Rocio Bauer’s profile over at WashingtonExec is worth your time if you’re thinking about what leadership looks like when you’re serving the Army through a technology lens. She’s spent her career at the intersection of mission and modernization, and the through-line is clear: deep technical credibility married to an understanding of how the institution actually works.
That combination is harder to find than you’d think. I see plenty of technologists who can architect a solution but can’t navigate the Army’s acquisition culture, and plenty of program leaders who understand the customer but can’t speak fluently about the stack. The candidates who can do both—and who’ve done it at scale, with a clearance and a track record—don’t stay on the market long.
If you’re building or rebuilding a technology organization inside defense, the Bauer profile is a useful template. Look for people who’ve served the mission in more than one way, who can translate between the uniform and the vendor, and who see technology as an enabler rather than the end state. Those are the placements that stick.