Department of Education CIO Jason Gray to leave post

The Department of Education’s chief information officer Jason Gray is set to leave his post at the agency, FedScoop understands.

He steps down after serving in the role since June 2016, prior to which he held the role of associate chief information officer at the Department of Transportation.

Following his departure, Department of Education Deputy CIO Gary Stevens will serve as interim chief information officer.

According to LinkedIn, Gray previously held a variety of federal government technology leadership positions, including as chief information officer of the Defense Manpower Data Center.

Other senior posts include a spell as chief information officer of the Miami VA Healthcare System and as chief technology officer of the National Naval Medical Center.

Before moving into government, Gray worked for more than a decade at defense contracting giant Lockheed Martin.

During his tenure at the Department of Education, the agency has reshaped its approach to cybersecurity and forged ahead with the move from on-prem data centers to the cloud.

Earlier this year, the department announced that it would replace its 15-year-old grants management system with a hybrid cloud-based one over the five years through a $50 million blanket purchase agreement led by Innosoft.

This followed a $20 million award granted to the agency last September, intended to help with the adoption of zero-trust architecture. Education said at the time that the infusion of funds would help protect the data of over 100 million students and borrowers.

The department also last year crafted its first data-focused workforce plan, as part of which the Office of the Chief Data Officer created standard positions for data professionals and career ladders for data scientists within the agency.

Further details on the timeline of Gray’s departure and his next destination were not immediately available.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of Education Cindy Marten said: “I and all the dedicated public servants at the U.S. Department of Education are grateful to Jason for his years of loyal and exemplary service to this agency and to our nation’s students, families, and taxpayers.”

She added: “Because of his tireless leadership of our information technology efforts, our agency’s information security posture has never been stronger. We wish Jason continued success in his future professional endeavors.”

Editor’s note: This story was updated to include comment from the Department of Education.