Transportation’s tech chief Pavan Pidugu to depart in September

The chief digital and information officer of the Department of Transportation is resigning from his position effective Sept. 4, according to an email obtained by Nextgov/FCW.

Pavan Pidugu, who has been the CDIO at the agency since February 2025, sent the email Thursday announcing his departure to his staff and expressing gratitude for his colleagues and their work. He wrote that serving alongside “this incredible team for the past many years has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my career.”

“When we set out on this journey together, we shared a bold vision to fundamentally transform how technology serves the Department and the American public. Thanks to your hard work, dedication, and true builder mentality, we didn't just meet those expectations—we exceeded them,” the email continued.

Pidugu told Nextgov/FCW in August 2025 that he wanted to turn the Transportation IT shop into a place “where we build technology,” modernizing the agency amid the federal operations overhaul executed by the Department of Government Efficiency during the start of the second Trump administration. Pidugu led the crafting of the department’s “1DOT IT strategy,” which guided Transportation’s modernization agenda. 

He said in the Thursday email that, during his tenure, his office achieved “unprecedented milestones” in their tech policy efforts, including conducting a mass, agency-wide transition to Gmail software to achieve about 70% cost savings, creating the internal T-Cloud environment and pursuing long-term plans to migrate legacy IT infrastructure.

The contract between Transportation and Google through software reseller Carahsoft is particularly important, with a value ceiling of $89 million to bring the Google Workspace suite to the agency and build a “modern collaboration environment,” as Pidugu called it in his Thursday email. The department was able to leverage the software at discounted rates negotiated through the General Services Administration’s OneGov program.

“These accomplishments are a direct testament to your talent and your willingness to embrace a product-centric culture,” Pidugu wrote. “By working together, we have broken down historic silos to operate as a truly unified enterprise.”

In his email, Pidugu did not state his reason for resigning or who will take up his position after he leaves.

Over the course of the week, reports of at least three federal CIOs planning to depart their posts in the government have emerged. Federal CIO Greg Barbaccia is set to leave his role by the end of August, and the Department of the Interior CIO Paul “Macca” McInerny also stepped down from his position last week. Department of Housing and Urban Development CIO Eric Sidle has been tapped to take over leading the Interior tech shop.

Pidugu received a Federal 100 award this year for his work at the Transportation Department in 2025. 

GovExec Editor-in-Chief Frank Konkel contributed to this report.