The United States Air Force (USAF) on August 17 named Jay Bonci – a private sector cybersecurity veteran – as the service branch’s next chief technology officer (CTO), according to a post by Bonci.
Bonci replaces Frank Konieczny, who left the post in February after a decade in the USAF CIO’s office. Bonci will report directly to USAF CIO Lauren Knausenberger.
“I took this job because of my familiarity with the Department and my belief that Air Force IT leadership has a directionally correct vision for the future,” Bonci said in his post. “It is also clear that as a branch founded for and inexorably tied to technology, it has the correct cultural foundations to help lead the way. This is the right place at the right time, and I hope my contributions demonstrate a massive impact in a short amount of time.”
Bonci has spent the last 14 years at cybersecurity and cloud service firm Akamai Technologies, working with the Federal government in various roles. Bonci’s longest-running position with the firm, as Director of Government MCDN, saw him working directly with the Department of Defense from 2016 to earlier this year. Bonci had transitioned to a new role at Akamai in July, before making the move to USAF.
In his new role as USAF CTO, Bonci will be responsible for helping the service branch work towards the military’s Joint All Domain Command and Control Data fabric, as well as work on the USAF artificial intelligence portfolio.
