Brad E. Ferguson

Brad E. Ferguson

Former Deputy Chief Software Officer

Mr. Brad Ferguson, is currently serving as the Deputy, Chief Software Office under Mr. Nicolas Chaillan, Secretary of the Air Force’s Chief Software Officer, Arlington, VA. Responsible for enabling the CSO efforts with Air Force programs in the transition to Agile and DevSecOps to establish force-wide Digital Air Force capabilities and tactics, tools and procedures, including continuous Authority to Operate (c-ATO) processes and faster streamlined technology adoption.

The Chief Software Office works with the Program Executive Officers (PEOs) and is responsible for analyzing current software and cloud migration plans to avoid vendor lock-ins while allowing for rapid prototyping and a streamlined process for deployment. To keep up with the pace of technology, the CSO evaluates and authorizes new commercially available off-the-shelf software and cloud-related technologies to help with their adoption across various AF programs based on their mission needs.

Mr. Ferguson is dual hatted* as the Chief, Acquisition Excellence and Change-Management Office (AECO), and is designated as the Acquisition Master Process Officer (MPO).  Responsible for establishing Continuous Process Improvement (CPI) enterprise goals, objectives and measures. In addition, he implements acquisition change management, crafts strategic communications for the Acquisition CPI enterprise.  Integrating lessons learned, audit/study recommendations and emergent enterprise priority pivots into AECO engagement strategies; as well as development of the AF Acquisition Process Model (APM).  He is also designated as the DoD lead for AF Value Engineering (VE).

Mr. Ferguson served in the regular Air Force and in the AF Reserve as traditional reservist, an air reserve technician and as an individual mobilization augmentee.  His military assignments in the Command and Control (C2) arena included Element, Flight, Squadron, Group, Wing, Airlift Division, Major Command, Joint Task Force, Headquarters AF and Secretary of the Air Force echelons of command, covering five different MAJCOM missions.  As a Command Chief, he was nominated as the Senior Enlisted Advisor to advise each of the Active Duty, Reserve and Air National Guard respective component General Officers within the Air Force Total Force Continuum office, on enlisted equities across all Air Force mission sets. He culminated his 33year military career in the TF-C office, where he was instrumental in the Air Force institutionalization of recommendations provided by the National Commission on the Structure of the Air Force.

Federal Career Chronology:

  • December 2019 – Present – Deputy, Air Force Chief Software Office, Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics, the Pentagon, Arlington, Virginia
  • May 2019-Present* Chief, Acquisition Excellence and Change-Management Office (AECO), Deputy Assistant Secretary for Acquisition Integration, Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, the Pentagon, Arlington, Virginia.
  • June 2016-May 2019 (Military Activation) Chief, Total Force Continuum Enlisted Forces, AF Director of Staff, Integration, Pentagon, Arlington, Virginia
  • January 2011-June 2016* Chief, Acquisition Excellence and Change-Management Office (AECO), Deputy Assistant Secretary for Acquisition Integration, Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, the Pentagon, Arlington, Virginia.
  • February 2010-January 2011  (Military Activation) Superintendent, Acquisition Excellence and Change-Management Office (AECO), Deputy Assistant Secretary for Acquisition Integration, Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, the Pentagon, Arlington, Virginia.
  • March 2008-February 2010 (Military Activation) Superintendent, Directorate of Plans and Programs, Program
    Integration Division (AF/A8PE), HQ Air Force, Pentagon, Arlington, Virginia.
  • May 1986-March 2008 (Military Active, Reserve) Command and Control (C2) Leadership Positions, World-wide Locations

Military Education:

  • A.A.S. Computer Information Systems Management, CCAF – Maxwell, Al
  • 1989 NCO Preparatory School, Lowry AFB, CO.
  • 1990 NCO Leadership School, Lowry AFB, CO.
  • 1997 AFRC NCO Leadership and Development, Peterson AFB, CO.
  • 1997 NCO Academy, Maxwell AFB, Al.
  • 2008 Senior NCO Academy, Maxwell AFB, Al.
  • 2010 Reserve Component National Security Course, National Defense University, Fort McNair, VA.
  • 2011 AFRC Senior NCO Leadership Course, Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, NJ.
  • 2012 Senior Enlisted Joint Professional Military Education, National Defense University,
  • 2012 Chief Orientation Course, Robins AFB, GA.
  • 2012 Expeditionary Mission Support Group Leadership Course, Air Force Expeditionary Center, Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, NJ.
  • 2014 AFRC Command Chief Orientation Course; Robins AF, GA.
  • 2014 Air Force Command Chief Orientation (Evaluating), Randolph AFB, TX.

Civilian Education:

  • 2011 Center for Executive Excellence, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tenn.
  • 2011 Continuous Process Improvement Green Belt Certification, Secretary of the Air Force, Acquisitions, Rosslyn, VA.
  • 2012 Continuous Process Improvement Black Belt Certification, Secretary of the Air Force, Acquisitions, Rosslyn, VA.
  • 2012 Acquisition Leadership Challenge Program, (ALCP), Atlanta, Ga.
  • 2012 Value Engineering, Secretary of the Air Force, Acquisitions, Rosslyn, Va.