Margie Palmieri, one of the Pentagon’s earliest Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO) leaders, will step down from her role as deputy CDAO in August, a Department of Defense (DoD) spokesperson confirmed to MeriTalk.
Wade Yamada, who is currently serving in the Army G-8, will assume the role of acting principal deputy CDAO at the end of the month.
“After more than three years as the inaugural Principal Deputy of the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office, Ms. Margaret Palmieri will be departing the organization in August,” the spokesperson said. “We are immensely grateful for the incredible groundwork she laid while standing up the CDAO.”
Palmieri, who joined the CDAO shortly after its creation in 2022, was the first to serve as the office’s deputy chief. During her tenure, she played a central role in shaping the Pentagon’s artificial intelligence and machine learning strategy, spearheading policy development, and laying the groundwork for the department’s digital infrastructure.
Palmieri also led the office multiple times in an acting capacity, including most recently during the transition into the second Trump administration.
Prior to her CDAO appointment, Palmieri spent over a decade in the Office of Naval Operations, where she led several tech-forward efforts, including establishing the Navy Digital Warfare Office.