PNNL

Jerry Cochran serves as interim Associate Laboratory Director and Chief Digital Officer. In this role, Cochran helps steward Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s digital transformation journey, bringing innovations in computing to accelerate scientific discovery and mission, and differentiating PNNL as a globally recognized research institution.

Cochran's management, technical, strategy, and operational experiences span both government and private sector over his 30+ year technology and 25+ year cybersecurity career, working in startups and for industry leaders, like Compaq/HP, Microsoft, and the U.S. Department of Defense. His multidisciplinary expertise and background in network and systems engineering, software engineering, security architecture, compliance, strategy, security operations, and military cyber operations are directly relevant and impactful to PNNL’s cyber research, operations, and mission focus areas.

Prior to joining PNNL in 2017 as the chief information security officer, Cochran led security engineering at Microsoft in the Cloud & Enterprise Azure Security Division as well as prior roles leading Office 365 cloud security operations. He served as a cybersecurity architect, helping to build the first cybersecurity practice in Microsoft Consulting Services, and led the Global Security Strategy team in the Trustworthy Computing Group. Cochran also served as the Microsoft board member and officer with the Information Technology-Information Sharing and Analysis Center and was a founding member and executive committee member of the IT Sector Coordinating Council.

Culminating a 27-year United States Air Force career in 2011, Cochran retired as a chief master sergeant (E9), senior enlisted manager of the 262nd Network Warfare Squadron where he also served as a technical lead, conducting cyber operations around the world. Deployed to locations worldwide throughout his service career, he was initially a radar systems technician, until cross-training in the 1990s to become an early thought leader in military network warfare doctrine and mission capabilities. He was part of an eight-member team that established the first network warfare squadron in the United States Air Force, where he led the development of key mission capabilities in network security assessments/red teaming and industrial control systems security.

Cochran has authored various technical works, including over 200 electronic and print articles and two books for publication. He is a US patent holder for invention in cybersecurity. He holds a BS in engineering and technology management, an AS in electronics technology, and an AS in information systems technology. Cochran also currently holds the Certified Information Systems Security Professional, Certified Information Security Manager, and the Boardroom Qualified Technology Executive certifications.