Pentagon Zero Trust Lead to Leave Government, Join Private Sector
Randy Resnick, the Defense Department’s top zero trust official, will retire at the end of this week after nearly 40 years in federal service. He led the department’s framework for adopting zero trust cybersecurity across its networks and its effort to meet related requirements by fiscal 2027. Resnick is expected to join IGEL as field chief technology officer for government and critical industries.
Resnick will retire Friday after nearly 40 years in federal service. He moved to the Pentagon CIO office in January 2022 following more than three decades at NSA, where he was zero trust strategic lead, held senior cybersecurity innovation and information assurance engineering posts, and served as the first chief of NSA’s Red Team.
At NSA, he also helped build two zero trust testbed labs with DISA and Cyber Command. At DoD, he led the Zero Trust Portfolio Management Office and work to meet zero trust requirements by fiscal 2027. He is expected to become IGEL’s field CTO for government and critical industries.
Resnick’s exit could create a short-term leadership gap as the Pentagon works toward its fiscal 2027 zero trust goals. Military personnel, contractors, and agencies that follow DoD’s model may feel the effects if implementation timelines or coordination shift. His move to industry may also spread zero trust expertise across government-facing technology vendors, potentially influencing how critical sectors adopt similar security practices.