As senior technical director in the Defense Group at Perspecta, Christian “Chris” Grijalva primarily focuses on the development and implementation of the National Background Investigation Services (NBIS) platform on behalf of the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA).

 

Grijalva leverages more than 20 years of enterprise information technology experience. His career began with the Department of Defense (DOD), where he supported the Gulf War (Operation Desert Shield/Operation Desert Storm) post-war operations and biometrically enabled access control systems for military bases across 12 countries as lead engineer. 

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Grijalva joined Perspecta in 2019 after three years as the chief technologist for a nonprofit that worked with state and federal agencies to develop programs, train and place wounded warriors in careers in the IT field. 

During his federal service with the DOD, Grijalva was selected by the CIO to lead the system analysis and threat mitigation efforts related to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) data breach. He led the architecture and implementation of the Identity Matching for Enterprise Security Analysis (IMESA) system. This system was developed and implemented in response to the directive and congressional mandates stemming from the Ft. Hood and Washington Navy Yard shooting incidents. 

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Additionally, Grijalva established the groundwork for the department’s pilot programs for the Director of National Intelligence, in support of the reform of the national security clearance process and technical capabilities. 

In 2009 Grijalva was named the division director of a newly formed line of business that consolidated all operational identity services and assumed responsibility for all globally deployed Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC) systems, including the Common Access Card (CAC) program, Defense Biometric Identification System (DBIDS/IACS) and the Non-Combatant Evacuation Operation Tracking System (NTS). When the earthquake and subsequent tsunami hit Japan in 2011, Grijalva and his team were called upon to manage the evacuation. 

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Grijalva earned a degree in international cyber forensics. He was named a 2016 Federal 100 winner and has won several information technology awards for work related to innovations with insider threat systems. These awards include the Outstanding IT Achievement from GCN; the Federal Innovation Award from Excellence.gov; and the Bold Innovation Award for IT Systems from Nextgov.com.