Eileen Wrubel
Software Engineering Institute
Eileen Wrubel serves as the Technical Director of the Transforming Software Acquisition Practice and Policy Directorate at Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute (CMU SEI). She is responsible for coordinating the strategic planning and tactical execution of the SEI's initiatives to power bolder, faster, and more adaptive acquisition, modernization, and sustainment of software-enabled capability. Her directorate integrates a unique combination of expertise in software acquisition, engineering, and measurement with technical research across the SEI. This integration serves to drive evidence-based evolution of policies and practices across the entire software acquisition lifecycle and to accelerate the speed of adoption of software innovation for the Department of Defense (DoD) and government agencies.
In her 21 years with the SEI, Wrubel has worked with many DoD and federal acquisition programs, as well as with organizations at all levels of the DoD, providing advice and assistance on software-related issues in several different roles. Wrubel served as the SEI delegate to the U.S. Air Force Software Improvement Program Working Group, and she’s also been called on to provide expert advice and analysis to Congressionally chartered panels investigating reforms in DoD acquisition. Before becoming a technical director, Wrubel led the SEI’s Agile in Government practice, where she conducted policy analysis and provided implementation guidance to multiple DoD programs and executives to achieve the DoD’s goal of modernizing its software practices. In that role, Wrubel helped launch the DoD’s Section 873 and 874 Agile Pilot programs under the FY18 National Defense Authorization Act to serve as pathfinders for larger-scale Agile adoption.
Before joining the SEI, Wrubel served in software project and program management positions at firms that specialized in freight carrier network optimization, telecommunications platforms, and content delivery networks. She also worked in a U.S. Air Force acquisition program office and served six years in the Air National Guard as a Communications and Information Officer.
Wrubel is active in numerous professional organizations and contributes to the software community through her efforts to expand the presence of women in technical fields. She launched the SEI's Women in Software & Cybersecurity Podcast series, and she participated as an inaugural member of the Women on the Rise leadership program at CMU’s Tepper School of Business. Wrubel serves as a mentor in both the Pittsburgh Technology Council’s L.A.U.N.C.H. program—where she helps young women aspiring to careers in business and technology—and Leadership Pittsburgh’s Community Veterans Leadership Cohort program. She is a graduate of Leadership Pittsburgh XXXVIII and CMU Tepper’s Leadership & Negotiation Academy; she is a senior member of IEEE; and she currently serves as an advisor for the editors of CrossTalk, the Journal of Defense Software Engineering.
Wrubel holds a Bachelor of Science in Applied Mathematics from Carnegie Mellon University and a Master of Science in Project Management from the University of Wisconsin–Platteville.
