Full Name
Chris Mendoza
Job Title
Associate Chief Information Officer
Company
U.S. Department of Transportation
Speaker Bio
Chris Mendoza is the Associate Chief Information Officer for Infrastructure and Operations at the United States Department of Transportation (DOT). The Office of Infrastructure and Operations provides and manages the full range of enterprise-wide Information Technology (IT) services that enable DOT program offices to carry out their mission activities. These enterprise-wide IT services include Service Desk, End User, on-premises, and cloud infrastructure services, as well as mobile, voice, and all other infrastructure and platform IT offerings, including assistive technologies.
Chris has led teams that delivered, modernized, and transformed mission-critical IT services in the military, federal government, and private industry for over 20 years. He began his career as an Information and Communications Officer in the United States Air Force, where he supported Air Combat Command. He then moved to Headquarters Air Force and ended his service as a Presidential Communications Officer, directly supporting the President of the United States, Vice President, First Lady, and their senior staff. After ending his service, Chris transitioned to private industry providing strategic consulting, engineering, application and development, modernization, and transformation services to commercial, state, local, and federal clients.
Chris returned to public service, joining the General Service Administration (GSA), Office of GSA IT, Office of Acquisition IT Services. Chris implemented development, security, and operations (DevSecOps), agile, and human-centered design principles and transitioned all applications in his portfolio to a cloud-native and open-source architecture. He led the first production implementation of a Federal Acquisition Service (FAS) enterprise-wide Contract Acquisition Lifecycle Management System. Chris also led the $750 million FAS Chief Information Officer Modernization and Enterprise Transformation (COMET) multiple award acquisition that enabled new capabilities to accelerate FAS’s transformation initiatives. He implemented a COMET community framework that fosters open dialogue between industry, FAS, and GSA IT on technical and business strategy.
Chris holds various certifications, including a Project Management Professional (PMP) certification and SAFe certification awarded by Scaled Agilest Framework. He received a Bachelor of Science in Management Information Systems and a Bachelor of Arts in Photography from Barry University, Miami Shores, Florida, and a Master of Science in Management from Troy University, Troy, Alabama.
Chris has led teams that delivered, modernized, and transformed mission-critical IT services in the military, federal government, and private industry for over 20 years. He began his career as an Information and Communications Officer in the United States Air Force, where he supported Air Combat Command. He then moved to Headquarters Air Force and ended his service as a Presidential Communications Officer, directly supporting the President of the United States, Vice President, First Lady, and their senior staff. After ending his service, Chris transitioned to private industry providing strategic consulting, engineering, application and development, modernization, and transformation services to commercial, state, local, and federal clients.
Chris returned to public service, joining the General Service Administration (GSA), Office of GSA IT, Office of Acquisition IT Services. Chris implemented development, security, and operations (DevSecOps), agile, and human-centered design principles and transitioned all applications in his portfolio to a cloud-native and open-source architecture. He led the first production implementation of a Federal Acquisition Service (FAS) enterprise-wide Contract Acquisition Lifecycle Management System. Chris also led the $750 million FAS Chief Information Officer Modernization and Enterprise Transformation (COMET) multiple award acquisition that enabled new capabilities to accelerate FAS’s transformation initiatives. He implemented a COMET community framework that fosters open dialogue between industry, FAS, and GSA IT on technical and business strategy.
Chris holds various certifications, including a Project Management Professional (PMP) certification and SAFe certification awarded by Scaled Agilest Framework. He received a Bachelor of Science in Management Information Systems and a Bachelor of Arts in Photography from Barry University, Miami Shores, Florida, and a Master of Science in Management from Troy University, Troy, Alabama.
Speaking At
