SSA Announces Organizational Changes as Part of Modernization Efforts

The Social Security Administration has implemented organizational changes to allow the agency to accommodate technology modernization.

Kilolo Kijakazi, acting commissioner of social security, said the reorganization aims to align IT strategy and initiatives while driving innovation. The effort includes renaming the Office of Systems to the Office of the Chief Information Officer and moving key personnel into new roles.

CIO Sean Brune will be appointed as the assistant deputy commissioner of operations, where he will help improve service delivery amid budget constraints. Patrick Newbold, the current deputy CIO and deputy director of digital transformation, will serve as the acting CIO until January.

The reorganization also comes amid the agency’s ongoing progress in modernizing legacy systems, Federal News Network reported.

The agency has been working on improving its IT systems in recent months, but results have not always been positive.

In April, the SSA inspector general said the agency had not instituted a framework to adopt Agile technologies. According to the IG’s report, the SSA failed to implement a framework for scaling Agile best practices, did not provide employee training and failed to complete an inventory of legacy systems.

In January, the agency announced plans to release a new IT strategy plan that would enable digital customer services.