Education CIO Gray leaving to lead USAID CIO shop

Long-time Education Department CIO Jason Gray is moving on from his role this month to take the same position at the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Education Department Chief Information Officer Jason Gray is leaving his current post to serve as CIO at the United States Agency for International Development, sources confirmed to Federal News Network.

Gray has served as CIO at Education since June 2016. His last day at the agency is Aug. 12. There was no immediate word on who will replace him at Education. Prior to his posting there, Gray had served as associate CIO at the Department of Transportation. He has also worked at the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Defense Manpower Data Center.

Gray will be USAID’s first permanent CIO since Jay Mahanand left that role in January to take over as CIO at the United Nations World Food Program. Before his departure, Mahanand had served as USAID CIO since 2009, according to his LinkedIn.

During his tenure at Education, Gray led the modernization of the agency’s basic IT needs, including new laptops and software. Gray also oversaw Education’s shift from on-premise data centers to 100% cloud computing.

In the last couple of years, Gray has been working to consolidate the number of cloud providers at Education.

“In terms of the future in continuing our modernization effort, we are looking at ways we can rationalize from a systems and software portfolio standpoint,” Gray said on Ask the CIO in 2020. “We are 100% cloud, but I want to reduce the amount of cloud we have, not necessarily from a cost per gigabyte because it’s relatively the same, but the administrative overhead is where I’m looking at so we don’t have to have as many contracting officer representatives or project managers.”

In the latest round of Federal IT Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA) scorecard, Education maintained the B+ grade it’s held for the last several scorecards.

FedScoop first reported on Gray’s pending departure from Education.

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