John Seel is currently the Department Head of the Weapons Control and Integration Department at NSWC Dahlgren Division. In this role, he is responsible for more than 750 civilian personnel and a yearly budget exceeding $530M. The Weapons Control and Integration Department consists of five divisions with a broad portfolio encompassing: asymmetric warfare; maritime warfare control systems; lethality vulnerability effectiveness and threat modeling; unmanned and expeditionary weapon systems and intelligent automation.

Prior to becoming the Head of the Weapons Control and Integration Department, John served as the Distinguished Engineer for Warfare Systems Software at Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren Division. In this role, he led research in the areas of advanced computing technologies, including computing architectures, cyber vulnerability, reusable software frameworks, design patterns, development of automated test tools, large-scale data fusion and pattern recognition algorithms, and prototyping of autonomous decision algorithms and technologies.

John has also served with Strategic Systems Programs, the Office of The Secretary of Defense, and at Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division. While at Strategic Systems Programs, John served as the Deputy Chief Engineer for Nuclear Weapons Surety and Branch Head of the Nuclear Weapons Surety Technical Authority Branch. As the Director, Emerging Capabilities Division of the Rapid Reaction Technology Office in the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (Rapid Fielding), John managed senior field grade officers and a budget line in the President’s budget in order to find, develop and field prototypes with military utility provided to Combatant Commanders, Service or Defense Agency personnel for further development or experimentation and support the development of technology, doctrine and employment of new capabilities for ground service components.

John has also led teams developing operational technologies, products and doctrine resulting from operational user requirements and mission needs statements. He applied a multi-discipline approach to identify technical solutions and transitions to the acquisition community including the USMC Infrastructure Disruption Guide, Signals Intelligence projects, and other projects with varying degrees of hardware, software, and soft systems (human: political and economic). He was selected as member of team drafting Critical Infrastructure Protection documentation for the White House, which provided threat support by identifying future vulnerabilities to U.S. Critical Infrastructure. He has led teams working on stability operations and support operations on behalf of a JCS J-8 customer and has planned, organized, and conducted a national level stability operations gaming event with former National Security Advisor, General Officer, and Ambassadorial level participation. John’s experience with threat assessment and operational planning skills resulted in him being selected to lead efforts supporting special security activities and other specialized operational needs.

John is a former paratrooper and intelligence professional with the United States Army.

John is a graduate of the Defense Language Institute, Monterey, CA (Czech and Slovak); Tennessee Technological University (B.S., Computer Science); George Mason University (M.S., Systems Engineering); and The George Washington University (Ph.D., Systems Engineering).

John’s awards include the Meritorious Civilian Service Award and Defense Meritorious Service Medal.