Trump picks private sector veteran for Pentagon CIO

President Donald Trump has nominated Kirsten Davies, an industry veteran who has held top cyber roles at companies including Unilever and ​​Estée Lauder, to fill the Pentagon’s top tech post.

A notice posted on Congreess.gov shows the president has nominated Davies to be the Defense Department’s chief information officer. The job was restored to a Senate-confirmable position in 2019.

If confirmed by lawmakers, Davies would bring a deep background of private sector experience to the role. 

Davies was most recently the chief information security officer at Unilever — a role she previously held at Estée Lauder Companies. Before that Davies was the managing director and group chief security officer for Barclays Africa, now known as ABSA. She also held cyber-related roles at tech giant Hewlett Packard and Siemens, and leadership positions at Booz Allen Hamilton and Deloitte Australia.

Davies holds a bachelor’s degree in International Politics and Government from University of Puget Sound and studied international law and business at Johns Hopkins University, according to her LinkedIn profile.

The Pentagon's CIO position has been filled in an acting capacity since last June. Katie Arrington, who served as the CISO for the Pentagon’s acquisition and sustainment shop during the first Trump administration, was the latest to be tapped for the role — only weeks after she returned in February to be the department’s CISO.

Last month Arrington approved a new initiative, dubbed the Under the Software Fast Track (SWIFT) program, to revamp DOD’s outdated software procurement framework.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has pushed the Pentagon to speed up procurement and delivery of digital and software-based capabilities, issuing a memo in March that mandated department leaders use innovative acquisition authorities to buy software faster.