SAIC hires former Air Force CIO Knausenberger
Then-Air Force Chief Information Officer Lauren Knausenberger greets 8th Communications Squadron leadership at Kunsan Air Base in South Korea on Sept. 27, 2022. U.S. Air Force Photo by Senior Airman Shannon Braaten
By
Ross Wilkers
Knausenberger will be one of two new executive vice presidents to join Science Applications International Corp. as the company prepares for a new CEO to start.
Science Applications International Corp. has hired a new chief innovation officer in Lauren Knausenberger, the former chief information officer for the Air Force and leader of its approximately 20,000-person cyber operations and support organization.
Knausenberger will be one of two new executive vice presidents to join SAIC with the second being Tim Turitto, who will work as chief of staff to CEO-elect Toni Townes-Whitley when she starts in the role on Oct. 2.
SAIC said Thursday that Knausenberger will also lead SAIC's corporate strategy and innovation functions, with the current chief technology officer and innovation factory teams reporting to her. Turitto will oversee several other corporate functions to include business enablement, program execution and infrastructure.
In her role as Air Force CIO, Knausenberger was responsible for the service branch's IT investment strategy and prioritization of resources in technology. She founded and led the consulting and venture capital firm Acceilint prior to joining the Air Force, and before that worked in senior positions at CACI International and the former American Management Systems.
Turitto's seven-year tenure at Microsoft coincided with that of Townes-Whitley, who led the software giant's U.S. regulated industries business that includes public sector for six years up until the fall of 2021.
He led the standup of the $15 billion-annual revenue regulated industries unit. Before that, Turitto led operations for what was the $5 billion-sales federal government subsidiary.
Most notably, he led the team responsible for capturing the Defense Department's highly debated and later-cancelled JEDI cloud infrastructure contract.