Pete Waterman, a former engineer with the U.S. Digital Service and advisor for the Technology Modernization Fund, is the new director of the Federal Risk Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) cloud security program.

Waterman returns to government after leaving the TMF in February, according to an email obtained by Federal News Network.

“Pete is joining the General Services Administration from a broad background as an implementer and leader across private and public-sector technology roles, including a not-long-ago stint here at GSA supporting the Technology Modernization Fund. Pete is in a great position to build on the direction and momentum the FedRAMP team has this year, establish key relationships across the executive branch for the program, and take FedRAMP into its next iteration,” wrote Eric Mill, GSA’s executive director of cloud strategy, in an email to staff. “Beyond Pete’s joining, there’s more growth to mention — FedRAMP has its second U.S. Digital Corps fellow starting today, as well as the first of a few key technical hires (with more to come) who will shape FedRAMP into a more technology-forward program that will be in a great position to collaborate and integrate with the work of many of you all across the Technology Transformation Service.”

Waterman’s first day is today.

The FedRAMP program management office has been without a permanent director since Ashley Mahan left in January 2021. Brian Conrad, who had been acting director for more than three years left in March to join Zscaler.

This would be Waterman’s third stint in federal service. He first joined in 2019 as a staff engineer at the United States Digital Service (USDS) where he helped agencies develop policies and architecture for the adoption of modern engineering, product, and design practices.

He moved over to the TMF in September 2022 to be a senior technical advisor where he advised executives, policy experts and project leads as they prepared and executed federal modernization projects, with a focus on cloud services and zero trust architecture.

FedRAMP modernization in full swing

Before joining federal service, Waterman worked in the private sector for 20 years, leading teams that delivered commercial cloud-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings, machine learning platforms and automated data center management systems.

“I’m excited to welcome Pete back to public service and to GSA with FedRAMP. As director, Pete will build on the FedRAMP team’s considerable transformation momentum, and guide program strategy for 2025 and beyond,” wrote Lauren Bracey Scheidt, the assistant commissioner of TTS’ Office of Solutions, in an email to staff.

Waterman joins FedRAMP at a time as the program is modernizing as part of implementing the FedRAMP Authorization Act and an updated policy for the first time in 13 years from the Office of Management and Budget.

OMB issued the updated policy in late July that tries to address long-standing pain points.

At the same time, Mill has been leading changes around the authorization process, detailing new metrics and more than two dozen other initiatives, including an agile delivery pilot and a new “fast pass” process for cloud services that feature artificial intelligence capabilities.

The PMO today extended the deadline for comments on the new metrics through Sept. 5.

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