DoW CIO Opens Nominations for the 26th Annual IT and Cyber Awards

Sept. 22, 2026 –

WASHINGTON - Today, Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the Department of War, Honorable Kirsten A. Davies announced the call for nominations for the 26th Annual DoW CIO Awards. Now in its 26th year, the prestigious program honors the individuals, teams, and strategic partners across the defense IT and cyber communities who advance innovation and operational excellence. Nominees are recognized for turning strategic visions into operational reality, delivering tangible advantages to forces at the tactical edge, and strengthening readiness, resilience, and lethality.

“We are transforming our technology ecosystem to empower our warfighters with data supremacy and decision dominance,” Davies said. “This awards program is our premier digital talent recognition event. It celebrates the outstanding achievements from within our ranks: the innovators, the risk-takers, and the visionary minds who are building a more lethal, resilient, and agile Joint Force.”

The DoW CIO seeks award nominations from individuals and teams who delivered exceptional results across the following strategic areas:

Building an Enduring Digital Foundation: Strengthening warfighter connectivity and hardening the technology infrastructure, from undersea cables and data centers to satellites to advanced cloud capabilities.
Delivering Agile Capabilities: Fielding software, applications, and analytics at the speedof relevance so forces have the tools to outpace any adversary.
A New Paradigm for Cybersecurity: Transforming cybersecurity into a unified, risk-driven warfighting function that shields the warfighting ecosystem.
Forging Our People and Partnerships: Building the cyber workforce through up-skillingand cross-skilling, and forging partnerships that amplify our strength.

Eligibility has been expanded to include DoW federal and strategic partners. The performance period for the awards is June 2025 through June 2026. Each Component may submit up to 12 nominations in any combination of individuals and teams. For nomination instructions and to submit, visit the DoW CIO Awards site. The deadline for nominations is October 30, 2026, 12:00 pm EST, and the finalists and winners will be announced in November.

Program Page: dowcio.war.gov/Awards

Program Questions: DoW-CIO-Annual-Awards@mail.mil

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At the Billington Cybersecurity Summit, @DeptofWar CIO Kirsten Davies discussed the challenges of network scale as we work to increase warfighter lethality. “When we think about this at scale, we have things that could break…so it’s not just one problem or the other, it’s a https://t.co/TRVcpyAT45

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DoW CIO Hon. Kirsten Davies took the stage with Alexis Bonnell of @OpenAI for a high-impact fireside chat at Billington Cybersecurity's record-breaking summit, discussing how @DeptofWar is modernizing and transforming its IT and cyber enterprise—cutting friction, delivering https://t.co/mzhWtfzV6s

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DoW CIO Opens Nominations for the 26th Annual IT and Cyber Awards

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