The Department of Defense’s (DOD) Chief Information Officer (CIO) Kristen Davies said on June 12 that the Pentagon is pursuing a “radical transformation” of its technology enterprise aimed at accelerating the delivery of capabilities to warfighters.
Under the Trump administration, the DOD has been rebranded as the Department of War.
“Everything we are focused on is speed to warfighter capability. Just speed to the warfighters. We want to support them and have that lens on every decision we make,” Davies said at GovCIO Media & Research’s Federal Tech Leaders Summit in Washington, D.C.
Davies said that focus is driving acquisition reform, workforce modernization, and technology modernization efforts designed to move at “the speed of innovation” rather than traditional defense timelines.
“Technology needs to be at the speed of innovation, not at the speed of ships and planes, which necessarily take much longer,” she said. “What we’re tackling right now is an opportunity in time … to reduce barriers to entry, reduce compliance, reduce bureaucracy … and see how we can get after radical transformation rather than just step change evolution.”
Davies identified a growing generational shift within the military as one of the most significant factors reshaping expectations for department technology.
Davies said a new generation of service members is entering the force after growing up with smartphones, gaming platforms, touchscreen devices, and intuitive digital tools. At the same time, many senior leaders began their careers in a different technology environment.
She said the dynamic between digital-native recruits and analog-era leadership is reshaping expectations for military technology and exposing the limitations of aging infrastructure.
“We have significant advancements in a lot of our weapons systems … but they’re sitting on the backbone of legacy technology, so we still have mainframes, we still have significant amounts of technology debt systems, software hard coded to operating systems that actually aren’t even supported anymore,” Davies said.
Davies said the department continues to manage substantial technology debt, including legacy mainframes, unsupported operating systems, and aging infrastructure that remains critical to operations. She also acknowledged that previous modernization efforts have often fallen short.
“This is why we need to get after this in such an aggressive and proactive way,” Davies said.
Davies said the department is pursuing acquisition and sustainment reforms, reducing bureaucracy, lowering barriers to entry for industry partners, and taking a more user-centered approach to technology development.
“When we think about how we get after technology modernization, we have to think about users,” Davies said. “We have digital natives … they want to see a great user interface, they want to be able to interact with touchscreens … these things that we take for granted in industry, it isn’t necessarily true yet in the Department of War.”
Building a skills-based workforce
Workforce transformation is another cornerstone of Davies’ strategy.
She said the department is shifting away from traditional degree-based hiring requirements and placing greater emphasis on “practical skills, curiosity, problem-solving abilities, and critical thinking.”
“We need to have practical skills-based programs with people who have inert notions to defend, to be curious, to have both synthesis and analysis thinking, in addition to core competencies and skills,” Davies said.
Davies highlighted a Defense Information Systems Agency pilot that used skills-based hiring to reduce recruiting timelines significantly. Under the pilot, candidates moved from skills assessments to interim job offers in a matter of days.
“We’re moving to a much more rapid cycle of recruiting and hiring as a result of that, so hopefully gone are the days where we’re like looking for recruits and checking the box of qualifications, and then having [them] interviewed, and then maybe 90 to 180 days later you hear from us,” she said.
The department is also launching the Cyber Registered Apprenticeship Program (Cyber RAP), a 12-month paid program designed to develop cyber talent from the ground up. Davies said interest has already exceeded expectations, with more than 40,000 inquiries from prospective applicants.
“Our people are our direct advantage … so how we get the best talent, how we develop our talent is really extraordinary across the department,” she said.