Federal CIO Greg Barbaccia will return to Palantir

The Trump administration’s top IT official, Federal CIO Greg Barbaccia, is headed back to Palantir after he leaves government later this month, a White House official confirmed Friday. The news was first shared offhand by General Services Administration leader Edward Forst during a Thursday graduation ceremony for the U.S. Digital Corps. FedScoop verified the move with a White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to be more candid. Barbaccia previously announced his departure in an email to the CIO Council earlier this month. In that email, obtained by FedScoop, Barbaccia said it was a “difficult decision to leave government” and that he planned to depart at the end of August. It did not, however, share where he planned to go. Prior to joining the Trump administration, Barbaccia spent roughly a decade at Palantir in roles such as head of intelligence and investigations.

Department of Defense CIO Kirsten Davies recently approved a far-reaching directive laying out policy, responsibilities and procedures for information technology category management and digital modernization investments. The new guidance follows in the footsteps of other Trump administration tech-buying initiatives meant to streamline enterprise IT procurement and leverage economies of scale across the government’s massive footprint, like the General Services Administration’s OneGov initiative for federal civilian agencies. DoW Instruction 8000.02, which was approved by Davies on July 23 and became effective July 29, applies to all components of the department. It covers “all IT assets, including IT services, hardware, software, licenses, and associated components, in all IT categories (including national security systems (NSS) within DoW authorities and defense business systems) relevant to DoW mission and operations,” the directive states.

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