Eliahu Niewood walked into the secretary of the Air Force’s office prepared to discuss the F-35. Thirty seconds later, he realized he was in a job interview.
Within months, Niewood left MITRE, sold the Boston-area home where he and his wife had built their lives and moved to Washington, D.C., to begin his first government role after more than 30 years in national security. Today, he serves as director of the Integrated Capabilities Office and director of Studies and Analysis for the Department of the Air Force, where he’s responsible for bringing Air Force and Space Force capabilities together and providing analysis that informs critical investment decisions.
For Niewood, the decision to serve is also deeply personal. His family came to the U.S. seeking safety and opportunity amid persecution in Europe, and he views his work as a way to give back to the country that allowed them to build a future. In this Q&A, he discusses that unexpected transition, what meaningful innovation requires and how his family’s history shapes his commitment to public service.
Tell us about your current role and the mission you support. What does a typical day look like for you?
I have two roles currently, both in the Department of the Air Force working for the Secretary of the Air Force. I lead the Integrated Capabilities Office, a small office of about 15 people. ICO’s job is to identify capabilities that bring the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force together to have a significant impact on the most challenging aspects of modern conflict.
We set up and oversee Integrated Capability Development campaign teams led by senior officers and civilians drawn from across the DAF to provide recommendations on how to build up and field those capabilities. I also lead the Studies and Analysis organization within the DAF. SAF/SA does operational analysis to support some of the most critical resourcing decisions for the DAF, oversees development of new tools for modeling and simulation, serves as the career field manager for government civilians and USAF service members in the analysis area, and does enterprise-wide data analysis.
What drew you to public service? Was your path into government planned, or did it evolve over time?
Although I’ve been working in the national security space for over 30 years now, much of it associated with the Air Force, I’ve only been in government service for less than two years now. My path into Government wasn’t planned, but it also didn’t evolve over time; it was a pretty dramatic shift.
I was working at the MITRE Corporation leading their work for the Department of the Air Force when I was told that the Secretary of the Air Force wanted to see me. Someone told me that he wanted to talk about the F-35. I didn’t hear anything more for a month or so, then got a call that the Secretary wanted to see me as soon as possible. I got all prepped to talk about the F-35, but when I walked into his office, he started asking me questions that had nothing to do with the F-35.
After about 30 seconds, I realized that I was in a job interview. That was in May; by October I had resigned from my job, my wife and I sold our house in the Boston area, we left the community we had lived in for 30 years, and we bought a new house in the D.C. area. It was all neither planned nor gradual. But I am glad we did it.
Looking back, was there a pivotal moment, decision or experience that shaped your career in government?
There have been a lot of moments that have shaped my career, in and out of the government. I have had great mentors who taught me how to do the work that I do, how to lead people, how to be collaborative, how to make hard decisions. I’ve had experiences that have shown me better ways to do things and not great ways to do things.
About 5-10 years ago, I was sitting at a meeting of the leadership team at a previous employer. We were discussing how to become more innovative by using the people in organizations called Innovation Centers who were funded by our Innovation Program and were sitting at sites we called Innovation Hubs. That made me think a lot about what we even mean by innovation and trying to find examples of people and organizations that had done that well. It made me realize that what I think of as good innovation is about finding unexploited intersections between technology and mission needs. How we do that in the national security space needs to be different from how that is done in the consumer world because most of us, maybe all of us in some ways, don’t have direct experience with those mission needs the way consumers do. Those realizations have definitely influenced how I go about my work today.
What does public service mean to you, and why is serving the nation and its citizens important to you?
My great-grandparents on my mother’s side and my grandparents on my father’s side came to this country because of the oppression and the lack of opportunities they faced in their home countries in Europe. If they hadn’t come here when they did, my family’s story might very well have ended during the Holocaust.
The United States didn’t just give them safe haven; it gave them and their descendants the opportunity to thrive, to grow, to learn. I don’t just owe the nation back for that; I very strongly believe that our nation is an example for the rest of the World to follow and a guardian of what is best in the World. I’m grateful to have the opportunity to help ensure that the United States can continue to fill that role in the face of the significant threats that are out there.