Pentagon AI chief departing to work on Golden Dome effort

Principal Deputy CDAO Andrew Mapes will lead the Defense Department’s AI hub in an acting capacity until a new CDAO is hired.

By Brandi Vincent

December 17, 2025

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Dr. Douglas Matty, then-Army Artificial Intelligence Task Force Director, spoke to Association of the United States Army annual meeting attendees during the October 13, 2021 Army Advanced Technologies (Cloud and Data) Warriors Corner event at Washington, D.C.'s Walter E. Washington Convention Center. (Photo by Edward Loomis)

Douglas Matty is exiting his role as the Pentagon’s chief digital and artificial intelligence officer and moving on to focus on the Trump administration’s “Golden Dome for America” missile defense initiative, DefenseScoop has learned.

Congress was sent notification regarding the move this week and the Defense Department is expected to announce its plans on Wednesday.

Principal Deputy CDAO Andrew Mapes will lead the department’s AI hub in an acting capacity until a new CDAO is hired.

Ahead of reaching full operational capacity in 2022, the AI-accelerating office merged and integrated multiple technology-focused predecessor organizations at the Pentagon, including the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC), Defense Digital Service (DDS), Office of the Chief Data Officer, and the Maven and Advana programs.

The DOD’s vision and priorities for the CDAO have been reconfigured several times since its inception. And while AI is a major priority for the U.S. government under President Donald Trump, the Pentagon’s CDAO office has seen an exodus of senior leaders and other technical employees this year.

Matty’s departure also comes as the office is hustling to execute on a range of DOD-wide efforts to speed up the delivery and fielding of data analytics, automation, computer vision, machine learning and other next-generation AI capabilities for military and civilian personnel. Last week, Pentagon leaders unveiled a new purpose-built platform — GenAI.mil — to provide commercial options directly to most of its workforce on their desktops.

A West Point Graduate who had a 30-year career as a commissioned officer in the Army, Matty was tapped in April as the first official to lead the CDAO on a permanent basis under the second Trump administration. For his next job, he’ll support Golden Dome, a high-priority Pentagon pursuit to deploy a next-generation missile defense system to shield the U.S.

In August, senior DOD leaders revealed that the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, led by Emil Michael, was taking over the “authority, direction, and control” of the CDAO.

In response to questions from DefenseScoop last week about Matty’s status and the office’s path ahead, Michael said: “I wasn’t there in the building until May 20, right? So I don’t have a long history — except from the outside. But the [CDAO] had some excitement around it, and there were some great engineers there. But because it wasn’t moving to capability, a lot of the good talent left. So I’m trying to rebuild talent and it’s really hard right now, because if you’re sophisticated in AI, there’s a lot of money to be made in private industry. So how do I attract these people? It’s by trying to convince them that the mission is important. They’re going to learn a lot. They’re going to have a great impact.”