Osterholz to leave Defense
BAE Systems hired John Osterholz, who will leave his position as DOD's top architecture and interoperability official.
The Defense Department's top architecture and interoperability official will leave his position in early March.
John Osterholz confirmed that he will retire from federal government next month. Osterholz will take a position with defense contractor BAE Systems, according to an industry official.
The departure will mark another significant change in the top ranks of DOD's IT shop. John Stenbit, the department's CIO, is expected to retire once his replacement, Francis Harvey, is confirmed by the Senate.
As director of architecture and interoperability in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Networks and Information Integration and Chief Information Officer, Osterholz oversaw the release of the department's new architecture policy in November. With Marian Cherry, he managed DOD's Quantum Leap exercise in August that tested making data and intelligence more quickly available to warfighters.
Osterholz also helped oversee the planning of the almost $900 million Global Information Grid-Bandwidth Expansion program and award of the GIG-BE fiber and equipment contracts in October and December.
He has also served as the director of the C4I Integration Support Activity, a deputy director of the Defense Information Systems Agency, the Joint Interoperability Test Command and the director of the Military Satellite Office where he was responsible for the development of the Milsatcom capabilities for joint and coalition operations.