Trump taps ‘The DoddFather’ to oversee critical technologies at the Pentagon

President Donald Trump has nominated Michael Dodd to be assistant secretary of defense for critical technologies — a key role in the Pentagon’s research and engineering directorate.

The nomination was received on Capitol Hill on Monday and referred to the Senate Armed Services Committee for consideration, according to a notice posted on Congress.gov.

Dodd — who puts out a newsletter called the “The DoddFather Diaries” about defense technology and innovation — is currently principal for the energy portfolio at the National Security Innovation Capital component of the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit. Previously, he was university program director at DIU’s National Security Innovation Network and served for more than 11 years in the Marine Corps, according to his LinkedIn.

National Security Innovation Capital aims to accelerate the development of next-generation hardware technologies critical to U.S. national security and economic competitiveness. The organization awards Other Transaction agreements to vendors to enable “dual-use hardware startups to advance key milestones in their product development by addressing the shortfall of private investment from trusted sources,” and “circumvent adversarial capital,” according to its website.

Key focus areas include tech related to autonomy, communications, power, sensors and space.

The position of ASD for critical technologies was established in 2023 as part of a reorganization within the R&E directorate — which oversees the development of next-generation capabilities for the U.S. military — in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

Maynard Holliday performed the duties of the position during the Biden administration but no one has ever been Senate-confirmed for the role.

Its responsibilities include establishing roadmaps to set the technical direction for the Defense Department and align industry, academia and international partners with DOD’s vision; identify and leverage “synergies” between critical technology areas “to amplify impact” for warfighters; raise the technical literacy of the workforce; keep a constant eye on the state-of-the-art; and recognize “the quickest route to critical technology, fast follow the commercial sector where appropriate, [and] take the lead when not,” according to the Pentagon.

The job holder has oversight of 11 principal directors focused on 5G; advanced computing and software, directed energy, human-machine interfaces, hypersonics, integrated network systems-of-systems, integrated sensing and cyber, microelectronics, renewable energy generation and storage, space, and AI and autonomy.

If confirmed, Dodd could end up working under Emil Michael, who Trump nominated to be the next undersecretary of defense for research and engineering. Michael — whose confirmation hearing is scheduled for Thursday — was previously a chief business officer at Uber, the ridesharing company, from 2013 to 2017. He has also been president of Technology Advisory and Consulting Services, chief operating officer of Klout, and special assistant to the secretary of defense.