Jean Schaffer, Federal Chief Technology Officer at Corelight

Jean Schaffer is the federal chief technology officer at Corelight, a cybersecurity company headquartered in San Francisco, California. Prior to assuming her current position, she founded Verity Insight, a consulting firm that advises public and private sector organizations on national security matters.

A member of the Potomac Officers Club, Schaffer was part of the Department of Defense for more than 33 years, taking on leadership roles within its various components, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Most recently, she was the chief information security officer at the Defense Intelligence Agency and chief of cyber and enterprise operations at the DOD Office of the Chief Information Officer. Her responsibilities included oversight of IT infrastructure, cyber defense and helpdesk services across the DOD Intelligence Information System.

Schaffer also held executive roles at the National Security Agency, serving as chief of its enterprise connectivity and specialized IT services group. She was responsible for the agency’s network infrastructure underpinning its mission and enterprise systems. Before that, Schaffer handled risk management for the NSA’s IT systems as its authorizing official. She set up security policies and processes for certification and accreditation.

Earlier in her public sector career, she was director of the National Information Assurance Partnership‘s Common Criteria Evaluation Validation Schema program.

She earned a master’s degree in national resource strategy from National Defense University and a master’s degree in computer science from Johns Hopkins University. Schaffer earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science from the University of Louisiana.