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 technology. 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 can surface plenty of technologists who’ve never worn the uniform and plenty of veterans who haven’t stayed current on the tech side. The candidates who can translate both ways—who understand both the Army’s decision cycle and what’s possible with cloud, AI, or zero trust—are the ones who get presented first in a retained engagement. Bauer’s trajectory is a good reminder that the best hires often come from operators who’ve done the work, not just talked about it.