Lauren Knausenberger

Chief Information Officer, Department of the Air Force

As CIO of the Department of the Air Force, Lauren Knausenberger has been in her role since February, after joining the service in 2017 having worked in industry in roles including founder and president of Accellint Inc., a consulting firm, and as venture partner with NextGen Angels, a community of angel investors.

Her responsibilities includes leading two directorates and supporting 20,000 cyber operations and supporting personnel worldwide. She also provides oversight of the Air Force’s IT portfolio and leads career management initiatives for 10,000 IT/cyber civilian personnel.

Why Watch

Knausenberger has been recognized as one of the most important leaders for driving innovation at the Air Force. Last year, her goals were scaling Platform One and Cloud One, the Air Force’s software development platform and a cloud-hosting service and platform for the Defense Department, respectively. She’s also been focused on growing Digital University, the Air Force’s online learning platform for warfighters to bolster their technical skills.

“Digital U partners our department with top industry leaders in technology training and postures us to develop and sustain a digitally competent force,” she said then. “Additionally, Platform One and Cloud One allow us to rapidly develop and release new cloud-hosted capabilities that are accessible across our entire force in a standardized and secure manner using DevSecOps.”

In November 2021, Platform One and the Air Force software factory Kessel Run signed a collaboration statement to continue to support each other, their ally organizations and their end users, in an effort to prevent siloes and duplication in DOD.

“Together, these teams are moving the department forward by deploying awesome warfighting software and giving more and more Airmen the opportunity to learn agile processes,” Knausenberger said Nov. 16. “It’s a huge shift to the way we execute our mission and we need more of it.”