La'Naia Jones

Deputy CIO

National Security Agency (NSA)

Ms. La’Naia J. Jones is the Deputy Chief Information Officer (DCIO) for the National Security Agency. In her DCIO role, Ms. Jones will optimize NSA’s IT strategy to ensure enterprise-wide governance and utilization of the enterprise IT as an Agency asset. With over 18 years of NSA experience in leadership and technical roles across several mission areas, Ms. Jones manages the oversight for IT investments and acquisition programs, ensure cost effective use of IT across NSA.

Prior to her selection as NSA’s DCIO, Ms. Jones was designated by the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) to serve as the Acting Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the Intelligence Community. As the Acting IC CIO, Ms. Jones supported the organization by leading modernization efforts to transform the IC Information Technology Enterprise (IC ITE) and other areas of the IC Information Environment (IC IE), through foundational cloud capabilities, data sharing and cybersecurity. She provided broad technical expertise, background, and experience to ensure the security and protection of the IC IT landscape.

Prior to serving in the role of the Acting IC CIO, Ms. Jones served as the Deputy Chief Information Officer of the Intelligence Community from July 2018-May 2020. In other technical management roles, Ms. Jones also served as the Chief of Transformation and Transition for a large global IT service provider within the Department of Defense, delivering the full spectrum of information technology services to a global footprint spanning all time zones. She provided technical expertise and leadership for enterprise technologies delivering network communications, utility hosting, physical/virtual desktops, wireless capabilities, business systems and many other services. Leading the operational IT implementation and overseeing a multitude of service providers in that capacity, she provided the integration, governance and understanding of the technical architecture for stakeholders and customers alike.

From 2009-2017, Ms. Jones was the Technical Director for a large global IT service provider, providing a subset of the current IT portfolio. Through her technical expertise, knowledge, and experience with integrating new technologies to modernize the DoD IT landscape, she architected collaborative infrastructures and led specialized efforts in the Asian and Middle Eastern theaters.

Ms. Jones also spent over two years as a Technical Director and Lead on various hostile area deployments in austere tactical environments, supporting Middle East, European Command (EUCOM), African Command (AFRICOM) and Central Command (CENTCOM) missions. She collaborated extensively with EUCOM, AFRICOM, and CENTCOM planners to provide communications and technical capabilities in support of military missions throughout diverse locations.

Serving as the Technical Lead for a large global IT service provider in Japan from 2005-2009, Ms. Jones strengthened foreign relationships and enhanced domestic partnerships through resolution of complex, multifaceted IT entanglements of technology organizations. In other prior positions, Ms. Jones served as the Chief of Utility Cloud hosting for a DoD organization providing Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) computing capabilities to various U.S. government partners and entities.

Ms. Jones has earned a dual B.S. in Mathematics and Computer Science from the University of Maryland Eastern Shore and a M.S. in Technology Management from the University of Maryland, Global Campus. Ms. Jones is a Maryland native, growing up throughout Anne Arundel County and currently residing in Upper Marlboro, Maryland.

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