Aiming to make it Easier for America's 20 Million Military Veterans

Charles Worthington, Chief Technology Officer, Office of Information &Technology, Department of Veterans Affairs

Charles Worthington, Chief Technology Officer, Office of Information &Technology, Department of Veterans Affairs

Charles Worthington is a software developer and product designer who has been helping the government adopt modern digital service delivery best practices since 2013. He is currently serving as the Chief Technology Officer at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs where he guides the agency’s technology strategy and leads a team of technical experts who use modern technology best practices improve VA’s services. He leads efforts to improve the experience Veterans have when interacting with VA online, to streamline benefits processing, to increase health data interoperability, to modernize VA’s data analysis capabilities, and to help OIT adopt modern engineering best practices.

Since joining VA in May 2017, he has guided VA’s Digital Modernization initiative, which resulted in the successful relaunch of the VA.gov homepage in November 2018 and the launch of VA’s flagship mobile app in 2021. His efforts include the development of the agency’s Digital Strategy, supporting VA’s adoption of commercial cloud infrastructure, supporting the transformation of VA.gov into a modern customer-facing platform, and driving engineering excellence across the Office of Information and Technology’s 1000+ products.

Prior to joining VA in May 2017, Charles helped create the U.S. Digital Service. Charles co-authored the Digital Services Playbook, led the recruiting effort for 150+ software engineers, designers and managers from top technology companies, and executed digital service engagements at USCIS, SBA, DOT, and Interior. Before his federal service, Charles built software products for private sector clients and was a strategy consultant in the tech & telecom sectors. In 2023, Charles taught a graduate-level course on digital government as an adjunct lecturer for public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Charles holds a B.A. from Harvard University.

Could you provide an overview of your role and responsibilities within the company?

I oversee VA’s digital modernization strategy, which aims to make it easier for America’s 20 million military Veterans to learn about, apply for, use, and manage the benefits they have earned. My office also oversees VA’s technical standards and strategy and runs our technical Innovation Unit.

“At VA, one key challenge is organizational alignment and how that translates into the customer experience.”

What are some of the key challenges you face?

At VA, one key challenge is organizational alignment and how that translates into the customerexperience. VA is big, with 400k+ employees, and its main functions are divided across many different program offices, each responsible for delivering an important Veteran service or benefit. This made it challenging for Veterans to navigate their health care and benefits, often requiring them to visit multiple websites to accomplish their goals. When we designed the VA Health and Benefits mobile app, we consolidated all the most common tasks in one single location, making it easy for Veterans to find and access their information and services. Basically, our digital experience team’s job is to make this “org chart” invisible to Veterans, and to create digital experiences that connect VA’s myriad services together.

What would you say are some of the futuristic trends that will have an impact in the next 18-24 months?

VA is exploring the potential large parameter models to provide ‘copilot’ features for many of our services and functions. I think in the next 24 months, we will see a maturing of the commercial products in this space targeting the health care industry, as well the creation of standards / frameworks for assessing when such models should be used in production in a safe and trustworthy way.

What advice would you give to young professionals who are interested in pursuing a similar career, and what qualities do you think are essential for success in this field?

I wish the tech industry had a stronger tradition of public service. Our government consists of Americans from all walks of life, with myriad skills and experiences, who all share a desire to make our country better. More people with technical skills should consider part of their career in public service, because people with these skills can have an enormous impact.For technologists considering public service, I’d encourage you to check out the VA! We are building the government’s best technology team, offer competitive pay and a rewarding, fun, and diverse work environment where you get to work on problems that matter every day of the year.

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