Dr. Amy E. Henninger was sworn in as the Director, Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E) on March 23, 2026. A Presidential appointee confirmed by the United States Senate, she serves as the senior advisor to the Secretary of Defense on operational and live fire test and evaluation of Department of War (DoW) weapon systems. In this position she is responsible for the oversight of all operational test and evaluation executed in the DoW, to include the independent evaluations of select acquisition programs cumulatively valued at over $3 trillion.
An established leader at the intersection of advanced technology and national security, Dr. Henninger’s three-decade career bridges federal service, the defense industrial base, and leading research institutions. Within the DoW, Dr. Henninger previously served as the first Senior Advisor for Software and Cybersecurity to DOT&E, where she was the Pentagon’s final technical authority for assessing these areas on major acquisition programs. Henninger also served as the Army's Modeling & Simulation Executive, providing leadership for its $10 billion M&S portfolio, and as a Defense Intelligence Senior Leader, where she guided a cross-agency team in developing the Defense Intelligence Agency's Digital Futures Strategy. Most recently, Dr. Henninger was the Senior Science Advisor for Advanced Computing at the Department of Homeland Security, shaping strategy and leading research in fields such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Cybersecurity, Quantum Information Science, and Modeling and Simulation.
Dr. Henninger's executive capability is further anchored by deep experience within the commercial technology sector and the national security innovation base. She has managed high-growth technology ventures, establishing and leading a successful P&L center for the AI start-up Soar Technology, Inc., where she expanded research operations by 400% under sponsorship DARPA and other government labs. As a Staff Scientist at SAIC, she co-led the development of a distributed virtual training system used to train over 1.5 million soldiers for combat. She later served as a member of the research staff at the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA), providing thought leadership and analysis to senior leaders across the national security enterprise.
Dr. Henninger’s operational and executive insights are built upon a strong academic foundation. She holds a Ph.D. in Computer Engineering with an emphasis in AI, alongside five other degrees across the mathematical, computing, engineering, social, and management sciences. Blending her deep academic knowledge of advanced technology and analytical skills with practical, hands-on expertise, she is a prolific contributor to the defense technical community. She has authored over 80 publications, taught university courses in computer science and AI, trained with the National Security Agency’s cyber red team, and received numerous awards for her work.