Navy CIO to depart after 3-plus years

Aaron Weis, the Department of the Navy’s chief information officer, is leaving after more than three years.

Federal News Network has confirmed Weis’ last day will be March 17.

“I came to the department with the personal goal to leave the Navy better than I found it. Today, I look back on what we have accomplished and the teams we have created with a sense of pride,” Weis wrote in an email to staff, which Federal News Network obtained.

Weis said Jane Rathbun, the DoN’s principal deputy CIO will take over in the interim until a new permanent CIO is named.

An email to the Navy seeking comment was not immediately returned.

Weis joined the Defense Department in September 2018 as a senior adviser to the DoD CIO. He ascended to the DoN CIO a little less than a year later. His current term appointment runs through the end of fiscal 2025.

“In the past years, I’ve had the privilege of working with the incredible men and women of the Navy and Marine Corps. Together we have done some amazing things, creating an enduring technology vision through the DoN information superiority vision, pushing through a pandemic, setting a course for modernization and innovation, moving nearly 700,000 sailors, marines and civilians to the cloud, changing the course of cybersecurity and moving the Navy from lagging behind to pacing the entire DoD in technology,” Weis wrote. “I’m incredibly proud of the teams we have created and the esprit de corps we have enabled across the department in the areas of technology.”

When Weis came to the Department of Navy, he found an infrastructure that was 15-to-20 years behind the times.

At the same time, Navy leadership gave Weis broad discretion to implement reforms across a vast portfolio of responsibilities, overseeing four new directorates: A chief data officer, a chief information security officer, a chief technology officer, and a chief digital and innovation officer.

Between the pandemic that brought the urgency and the new responsibilities, Weis made significant headway across multiple technology fronts.

Starting with a new cloud policy in 2020, Weis partnered with the DoN’s top acquisition official to bring a more centralized approach to using commercial cloud.

That led to a host of specific initiatives to continue to drive modernization and transformation.

Through Operation Flank Speed, he moved the DoN to Office 365 in the cloud.

Through Operation Cattle Drive, he set up a process and began retiring legacy systems once they were replaced with modern applications.

Through Black Pearl, the DoN now has a DevSecOps platform and tools to help sailors, marines and civilians develop applications and capabilities more quickly.

Through Super Nova, Weis’ office is looking at the assortment of analytics tools and systems and reducing them down to a more sustainable level.

Additionally, the DoN CIO’s shop successfully tested and implemented a virtual desktop interface (VDI) platform that doesn’t require a common access card for verification and authentication. Another significant step toward a modern technology infrastructure.

And just in January, Weis released an updated Information Superiority Vision (ISV) Campaign Plan for fiscal year 2023 (FY 23). The new document identifies six focus areas, many of which bring in his ongoing priorities like Operation Cattle Drive and adopting enterprise services.

Weis did not say what he plans to do next, except spend some time with his family.

Before coming to DoD, Weis spent his entire career in the private sector.

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