Dawn Zimmer Archives

The James Forrestal Building in Washington D.C. is home to the Department of Energy and one of the sites for NNSA.

Energy IT shop not interested in Grok, Perplexity as its AI portfolio expands

In a crowded field of AI contenders, the agency’s office of the CIO prioritizes partnerships with vendors that employees are favoring, such as OpenAI and Anthropic.

24 hours ago By Lindsey Wilkinson

WASHINGTON, DC – MAY 28: The headquarters for the US Department of Energy (DOE) at Federal Office Building 5, now known as the James V. Forrestal Building on May 28, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Al Drago/Getty Images)

Energy Department’s CIO office is here to ‘feed’ the Genesis Mission team

The agency’s chief information officer said her team’s workforce enablement tools are helping the crew behind the Genesis Mission do their jobs faster and better.

3 days ago By Lindsey Wilkinson

A sign marks the location of the Office of Personnel Management headquarters building on Jan. 29, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by J. David Ake/Getty Images)

OPM wants to leverage talent exchanges that would place feds in industry

Such an exchange is being eyed for NASA, per the leader of the Tech Force.

Jun 12, 2026 By Madison Alder

WASHINGTON, DC – MARCH 18: The reflection the flag of the U.S. Department of Energy is seen on its building on March 18, 2025 in Washington, DC. The Trump administration announced on Monday it is releasing the second loan disbursement worth $56.7 million to Holtec International to restart the Palisades Nuclear Plant. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Dawn Zimmer takes over as permanent Energy CIO

The move to install Zimmer comes after a high turnover rate in the department’s top IT post under the Trump administration.

Nov 10, 2025 By Madison Alder

A view of Department of Energy headquarters on Feb. 9, 2024, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by J. David Ake/Getty Images)

Dawn Zimmer returns to acting Energy CIO after SpaceX engineer’s short tenure

Zimmer is filling the CIO position for the second time since Inauguration Day after Ryan Riedel briefly took on the role overseeing the department's $4.3 billion IT…

Mar 10, 2025 By Billy Mitchell

Energy CIO replaced with SpaceX engineer as DOGE probes department’s systems

Dawn Zimmer, who joined Energy in November as deputy CIO and has been acting CIO since January, has been replaced by a network engineer from SpaceX, the…

Feb 7, 2025 By Billy Mitchell