OPM Gets New CIO from Pentagon

The Office of Personnel Management is hiring a new chief information officer.

The Defense Department's Principal Deputy CIO David DeVries is leaving that post to take OPM's top IT spot in the coming weeks, announced Tuesday.

» Get the best federal technology news and ideas delivered right to your inbox. Sign up here.

OPM Acting Director Beth Cobert said DeVries would continue OPM's "technology transformation efforts" and work with the Pentagon to create the National Background Investigations Bureau, a new agency that would be responsible for federal background checks in the aftermath of a massive cyber intrusion into OPM's background check records.

Though background checks will continue to be housed within OPM, DOD will build and operate the information systems that make up the system's backbone.

DeVries will still contribute his IT expertise to DOD, CIO Terry Halvorsen said in a statement. As OPM works with DOD, DeVries' role will be "ensuring integration" between the two groups and spreading what he learns from OPM to DOD and other agencies.

At DOD, DeVries' other projects included the effort to make Pentagon and Veterans Affairs Department electronic health records interoperable, and helping expand cloud and mobile adoption within the department.