Doug Cossa
Chief Information Officer
Defense Intelligence Agency
Mr. Douglas Cossa was appointed as the Chief Information Officer of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) in July 2021. As CIO, Mr. Cossa leads a global organization of more than 4,000 staff and $1 billion in resources, providing the complete spectrum of Information Technology services to the Agency and broader Intelligence Community. He is also charged with overseeing the Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System—the federal government’s Top Secret intelligence network.
Prior to this position, Mr. Cossa served for three years as DIA’s Deputy CIO after previously serving as the Deputy Director of the Mission Integration Division in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Mr. Cossa was promoted to the Senior Executive Service in 2015.
As the Deputy Director of MID, Mr. Cossa led the integration of collection, analysis, and IT capabilities to satisfy intelligence priorities. He served as the Senior Executive charged with overseeing the development of analytic tradecraft for data science, developing an interagency strategy to establish a new National Vetting Center and providing technical and programmatic oversight of mission-critical capabilities under the IC’s Information Technology Enterprise. He also co-chaired the IT modernization board for the President’s Daily Brief overseeing the integration of new capabilities for joint analytic production.
Prior to serving as the Deputy Director of MID, Mr. Cossa served as the Chief of the Priorities and Assessments Group (PAG) in the ODNI where he led the President’s Intelligence Priorities, the National Intelligence Priorities Framework, and reforms to sensitive intelligence collection defined by Presidential Policy Directive-28 following unauthorized disclosures. Mr. Cossa also served as Chairman of the Board of Governors for the Library of National Intelligence to enhance intelligence discoverability and sharing. Prior to this assignment, Mr. Cossa managed the Planning phase of the Intelligence Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Evaluation process within ODNI’s Policy & Strategy directorate. He also led the needs analysis function for major system acquisitions within the Systems and Resource Analysis directorate.
Before joining the ODNI, Mr. Cossa worked at the Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) where he was the senior program manager for the National Media Exploitation Center's overseas operations. He led staff deployed to support document and media exploitation operations in Qatar, Iraq, and Afghanistan, primarily involving cellular exploitation, computer forensics, document exploitation, and linguistics. While at SAIC, he also served as the program manager for systems engineering and technical assistance contracts at the ODNI. 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 and his wife have two daughters and reside in Leesburg, Virginia.
Prior to this position, Mr. Cossa served for three years as DIA’s Deputy CIO after previously serving as the Deputy Director of the Mission Integration Division in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Mr. Cossa was promoted to the Senior Executive Service in 2015.
As the Deputy Director of MID, Mr. Cossa led the integration of collection, analysis, and IT capabilities to satisfy intelligence priorities. He served as the Senior Executive charged with overseeing the development of analytic tradecraft for data science, developing an interagency strategy to establish a new National Vetting Center and providing technical and programmatic oversight of mission-critical capabilities under the IC’s Information Technology Enterprise. He also co-chaired the IT modernization board for the President’s Daily Brief overseeing the integration of new capabilities for joint analytic production.
Prior to serving as the Deputy Director of MID, Mr. Cossa served as the Chief of the Priorities and Assessments Group (PAG) in the ODNI where he led the President’s Intelligence Priorities, the National Intelligence Priorities Framework, and reforms to sensitive intelligence collection defined by Presidential Policy Directive-28 following unauthorized disclosures. Mr. Cossa also served as Chairman of the Board of Governors for the Library of National Intelligence to enhance intelligence discoverability and sharing. Prior to this assignment, Mr. Cossa managed the Planning phase of the Intelligence Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Evaluation process within ODNI’s Policy & Strategy directorate. He also led the needs analysis function for major system acquisitions within the Systems and Resource Analysis directorate.
Before joining the ODNI, Mr. Cossa worked at the Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) where he was the senior program manager for the National Media Exploitation Center's overseas operations. He led staff deployed to support document and media exploitation operations in Qatar, Iraq, and Afghanistan, primarily involving cellular exploitation, computer forensics, document exploitation, and linguistics. While at SAIC, he also served as the program manager for systems engineering and technical assistance contracts at the ODNI. 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 and his wife have two daughters and reside in Leesburg, Virginia.
