Head of the Digital Defense Service Resigns After a "Period of Service"

Chris Lynch, director of the Pentagon's Digital Defense Service, will be stepping down this month after four years running his so-called "nerds SWAT team."

"When nerds like us sit at the table, a lot of incredible things can happen. Do not forget that, "Lynch wrote today in an email to his team, according to a copy of the message obtained by POLITICO.

History continues below

After joining the US Digital Services team at the White House, former Secretary of Defense Ash Carter recruited Lynch in 2015 to form a small team of engineers and digital experts from Google and Facebook to solve the most critical computer problems of DoD.

The team quickly established itself with the 2016 "Hack the Pentagon" program, the first federal government bug bonus effort that uncovered nearly 140 unidentified faults on some Pentagon websites.

"To say that this was the biggest detour of my life would be an incredible understatement, but starting this team and working with you have fundamentally changed my life, and I believe that the lives of so many others too," wrote Lynch, a software entrepreneur in Seattle before coming to Washington.

"The impact of our team throughout the Department of Defense and for our service members is astounding and profound," he added. "I think in the end it's because people like you and people like me have come to serve."

Brett Goldstein, a renowned technologist, will replace Lynch this week.

Goldstein began his career at OpenTable before joining the Chicago Police Department. He obtained the rank of commander there and finally became the data manager of the city. Since leaving the government in 2013, Goldstein has led a venture capital fund, has benefited from research fellowships at the University of Chicago and Harvard, and has served on the board of directors. code administration for nonprofit technologies Code for America. Most recently, he was Special Advisor to the US Navy, where he worked with the DDS team.

"Although we miss Chris, the unique startup culture he's created and the talented team he's recruited will continue to disrupt and transform the technology at DoD," said the secretary. Interim Defense, Patrick Shanahan.

"The knowledge, technical skills, and commitment of the public and private sector to the government's improvement of technology will be valuable assets for a range of departmental critical missions," added Shanahan, who recruited Goldstein to support the IT, IT and modernization efforts of the department.

Goldstein will inherit an organization that grew from a dozen employees a few years ago to nearly 70 and worked on almost every aspect of DoD's digital infrastructure.

Since "Piracy Pentagon", DDS has helped oversee more than a dozen such efforts in the military and even in the Pentagon's travel booking system.

In addition, the team worked on building a new generation GPS, a new security clearance. system and teamed up with Army Cyber ​​Command to create a partnership program dubbed "Jyn Erso" (after the film's heroine Thief A) to get quicker technical solutions on the battlefield, including drone detection.

Based in a Pentagon office titled "Rebel Alliance," DDS also helped create the agency's "vulnerability disclosure program," which provides security investigators with a legal means of finding and reveal the weaknesses of any DoD audience. -Facing, and is currently leading the purchase of the $ 10 billion JEDI Cloud project, which Amazon and Microsoft have bid on.

"In addition, let's be honest, we brought Star Wars to the f —— DoD," according to Lynch, who could often be seen scrolling through the corridors of the Pentagon buttoned up in Star Wars. T-shirt and hoodie.

Neither Lynch nor the Pentagon indicated where he was heading after his role at DDS.

In his message marking the end of his "nerd service tour," Lynch warned that the DDS mission is "still dependent on flawless execution of the technology, and that our opponents are very good at software."

"We have to bring other great technologists here," he wrote. "We need to give technical talent the means to make technical decisions alongside our DoD partners … Keep delivering. Keep on pissing me off. Nothing else matters. "