Mike Raker
CTO, Maximus
Mike Raker’s biggest recent achievement is aligning Maximus’ technology organization directly to growth. “Fortune named Maximus one of America’s Most Innovative Companies last year, and the momentum has only accelerated,” Raker said.
Raker’s team supported more than 30 major contact center modernization pursuits this year, representing billions of dollars in federal pipeline, while generating significant new program revenue through on-contract innovation.
“Mike turned our technology organization into a growth engine,” said Derrick Pledger, chief digital and information officer at Maximus. “We moved from competing on operational scale to leading next‑generation modernizations against the largest firms in the industry — and earning Fortune recognition for innovation along the way. He rolls up his sleeves to do the hard work alongside his team, setting the standard for how we win.”
In terms of aligning with the current administration’s priorities, the administration is asking agencies to deliver more with less, and that’s where Maximus operates best. Maximus runs some of the largest AI implementations in government — production systems processing billions of pages of documents that reduce manual workload and accelerate service delivery. Its SNAP Accuracy Assistant can prevent costly eligibility errors before they become improper payments, directly addressing an administration priority.
Nearly 60% of Maximus’ revenue comes from outcome-based contracts, which means Maximus succeeds only when the government sees measurable results.
Why Watch
Raker and his team are heavily focused on scaling how Maximus delivers next-generation citizen experience across government. Maximus’ strategic framework treats contact centers as intelligence platforms — built around mission insight, operational optimization and citizen outcomes — and in 2026, Raker and his team are pushing that into new programs, new partnerships and new agencies.
They are also creating pathways for commercial innovators to reach government by streamlining the path from commercial innovation to secure, mission‑ready deployment, so agencies can deliver services that keep pace with what citizens expect.
“Every technology decision we make comes back to one question: does this make government work better for the human being on the other end? If we build it right — reusable, scalable, validated before it touches a citizen — the impact compounds,” Raker said. “That’s what drives my team.”
Fun fact: Raker grew up traveling around Iowa with his grandfather, who owned a company that built water and wastewater treatment plants. He tagged along to job sites, watching how his grandfather led engineers and earned trust in small communities — then they’d end the day fishing nearby. Long before he had the words for it, that’s where he learned that good engineering is about people, places and responsibility, not just technology.