Yemi Oshinnaiye was appointed Chief Information Officer for the Transportation Security Administration in May 2022. Since then he has become a spokesperson for innovation, transformation, and technological advancement, and an example of how government IT can meet its current challenges. His oversight of IT enables TSA to provide world-class security for the American traveling public, while ensuring the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of TSA data and resources. It is his responsiveness to mission needs and his passion for solving problems that have him blazing the trails of AI, open architecture, and how IT can facilitate better security and detection while adapting to meet the needs of the field.
Oshinnaiye approaches IT with a strategic mindset, ensuring development and operations are agile and responsive to mission needs. He believes deeply in collaboration – a mindset that is critical to managing and organizing multiple teams working on achieving a mission goal. He is not afraid to open things up and get the best minds working around different facets of a challenge. He’s also focused on meeting the frontline officers where they are. All of us use our mobile phones as our computers – Oshinnaiye is making sure that this is true for transportation security officers, too. Allowing TSOs, inspectors, and compliance officers to have mobile access to do their jobs better and faster is high on his list. Oshinnaiye is also looking at how the personnel structure within his operations supports his vision. For example, he is looking at creating a Chief Data Officer – Chief Technology Officer combination to find people who understand both areas and how they converge. Oshinnaiye looks at both industry and government to find the best model and possibly implement it at TSA.
Previously, Oshinnaiye held the role of Deputy Chief Information Officer for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) for three years. Before time in the private sector as Chief Technology Officer for Dev Technology, he served as Chief of the Enterprise Infrastructure Division at USCIS. His love of problem solving and deep understanding of every aspect of IT — coding, databases, security, infrastructure, quality assurance — allow him to “see” a new future and how it could actually work. This is allowing him to vision and deliver: two qualities that are often housed in two different people. He takes time to create from the user up – sitting with users to figure out the proper answer then fixing the policy as they go. Oshinnaiye is leading TSA – and government broadly – into a new era where technology is integrated into newly created structures that can respond to any crisis in record time.