The U.S. Department of Energy has updated its website to list Dawn Zimmer as the Department’s permanent Chief Information Officer (CIO), formalizing her appointment following service as Acting CIO since January 2025 and Principal Deputy CIO since November 2024.
According to the DOE, Zimmer now leads the Department’s enterprise IT and cybersecurity programs, aligning modernization efforts with DOE mission priorities and major technology initiatives that support U.S. energy security and innovation. She brings more than 25 years of experience across government, academia, and the private sector building and sustaining high-performing technology organizations.
Zimmer has held a series of senior IT leadership positions across the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Department of Justice (DOJ).
At the FAA, she served in several key posts focused on customer experience, IT service delivery, and strategic planning. As Director of Business Partnership Services, Zimmer led a global IT support operation serving over 50,000 FAA users, managing a $28 million budget and a staff of approximately 280. Zimmer also created the FAA’s Customer Experience Division, establishing an agency standard for user engagement and self-service technology tools.
Before that, as Strategy Manager for Core Services and Customer Engagement, she developed agency-wide strategies to improve IT service delivery, metrics, and accountability, emphasizing collaboration between executives and technology teams to ensure consistent, high-quality services regardless of budgetary shifts.
Earlier, Zimmer served as Chief of Staff in the FAA’s Office of Finance and Management, advising senior executives on policy initiatives and strategic operations that spanned 3,000 personnel and major business lines, including financial management and acquisitions. She helped steer improvements to the agency’s shared services model and participated on the IT Steering Committee, shaping key modernization projects such as the Unified Contracting System and PRISM upgrade.
Her leadership extended to aviation innovation through the FAA’s UAS Integration Office, where she managed business operations and strategic planning for the emerging unmanned aircraft systems mission.
Before her time at the FAA, Zimmer served as Deputy Director of the Service Delivery Staff in the Department of Justice’s Office of the Chief Information Officer, where she led a 300-person team providing IT support to 42 DOJ components. She managed an annual $115 million budget, drove a 10% reduction in operating costs through efficiencies, and oversaw modernization of DOJ’s enterprise network and datacenter infrastructure. Her focus on employee engagement, accountability, and customer-focused service delivery improved internal satisfaction and strengthened the Department’s IT reliability during a period of major transformation.
Zimmer also brings academic and private-sector experience, having served as Executive Director of IT Engagement and Experience at Virginia Tech, where she managed digital transformation for a user base of more than 30,000 and guided the university through its transition to remote operations during the pandemic.
A graduate of Ramapo College of New Jersey, Zimmer holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and Marketing.
(AI was used in part to facilitate this article.)
