President Biden is nominating Radha Iyengar Plumb to serve as the next Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment, the White House announced June 15. Plumb currently serves as the chief of staff for the Deputy Secretary of Defense and has a history in industry, as well.
If confirmed, Plumb would serve under Dr. William LaPlante, who is currently the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment. In the absence of a confirmed deputy, Paul Cramer has been performing the duties of LaPlante’s deputy.
Should she be confirmed, Plumb will serve as a point of contact for Defense Industrial Base contractors, who will have to be certified as compliant with the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) program starting when the CMMC 2.0 rule comes out in May 2023.
Prior to her time in the office of the Deputy Secretary of Defense, Plumb was the director of research and insights for Trust and Safety at Google. Prior to her stint at Google, Plumb spent two-and-a-half years at Facebook, working her way up from research lead on user safety and risk management to global head of policy analysis before she left.
Before her time in big tech, Plumb spent two years as a senior economist at the RAND Corporation, where she worked as an economist from October 2011 to May 2012. Her stints at the RAND Corporation served as bookends to three years in the Federal government.
Plumb got her start in Federal government at the Pentagon as the chief of staff and policy advisor to the Assistant Secretary of Defense in the Department of Defense’s Office of Special Operations for Low-Intensity Conflict. After that, Plumb went to the White House to serve as director of defense personnel, readiness, and partnerships. Her last stint in government before returning to RAND Corporation was as deputy chief of staff at the Department of Energy.
