The Wrap: Fed Tech Bosses Coming and Going; Army Reboots Recruiting Tech

Welcome to The Wrap for Monday, July 8!

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From the newsroom at MeriTalk, it’s the quickest read in Federal tech news. Here’s what you need to know today:

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From NARA to Justice

Laurence Brewer – one of the key players in the Federal government’s years-long campaign to digitize? agency records – is stepping down on July 13 as the chief records officer at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).? NARA’s loss is the Justice Department’s gain, however, as Brewer will be heading to DoJ to become director of the agency’s Office of Records Management Policy. Filling Brewer’s role – at least until NARA finds a permanent replacement – will be William Fischer, director of NARA’s National Declassification Center. “I am very proud of the work the records management community has accomplished in the last several years as we work together to deliver on the goals and vision of transitioning to an electronic government and fully digital records management,” said Brewer, who has been NARA’s chief records officer since 2015.

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Beavers Moves up at DoD

Leslie Beavers, who has been principal deputy chief information officer at the Defense Department (DoD) since 2023, received the official nod to take over as acting CIO at the Pentagon following the departure last month of CIO John Sherman. Her stint as principal deputy CIO had her overseeing engagement with Defense Agencies and Field Activities CIOs and driving strategic resource planning in IT and cybersecurity domains. Before that, Beavers served as the director of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance enterprise capabilities within the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence & Security (OUSD(I&S)). Beavers steps into the DoD acting CIO role as the department begins work on its?recently released plan?to modernize the agency’s IT networks and compute infrastructure, dubbed?Fulcrum: DoD Information Technology (IT) Advancement Strategy.

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NCD’s Braun Back to School

Jake Braun, the White House’s acting Principal Deputy National Cyber Director, left that position on June 28 to make a full-time return to the University of Chicago – where he served as inaugural director of the Cyber Policy Initiative from 2018 to 2021. No word yet from the National Cyber Director’s office on a replacement. Braun?joined?the Office of the National Cyber Director (ONCD) in an acting capacity in 2023, following former Principal Deputy NCD Kemba Walden’s?promotion?to lead the cyber office. “Helping run a startup in the White House has been one of the best experiences of my professional career. ONCD has accomplished so much in such a short period of time,” Braun said in a statement. His service drew glowing praise from NCD Harry Coker, who said he is “especially grateful for Jake’s advocacy and action on behalf of our Nation’s critical infrastructure owners and operators, helping them learn about and take advantage of the resources wisely allocated through the President’s Investing in America agenda.”

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Army Reboots Recruiting Tech

The U.S. Army said it is rebooting the technology that underlies its recruiting efforts by using guidance and industry best practices documented in?Army Directive 2024-02?– a policy memo the service branch published in March. That effort has taken the existing Accessions Information Environment (AIE) system and upgraded it to the new “AIE 2.0” version with the aim of transforming the Army’s recruiting process. The AIE 2.0 reboot includes a focus on agile best practices and Salesforce out-of-the-box capabilities and aims to help recruiters spend less time behind a desk and more time connecting with potential recruits. With the updated system, recruiters will be able to generate and manage leads in a mobile app, easily connect with potential recruits, streamline paperwork, and replace paper processes with electronic ones. “AIE will enhance prospecting, processing, and future soldier management,” said Brig. Gen. Fred Hockett Jr., deputy commanding general-support for the U.S. Army Recruiting Command (USAREC). AIE needs “to be intuitive,” Hockett added. “We don’t want to spend 80 hours training somebody how to operate a system.” The Army said it will award a 10-year, multi-award, indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract for AIE 2.0.

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Once again, let’s “call IT a day,” but we'll bring you more tomorrow. Until then please check the MeriTalk breaking news website throughout the day for the latest on government IT people, process, and policy. And finally, please hit the news tip jar [with leads, breaking news, or simply your two cents] at [email protected].