Rocio Bauer’s profile over at WashingtonExec is worth your time if you’re thinking about what leadership looks like when you’re building technology for the Army. She’s spent her career at the intersection of mission and modernization, and the through-line is clear: serve the warfighter, stay close to the problem, and don’t let process become the product.
What stands out is how she frames technology decisions as leadership decisions. Too many executives in our space treat digital transformation as a separate swim lane—something the CIO owns while everyone else runs operations. Bauer doesn’t. She talks about technology as integral to command, which is the only way it actually moves from pilot to program of record. That mindset is what I look for when we’re mapping senior talent for Army-facing primes and agencies.
If you’re building or leading teams that deliver capability to DoD customers, the question isn’t whether your people are technical. It’s whether they can translate technical work into mission impact and make the case to someone who measures success in readiness, not in sprints.