Navy CIO Jane Rathbun previously said she was working to transform the Navy into a more data-centric organization that can seamlessly share key information across its operations. Petty Officer 2nd Class Wade Costin / U.S. Navy
Navy CIO Jane Rathbun announces departure from civil service
Rathbun told Nextgov/FCW earlier this year that one of her priorities as CIO was transforming the U.S. Navy into a more data-centric organization.
Navy Chief Information Officer Jane Rathbun is departing the federal government after more than three decades of service in national security-focused roles.
“It is with gratitude, pride, and humility that I close out this chapter of my career as a civil servant,” she said in an Aug. 21 LinkedIn post.
Rathbun first began her tenure in federal service in 1994 with the Commission on Roles and Missions of the Armed Forces. Except for a brief stint as a change management specialist at NASA from 2003 through 2005 — where she helped implement the space agency’s Enterprise Resource Planning system — Rathbun has spent the entirety of her federal career with the Department of Defense.
This has included a variety of key roles within the U.S. Navy, including serving as deputy assistant secretary for information warfare and chief technology officer. Rathbun took over as the military branch’s CIO in 2023.
In an interview with Nextgov/FCW earlier this year, Rathbun said she was working to transform the Navy into a more data-centric organization that can seamlessly share key information across its operations. She added that the military branch is also looking to securely integrate data to better leverage new technologies, such as artificial intelligence.
“What we’re hoping to do very shortly is move to a strategically architected and curated set of capabilities that we invest in,” Rathbun said at the time. “I still want 1,000 flowers to bloom, but not in 1,000 pots. So I’m looking at how I get these capabilities in a couple of pots to start off with.”
Rathbun also told Defense One last year that the Navy was working with the U.S. Army to enhance its data analytics ecosystem.
Among the many career highlights she mentioned in her LinkedIn post, Rathbun cited “driving strategy and busting bureaucracy” and “partnering with industry & academia to solve some wicked problems.”