Dr. Sawyer entered Government Service in July 1996. His career began with the US Army within the military intelligence corps. While on active duty, Dr. Sawyer spent time in over two dozen countries as a Non-Commissioned Officer with the green berets in 10th Special Forces Group. As Dr. Sawyer transitioned to civilian life, he began a career with the Navy at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. Working through the ranks, he gained firsthand experience from blue-collar technician to Chief Test Engineer for Weapons Systems at Naval base Point Loma. In this capacity, he was responsible for senior oversight of all Weapons System Testing and certification at NBPL for major ship conversions and maintenance availabilities aboard ships and nuclear submarines.

Dr. Sawyer was selected for the NAVSEA Commander’s Executive fellowship Program in 2017 and was provided the opportunity to work in diverse offices around the Navy to create an executive perspective on the Navy’s unmanned systems portfolio. This experience included program office management of the Unmanned Underwater Vehicle programs at PEO USC, prototype and in-service engineering management at NUWC Newport in the Unmanned Undersea Vehicles Division, experience with the Office of Naval Research and USINDOPACOM as a Deputy Science Advisor for all domains and services S&T efforts in the Pacific theater. In this role, he streamlined a 600-million-dollar S&T portfolio to align and prioritize efforts of joint services to the Indo-Pacific theater campaign objectives.

In 2019, Dr. Craig P. Sawyer began service with OPNAV N9 as the Science Advisor for the Director of Integrated Warfare. In this position, he serves as the N9I Portfolio Lead for all Naval Unmanned, Robotic and AI Systems. His primary efforts work to align and guide technology and resources into focus through the strategic 30-year picture balancing investments, studies, war games, exercises and experimentation related to Unmanned Systems across the Naval resource sponsors and domain leads. Dr. Sawyer’s efforts led to the Department of the Navy Unmanned Campaign Framework, he established the DoN Unmanned Task Force under the VCNO, and established a joint venture of the Navy’s first ever Disruptive Capabilities Office in 2023 as the interim stand up Deputy Director.

Most recently, Dr. Sawyer is serving as the Chief of Staff for the first ever Office of Strategic Assessment, providing comprehensive and timely assessment of strategic initiatives across the Navy and Marine Corps teams. The office is a direct report to the Secretary of the Navy on strategic priorities.

Career Chronology:
• Office of the SECNAV – Office of Strategic Assessment, Chief of Staff (Current)
• NATO NNAG – Joint Capabilities Group Maritime Unmanned Systems, Chairman (Current)
• OPNAV VCNO – DoN Disruptive Capabilities Office, Deputy Director
• OPNAV N9 – DoN Unmanned Task Force, Deputy Director
• OPNAV N9I – Science Advisor to the Navy Director of Integrated Warfare (N9I)
• INDOPACOM – Deputy Science Advisor to INDOPACOM
• Naval Undersea Warfare Center Newport - Special Projects Lead & Senior Data Analyst
• PEO Unmanned and Small Combatants – Senior Program Analyst
• Naval Base Point Loma, Detachment – Chief Test Engineer
• Portsmouth Naval Shipyard – Nuclear Electronics Technician
• US Army 10th Special Forces Group – Non-Commissioned Officer

College:
• Doctorate of Engineering, May 2022, George Washington University
• Masters of Engineering, Dec 2019, Pennsylvania State University
• Bachelors of Science, Dec 2016, University of Southern Maine

Significant Training & Certifications:
• Graduate Certificate in Disruptive Innovation, Harvard
• Graduate Certificate in Strategy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Graduate Certificate in Executive Leadership, Duke
• Graduate Certificate in Congressional Affairs, Georgetown University
• Executive Certificate in Data Analytics, Cornell