Defense Digital Service — Bringing modern product design practices into high-security government systems

The Defense Digital Service operated within the Department of Defense's Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office, serving as a SWAT team of technologists deployed to solve critical technology problems across the military. The unit recruited engineers, designers, data scientists, and product managers from the private sector for term-limited tours of duty, bringing Silicon Valley practices into one of the world's largest and most complex organizations.

From April 2022 to May 2025, I worked across multiple modernization initiatives in high-security environments. The work spanned CUI and classified settings, meaning the specifics of individual projects cannot be shared publicly. The scope ranged from reimagining how service members interact with critical digital systems to designing tools that supported operational decision-making at scale.

How We Worked

DDS operated in product trios (a product manager, a user experience designer and researcher, and an engineer) aligned directly with user and mission needs. This model, embedded within a fully agile, human-centered process, empowered teams to move quickly while solving problems rather than just delivering features. The team was comprised mostly of civilians from the private sector serving two or four year limited terms, ensuring a constant influx of fresh ideas and a sense of urgency to maximize contributions to the DoD.

Types of Work

DDS work fell into three categories. Rapid capabilities were fast-response engagements where the team jumped in to solve urgent technical problems: supporting counter-unmanned aerial system efforts, running hackathons with Army units to improve force protection, and developing tools like Move.mil that saved the military thousands of hours annually. The team also ran experimental projects like Combee, a proof of concept that used large language models as a plain-language interface for controlling physical systems, demonstrating what was possible at the tactical edge. Cybersecurity efforts included Hack the Pentagon, the federal government's first bug bounty program, along with DNS security services and protection of critical infrastructure control systems. Technical assessments paired human-centered research with hands-on technical evaluation to help DoD organizations identify and solve the right problems.

AI Readiness

DDS led efforts to accelerate the DoD's adoption of artificial intelligence across five dimensions: opportunity discovery to identify high-impact use cases, data management to ensure quality and interoperability across systems, IT environment modernization for secure and scalable deployment, risk and governance frameworks for responsible AI, and adoption programs to train and empower DoD personnel. The team developed Axon, the DoD's first large-language model operations framework, and deployed the first LLM to a DoD High Performance Computing Center.

Design Challenges

The design challenges at DDS were distinct from the private sector. Users operated in environments with strict security constraints, limited connectivity, and legacy systems that couldn't simply be replaced. Success meant going where the work is, showing up to experience problems firsthand, understanding deeply entrenched workflows, and delivering solutions that worked within those constraints rather than around them. Every design decision had to balance usability with operational security requirements. DDS demonstrated that modern product design practices could transform even the most complex government systems by focusing on the people who actually use the technology.

Closure

DDS was dissolved in early 2025 as part of restructuring under the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The unit's mission and the work it accomplished over nearly a decade remain a testament to what's possible when you bring private-sector talent and modern practices into government.