Second tech deputy splits from Defence's CIO group

The Department of Defence has lost a second deputy in its chief information officer group (CIOG) in just four months.

A spokesperson confirmed ICT delivery head Paul Cazaz “separated” from the department last month after two-and-a-half years at CIOG.

The departure comes just two months after chief technology officer Aiyaswami Mohan left Defence CIOG to “pursue other opportunities”.

Cazaz joined Defence in February 2017 after more than seven years at NAB to look after the full portfolio of IT projects run out of CIOG.

The division is responsible for acquiring new tech capability, engaging with industry, and heading up the all-important consolidation of applications within Defence single information environment.

Before the appointment, Defence had spent more than a year and two recruitment attempts trying to fill the senior executive service level two bracket role.

CIOG’s five-member leadership team now consists of only three permanent members, with former enterprise technology operations head Justin Keefee stepping up as acting CTO in the interim.

Defence is planning to recruit a “substantive replacement” for Cazaz, but has no timeframe for when this might occur. No interim replacement has been appointed.

Earlier this month Defence was hit by a major outage to its protected-level internal network resulting from upgrades to its IT infrastructure.