Kristen Baldwin
Deputy CIO
U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT)
Ms. Kristen J. Baldwin is the Principal Deputy to the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Systems Engineering (DASD(SE)). Ms. Baldwin acts on behalf of the DASD and is responsible for engineering and technical workforce, policy, and systems engineering planning for major defense acquisition programs. Her oversight includes concept engineering and analysis, design, development and manufacturing, and independent program review and assessment. She supports the DASD role of functional leader for more than 40,000 defense acquisition professionals in the Department of Defense (DoD) Engineering (ENG) and Production, Quality, and Manufacturing (PQM) workforce. She oversees the DoD strategy for Trusted Systems Design.
A member of the Senior Executive Service (SES), Ms. Baldwin leads modeling and simulation, system security engineering, program protection, system of systems engineering, and systems engineering research and development initiatives. She oversees the DoD Systems Engineering Research Center, a university-affiliated research center dedicated to advancing systems engineering methods, processes, and tools, and the MITRE National Security Engineering Center, a DoD federally funded research and development center.
Ms. Baldwin has been with the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) since 1998, where she has led the application of capabilities-based planning in the acquisition process and served as Deputy Director, Software Engineering and System Assurance. Before working with OSD, Ms. Baldwin served as a science and technology advisor in the Army’s Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations and Plans. Ms. Baldwin began her career at the U.S. Army’s Armament Research, Development, and Engineering Center, Picatinny Arsenal.
Ms. Baldwin was a recipient of the Meritorious Presidential Rank award in 2014, in recognition of exemplary service.
Ms. Baldwin received a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Virginia Tech and a master’s degree in systems management from the Florida Institute of Technology.