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 that combination—deep operational context plus the ability to translate it into technical requirements—is exactly what makes someone placeable at the senior level in this market.
When I’m mapping the market for a client, I’m looking for people who’ve done the work, not just held the title. Someone who understands how technology enables the warfighter, who’s navigated procurement and policy, and who can walk into a room with a colonel or a CIO and speak both languages fluently. That’s not common. It’s also not something you can teach in an onboarding deck.
If you’re a cleared leader with a track record in defense tech, the question isn’t whether opportunities exist—it’s whether you’re visible to the people running the searches. Passive candidates still get hired first in retained engagements, but only if someone knows to surface your name.