Mr. Wade Yamada is the Acting Principal Deputy Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer (PDCDAO) of the Department of Defense. In this role, he supports the acceleration of DoD’s adoption of data, analytics, and artificial intelligence (AI) to generate decision advantage.
Mr. Yamada is on detail to the CDAO from his role as Deputy Director, Program Analysis and Evaluation (PA&E), Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff G-8, Headquarters, Department of the Army, where he supports the development, balancing, and defense of the Army’s Program Objective Memorandum across the Future Years Defense Program.
Mr. Yamada has also held other leadership positions at the Department of Defense, including as Deputy Director of Staff, Office of the Chief of Space Operations, United States Space Force and as Chief of Research and Engineering at the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, one of the precursor organizations to the CDAO. This followed a distinguished 30-year career in the Army, where Mr. Yamada retired from Active Duty at the rank of Colonel.
Mr. Yamada has a BS in Electrical Engineering from the United States Military Academy in West Point. He also holds an MS in Operations Research from the Naval Postgraduate School and an MA in Strategic Studies from the United States Army War College.