The Defense Innovation Unit named Aditi Kumar deputy director of strategy, policy and national security partnerships and Kirstin Riesbeck its deputy director of people, finance and management.

The two senior executive service members will help bolster DIU’s projects and activities to support the National Defense Strategy, the organization said Friday.

Kumar’s role involves coordinating with the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and other leaders across the Department of Defense over policy, legislation and international and interagency collaborations. Prior to her appointment, Kumar was senior adviser to the DOD undersecretary for acquisition and sustainment.

In her new position, Riesbeck will oversee talent and budget management as well as business strategy and portfolio management. She will also be responsible for DIU’s critical acquisitions capability. She most recently served as DOD functional community manager and director of human capital and resource management at Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller).

“Their experience driving innovation at scale on a Department-wide level will be central to DIU 3.0,” said Doug Beck, DIU director and senior advisor to the secretary of defense. “Attracting talent that combines fluency in both commercial technology and national security impact is critical to DIU’s mission, and I could not be more excited about the team we are continuing to build to scale these efforts for the nation.”

MITRE has elevated two internal executives, Charles Clancy and Jay Schnitzer, to new positions.

Clancy, who currently serves as senior vice president and general manager of MITRE Labs, will additionally take on the role of chief technology officer while Schnitzer, senior vice president and chief medical officer at the company, will assume the role of corporate chief engineer, MITRE announced from its McLean, Virginia headquarters on Monday.

Jason Providakes, president and CEO of MITRE and a three-time Wash100 Award winner, emphasized the importance of science and technology in shaping the future of the United States in this period of global strategic competition.

Providakes said that Clancy will “leverage MITRE’s research activities to drive whole-of-nation impacts” for sponsors and collaborators spanning industry, academia and other nonprofit organizations in his new role.

Clancy’s responsibilities will include overseeing the MITRE independent research and development initiative as well as leading the science, technology and engineering workforce and extramural research functions.

He assumed his first position with MITRE, vice president for intelligence programs, in 2019 and took the helm of MITRE Labs the next year. He also co-founded SecureG, a MITRE company centering Internet of Things and 5G work, and currently serves as chairman of its board. Before joining MITRE, he was a Bradley Distinguished Professor of cybersecurity in Virginia Tech’s department of electrical and computer engineering. Earlier in his career, he spent a decade working within the National Security Agency.

Prior to this leadership transition, Schnitzer held the chief technology officer role for eight years. He joined the company in 2013 as director of MITRE’s Department of Health and Human Services portfolio. He previously headed the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s defense sciences office and spent more than 15 years as an attending pediatric surgeon and associate professor of surgery at multiple hospitals and Harvard Medical School.

Schnitzer will continue to serve as chief medical officer while monitoring technical quality and mission impact as well as encouraging technical staff development.

“Jay will ensure our work meets the high bar of technical excellence needed to help our federal sponsors succeed in their missions and will continue to advance our cancer and quantum computing R&D programs,” said Providakes.