Sutton Named Chief Information Officer at Newport News

America’s largest military shipbuilding company Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) announced on Friday that Jason Sutton has been promoted to chief information officer for its Newport News Shipbuilding division, effective June 21.

Sutton will be responsible for all aspects of information technology to enable Newport News to establish IT priorities and meet strategic objectives. Sutton will guide the day-to-day leadership of all information systems, while ensuring the appropriate alignment to enterprise cybersecurity and IT goals. Additionally, he will lead the HII enterprise cybersecurity and IT organizational and leadership change model to build high-performing teams.

Sutton will report to Bharat Amin, HII’s executive vice president and chief information officer, for cybersecurity and IT-related activities and also will have reporting responsibilities to Jennifer Boykin, president of Newport News Shipbuilding.

“Jason’s experience will better help us bring the three HII divisions together to create a force multiplier of people, processes and tools that mature our cybersecurity operations, create efficiencies and reduce cost, and deliver secure and reliable information to the right people at the right time,” Amin said. “His experience and expertise will further strengthen our position as a top solution provider to our customers.”

“Jason brings two-plus decades of IT leadership to this position. As we accelerate the pace of our digital transformation, Jason’s experience in steel fabrication and assembly will prove valuable as we progress our work on the aircraft carrier Enterprise (CVN 80), the first aircraft carrier that will be built completely in a digital environment,” Boykin said. “I am confident that Jason’s new role will enable best practices that will drive business efficiencies.”

Sutton joined Newport News in 2018 as director of operations integration, where he played a significant role in the company’s efforts to transition multiple trades and programs to digital shipbuilding. He currently serves as program director for steel fabrication and assembly responsible for steel fabrication, submarine and carrier structural assembly, and special paint and treatment activities.

In this new role, Sutton will succeed Brian Fields, vice president of business transformation and chief transformation officer who is transitioning to vice president of the aircraft carriers Enterprise (CVN 80) and Doris Miller (CVN 81).

Sutton graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1993, and served more than 24 years in various Air Force strategic and tactical leadership roles in cyberspace operations and IT. He retired in 2018 as director of communications and CIO for Air Combat Command, where he oversaw cyberspace and communications policy, resource advocacy and program management supporting 94,000 active-duty and civilian personnel worldwide.  

Sutton also holds masters’ degrees in organizational leadership from Regent University and engineering management from the Air Force Institute of Technology.