AFCEA/USNI WEST 2026

Damen Hofheinz
Deputy Chief Information Security Officer
Department of the Navy


Mr. Damen Hofheinz began his present Cyber Security position on the Department of Navy Chief Information Officer Staff in January 2021. He is a native of San Antonio, Texas and was commissioned through the Corps of Cadets at Texas A&M University in May 1994 with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering Technology Electronics. Prior to becoming a Department of Navy Civilian in June 2020, Mr. Hofheinz served for more than twenty-six years as an active duty Navy officer. His sea tours include Electrical and Ordnance Officer on USS LAKE ERIE (CG 70); Operations Officer on MCM Rotational Crew Bravo; Assistant Operations Officer, Destroyer Squadron Eighteen; Operations Officer on USS GONZALEZ (DDG 66); Operations Officer on USS AUSTIN (LPD 4); C4I Officer and Staff Director; Destroyer Squadron Two Six. He lateral transferred to the Information Professional Community in August 2005. Ashore, he served as the primary representative for the U.S. Fleet Forces Echelon II Chief Information Office coordinating issues for Cyber Asset Reduction with OPNAV N6 and Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) compliance with DON CIO; Executive Officer for the Multi-National Force-Iraq J6; Deputy for Information Assurance, U.S. Fleet Forces; N6 and Director Command Information Office, Naval Warfare Development Command; Current Operations Officer, Fleet Cyber Command and Cyber Policy and Resiliency Branch Head, OPNAV N2N6G. He was hand selected by the Under Secretary of the Navy to serve as the 1st Executive Director, Department of Navy Office of the CIO. From April 2018-October 2019, he performed the role as the Dept. of Navy Chief Information Officer, managed all staff operations and advised the Under Secretary on Cyber Security, Enterprise Architecture, Privacy, FOIA and IT Policy Compliance. He successfully advocated for resources in all of these areas resulting in deployment of cyber security tools across the Navy enterprise and in key pilots with DoD. In October 2019, he became the Deputy/Military Assistant to the Department of Navy CIO focused on driving strategy and support for the critical CIO programs, including Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC), 5G, Enterprise Cloud, Cyber, and Command, Control and Communications (C3). Following retirement in June 2020, he started his civilian career as the Director Naval Information Warfare Systems Command (NAVWAR) Washington Liaison Office. Mr. Hofheinz earned a master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School Space Systems Engineering curriculum and a master’s degree in National Resource Strategy from the National Defense University. He is the recipient of a 2020 Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association's Award for Military IT Leadership and a 2018 Federal 100 Award. His personal awards include the Legion of Merit, Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Meritorious Service Medal, Navy Commendation Medal and Navy Achievement Medals in addition to various campaign and unit awards.

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