Susan Davenport

Susan Davenport (SES) currently serves as the Chief Data and Artificial Intelligence Officer in the Department of the Air Force, Office of the Chief Information Officer. Davenport develops and implements strategies for enterprise data management, analytics, digital transformation, and responsible/ethical artificial intelligence to optimize performance and drive innovation in and across the Department of the Air Force.

Before her current position, Davenport served as the Senior Advisor for Defense Innovation in the Concepts Development and Management Office, where she was responsible for creating and implementing innovative capabilities, identifying optimized strategies, and determining operational efficacy.

Davenport previously spent 16 years at the National Reconnaissance Office in various roles. She was Deputy Chief Engineer, Systems Engineering Directorate, where she led end-to-end closure, risk, readiness, schedule, and requirement activities for the NRO enterprise. As Director, Advanced Systems and Technology Directorate, Research Ground Group, she focused on leveraging Small Sat ground systems, AI capabilities, and residual space assets to deliver new disruptive technologies for the DoD and IC. She also was Director, Customer Group, Communications Directorate where she managed all aspects of a billion-dollar Future Years Defense Program (FYDP) portfolio including the National Reconnaissance Commercial Cloud Services (C2S), the Agency Unique on premise infrastructure, and management of the NRO’s data centers. Ms. Davenport was Director for two mission centers in Ground Enterprise Directorate and was a key contributor in the stand-up of the NRO’s Future Ground Architecture.

Davenport also had a successful military career, starting as active-duty Air Force in 1989 as a Signals Intelligence Collector, commissioning as a Communication and Information Officer, and retiring in 2013.

She earned her Master degree in Telecommunications Engineering from George Mason University and completed graduate studies at Virginia Tech, Defense Acquisition University, and Harvard Kennedy School.