Defence's chief technology officer Peter Alexander has retired from the Australian public service after a 31-year stint spanning multiple government departments and agencies.
Department of Defence
“I’ve had 31 great years working with amazing people on meaningful tasks,” Alexander wrote in a LinkedIn post.
“Thanks to all the many people I’ve worked with, [and to] all the friends I’ve made in government, industry and academia. I hope I left it better than I found it.”
Alexander spent the past two years as Defence CTO, after joining Defence in December 2021 as its first assistant secretary of the ICT delivery division.
He took the CTO reins in November 2023, when the department’s ICT function was restructured.
Then CTO Justin Keefe moved to become first assistant secretary of digital capability, before leaving Defence in November 2024 to join the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.
iTnews understands that Defence is looking to appoint a permanent CTO and that interim acting arrangements are in place.
A Defence spokesperson would not say who is acting in the CTO role.
During Alexander’s time as CTO, the department worked towards IT modernisation and building its internal capability, coinciding with a broader government push to diminish reliance on contractors and outsourcing.
Technology was listed as one of the four job families in the department’s 2024-2025 annual report [pdf] that Defence was targeting to bring core work in-house.
In February, Alexander highlighted Defence's success in recruitment of technology talent for in-house roles.
Prior to working at Defence, Alexander was deputy chief executive of the Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) and chief information officer of Commonwealth Treasury.
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