Indian-American Dr Raj Iyer has been elevated as the first Chief Information Officer of the US Army, after the Pentagon created the position in July 2020.
Dr Raj Iyer, one of the highest-ranking Indian-American civilians in the US Department of Defense, holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, serves as the principal advisor to the Secretary of the Army and directs representation of the secretary in matters relating to information management/information technology (IT), the Pentagon said in a statement.
Equivalent in rank to a three-star General, Raj Iyer will supervise an annual budget of USD 16 billion for the US Army’s IT operations. Over 15,000 civilians and military personnel posted across 100 countries work under him.
Dr. Raj Iyer will direct the execution of policies and programmes to modernise the US Army to achieve a digital overmatch against near-peer adversaries such as China and Russia.
The Army has committed to leveraging advanced technologies such as cloud computing, robotics, and artificial intelligence as critical enablers for future war fighting through a concept called multi-domain operations.
Dr. Raj Iyer previously was a partner and managing director at Deloitte Consulting LLP, where he led multiple technology programs supporting government clients.
Over the span of his 26-year career, Dr. Raj Iyer has supported a range of defence and commercial clients on a number of complex enterprise transformation challenges, including strategy, innovation, and modernisation.
