the Obama administration, as the Commerce Department undersecretary in charge of export control, according to people with knowledge of the selection.

Mr. Estevez would oversee the 450-person Bureau of Industry and Security, a position that has taken on heightened importance as the U.S. looks to stop China from obtaining advanced U.S. technology.

The bureau has a major say in deciding which technologies are exported to China, which are blocked, and which Chinese companies wind up on a Commerce Department blacklist. The position requires Senate confirmation.

Commerce declined to comment. Mr. Estevez, currently a consultant with Deloitte Consulting LLP, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

During the Obama administration, Mr. Estevez was principal deputy undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics. Before that, he had other Pentagon positions overseeing logistics and managing the Defense Department’s vast supply chain.

He also represented the Pentagon in deliberations of the interagency Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., which reviews proposed foreign acquisitions for national security concerns.

The Commerce undersecretary job was the subject of an unusually public tussle to head the agency.

One of the top candidates was Kevin Wolf, an export-control lawyer and former Obama administration official who is highly regarded for his encyclopedic knowledge of export regulations.

But he was criticized for assisting American companies seeking to sell to Chinese firms on a U.S. blacklist of technology exports.

Another was James Mulvenon, an expert on the Chinese military and technology at SOS International LLC, a defense contractor, who took a hard line on technology exports.

But he had no experience in export-control regulations.

Both men were ruled out early in the process, according to other people familiar with the selection.

Write to Bob Davis at bob.davis@wsj.com and Alex Leary at alex.leary@wsj.com