CDAO launches new role to improve management, business functions

Pentagon leadership recently selected longtime strategic planner and military workforce expert Julie Cruz to serve as the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office’s new director of business operations, making her the first official to take on that job title for the organization.

“The Director of Business Operations is a maturation of the previous ‘resource management’ position,” a CDAO spokesperson told DefenseScoop on Monday. “This transition is part of a broader effort inside CDAO to institutionalize good governance processes.”

Roots of the Defense Department’s lead AI office trace back to late 2021, when four legacy Pentagon teams — the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC), Defense Digital Service (DDS), Office of the Chief Data Officer, and the Advana program — were reorganized and combined into one hub, as part of a larger move to better coordinate data and accelerate the adoption of military-supporting algorithms.

Former AI industry executive Craig Martell was named as the nascent hub’s first permanent leader around its inception, and he held that role through April of this year. Around that time, DefenseScoop reported his planned exit and that the CDAO was going through its first major transition, with then-Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Radha Plumb tapped as its second-ever chief.

Recent budget documents also include a refocus of funding mechanisms that broadly reflect the CDAO’s ongoing, internal shift. 

In June, Cruz was promoted to the Senior Executive Service and chosen as the CDAO’s new business operations chief. 

In this position, she is the “Senior Administrative Officer, consistent with the function in other Principal Staff Assistants in the Office of the Secretary of Defense,” according to the CDAO spokesperson.

“The primary functions are to oversee HR, internal contracting and resourcing, and key mission support functions — such as space planning, IT, and records management,” the spokesperson said.

Born and raised on Guam, Cruz earned a doctorate degree in business administration — management of engineering and technology. She previously served as the director of staff in the Strategic Deterrence and Nuclear Integration Office at Air Force headquarters. 

Before that, Cruz was the deputy director for the Air Force’s Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance and Cyber Effects Operations (AF/A2-6). Among other prior responsibilities across her career in defense, she also closely coordinated civilian workforce and retention efforts with the Army’s Chief Information Office and was director for the technology career field at the Army Civilian Career Management Activity.

“Dr. Cruz was selected through a competitive process and personally interviewed by the CDAO before her selection. She was approved through the [Office of Personnel Management] process and met federal government-wide standards for executives,” the spokesperson told DefenseScoop.

“Her priorities are to continue progress on improving the management and business functions inside of CDAO,” they said.