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.
I see this combination far less often than you’d think. Plenty of technologists can talk cloud or zero trust. Fewer can translate that into something an Army program executive or a brigade commander can act on. The best hires—whether you’re filling a C-suite role or standing up a new capability—bring both the technical track record and the operational empathy. That’s the fit that moves a search from “qualified” to “right.”
If you’re building or leading teams in defense technology, ask yourself whether your senior bench reflects that balance. It’s not about credentials alone. It’s about people who’ve done the work, earned the trust, and can operate in both worlds without a translator.