The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is recommending that federal agencies reclassify the position of Chief Information Officer (CIO), arguing that CIOs serve in roles that are no longer “impartial and apolitical,” and have an increasing role in determining government policy (see the memo here). As such, OPM is requesting the CIO be designated as a “general” employee rather than a “career reserved” employee.
General employees, according to OPM, can be filled by a range of people, including “career, noncareer, limited term or limited emergency” Senior Executive Service (SES) branch appointees. Career reserved positions, meanwhile, are supposed to be impartial and can only be filled by career appointees. Additionally, the memo also states reclassifying the position could make it easier to fill the role with talent outside of the career SES ranks, thus increasing the potential talent pool for CIOs.
For my two CIO gigs, first as the Intelligence Community CIO, and then as the Department of Defense CIO, I was a political appointee for both – by President Trump for IC CIO, and then by President Biden for DoD CIO. While there were certainly huge political differences between the two administrations, the job of CIO was pretty consistent: make the IT work, instill good cybersecurity, look for efficiencies, innovate with new technologies, and, above all, enable mission. That’s obviously a lot of simplification, but you get the gist.
Having said all that, I get the need at cabinet-level departments to be responsive to the President and the Administration’s priorities. I was operating at an enterprise level and focused most of my time in both jobs on big enterprise decisions: cancelling the common desktop in the IC, moving from JEDI to JWCC in the DoD, committing the department to the big shift to Zero Trust, protecting needed electromagnetic spectrum, and so on. Ensuring these were in keeping with the department-level and White House vision was critical.
I do hope, however, that there be consideration given to the agency and sub-department CIOs. In DoD and the IC, I’m talking about CIOs in organizations like the Military Services and Combat Support Agencies. Those individuals are intimately familiar with their enterprise operations and the IT that supports it. For example, I think back to my colleagues at NGA and the imagery dissemination systems they oversee. Parachuting in new CIOs might make sense in select cases, but I think they might find themselves tilting at the same windmills that their predecessors have been working with focus and dedication for years. Can things be done better? Always. But I would just respectfully ask folks to be mindful of those who have kept the systems in their charge running, often with spit, baling wire, caffeine, and competing resource requirements.
I’m betting that many are ready to make big changes if they have the backing and funding. I say give ‘em a chance.
