Dr. Julie Cruz serves as the Director of Business Operations for the Chief Digital & Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO). The CDAO Director of Business Operations (DBO) sets and oversees the business rules, controls, and processes necessary to execute the CDAO’s vision. This includes aligning CDAO resources to priorities and ensuring mission support and human capital functions enable the organization to succeed. The DBO oversees CDAO’s budgetary and financial management activities and requirements, and ensures compliance with all federal laws, rules, and related policies.
Prior to this appointment, she served as the Director of Staff for the Strategic Deterrence and Nuclear Integration, Headquarters Air Force (AF/A10), Pentagon, Arlington, Virginia. She oversaw over 130 staff members responsible for the Air Force’s Nuclear Deterrence Operations, Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction efforts, Nuclear Command Control and Communication portfolios and international treaties and arms control agreements.
Previously, Dr. Cruz was the Deputy Director for the Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance and Cyber Effects Operations (AF/A2-6), supporting the executive management, command support staff, and policy formulation of the intelligence and cyber operations enterprise.
Before transferring to the Air Force, Dr. Cruz was the Director for the Technology Career Field at the Army Civilian Career Management Activity. She directly led the Information Technology and Cyberspace Effects workforce and career programs for the Department of the Army. She advised Army civilians on professional education, training, development, assignments, and certification. She enhanced civilian competencies, increased career satisfaction, maximized employee engagement and retained talent for the Army’s 15,000 IT/Cyber workforce.
Dr. Cruz closely coordinated civilian workforce efforts with the Chief Information Office in Department of Army Headquarters. She was also a Strategic Planner and Operations Officer at the Assistant Secretary of the Army, Manpower and Reserve Affairs (ASA/M&RA). She was hand-selected by Army General Officers and senior leaders to handle manpower and resourcing for the task force and official stand-up of the Army's newest 4-star Headquarters, U.S. Army Futures Command. Her experience entailed independent, collaborative, and cross-functional analyses for assigned programs. She resolved issues and presented unbiased evaluations of programs through all phases of the planning, programming, budgeting, and execution cycles and resourcing across the Future Years Defense Program.
Born and raised on Guam, Dr. Cruz is passionate about aiding CDAO on their mission to accelerate Department of Defense adoption of data, analytics, and artificial intelligence.