Mr. John Kirchhofer

John Kirchhofer became the chief of staff for DIA in June 2021. As DIA’s third ranking officer, he exercises an exceptionally wide and complex range of responsibilities to guide and direct strategies, operations, policy, and communications for the enterprise.

Prior to this appointment, Kirchhofer was DIA’s director for Mission Services. In this capacity, he led Agency efforts in providing critical support for the Agency’s intelligence operations, specifically in the areas of logistics, facilities, deployments, security, human resources and medical services. He simultaneously served as the Office Management and Infrastructure Career Field manager within DIA’s talent management system. Before this assignment, Kirchhofer was the director of the Academy for Defense Intelligence, and responsible for the professional development of the DIA workforce.

Kirchhofer began his career as a Department of the Army civilian with assignments at the U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command, 902d Military Intelligence Group, and Army G-2. He served as a planner, programmer, reports officer, information security specialist and collection manager.

In 2003, he joined the Counterintelligence Field Activity, which merged with DIA in 2008. In April 2010, Kirchhofer was appointed to the Defense Intelligence Senior Level as the chief of enterprise strategies, Office of Counterintelligence and HUMINT Enterprise Management. In that capacity, he oversaw strategic planning, performance, lessons learned and functional management.

Kirchhofer was assigned as deputy of the Information Review Task Force in 2010, which was established by the secretary of defense in response to one of the largest compromises of military intelligence in history. He received a National Intelligence Exceptional Achievement medal for his efforts.

He was appointed to the Defense Intelligence Senior Executive Service in 2012 with duty as deputy chief, DIA Office of Counterintelligence, overseeing analysis, operations and strategies focused on detection and neutralization of foreign intelligence threats.

From 2013 to 2016, Kirchhofer served as the deputy and then chief financial officer for DIA, charged with managing the General Defense Intelligence Program and the DIA Military Intelligence Program, and overseeing all Agency and combatant command J2 acquisition and financial matters. During this period, he led the Agency through the first independent audit of its financial statement.

Kirchhofer earned a bachelor's degree in international relations and European studies from George Mason University, and a master's degree in international affairs from the George Washington University.