Douglas Cossa
Douglas Cossa serves as the Acting Intelligence Community (IC) Chief Information Officer (CIO) and the primary Information Technology (IT) advisor to the Director of National Intelligence. In this role, he ensures integrated system architectures across IC elements, oversees the acquisition and performance of technology programs, and directs all IC information-security policies and practices for national security systems.
Previously, Mr. Cossa served as the CIO for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) from July 2021 to January 2025, after three years as the Deputy CIO. As DIA’s CIO, he led a global organization of more than 4,000 staff and $1 billion in resources to provide IT services across the IC and DoD, including the Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System (JWICS).
Prior to DIA, Mr. Cossa held several leadership roles at the ODNI. As Director of the Mission Integration Division, he oversaw collection, analysis, and mission IT capabilities, to include serving as Co-Chair of the IT modernization board for the President’s Daily Briefing. As Chief of Priorities and Assessments, he led the President’s Intelligence Priorities, the National Intelligence Priorities Framework, and reforms to sensitive intelligence collection. Additionally, he was a plankholder for establishing the Intelligence Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Evaluation system and led the needs analysis function for Major System Acquisitions in the ODNI’s Policy and Capabilities Directorate.
Before joining ODNI, Mr. Cossa worked at Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) as the Senior Program Manager for the National Media Exploitation Center’s overseas operations. He led personnel deployed to the Middle East to support operations involving cellular exploitation, computer forensics, document exploitation, and linguistics. Mr. Cossa started at SAIC as a database administrator, software developer, and systems architect supporting the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.
Mr. Cossa holds a bachelor's degree in Computer Information Systems from James Madison University and a master's degree in Systems Engineering from the Johns Hopkins University. He was promoted to the Senior Executive Service in 2015 and is a recipient of the National Intelligence Superior Service Medal (2019) and Presidential Rank Award (2025).