Courtesy of the city of Seattle
Seattle Chief Technology Officer Rob Lloyd will step down from his city role at the end of the month to become executive director for e.Republic’s Center for Digital Government (CDG), following a lengthy career in public-sector IT leadership.
CDG is a division of e.Republic, Government Technology's parent company. As its executive director, Lloyd will lead CDG's research and advisory programs, including its Digital Communities initiative and the Center for Public Sector AI. He will also serve as a senior voice on technology challenges facing state and local government. The division’s former executive director, John Matelski, was named CIO for the National Association of Counties in September.
Lloyd has been with Seattle government as its CTO and director of the city’s Information Technology Department since June 2024. Before that, he served the city of San Jose, Calif., for eight years, first as CIO and then as deputy city manager.
Earlier still, he was CIO and chief security officer simultaneously in Avondale, Ariz., shaping cybersecurity and technology strategy. He has also held IT leadership roles with the city of Ashland, Ore., the state of Colorado, and the city of Colorado Springs, Colo. He has twice been named one of Government Technology's Top 25 Doers, Dreamers and Drivers — in 2015 for his work in Avondale and in 2020 as part of Team San Jose.
His varied experience has given him a unique perspective on how government's IT leadership can encompass organizations with different sizes, dynamics and missions. Public-sector organizations currently face a shifting landscape of challenges, from affordability to AI; this, Lloyd said, made it the right time to take on the new role with CDG — which offers him an opportunity to impact that landscape at scale.
Compared to the normal ups and downs of the technology innovation cycle, Lloyd said that “everything’s changing” right now for public-sector technology: “This is going to be a really, really dynamic and novel space.”
Lloyd’s last day in Seattle will be March 27, according to an email he sent to colleagues late last week, explaining that he would be focused on completing commitments made to the organization when he started, until his final day. This includes work on the city’s new compensation classification system and the cable franchise extension, he said.
His time in Seattle focused on improving systems, and in doing so, setting the foundation for future IT investments.
“Because what we do and how we maintain things, that’s who we are as a technology organization,” Lloyd said. “What we invest in is who we’re trying to be, and that’s how we're trying to change the organization for the better.”
That culture shift extends to implementation of the city’s strategic plan, Lloyd said. Doing so effectively involves connecting that plan and budget with the direction in which different departments want to go, aligning technology implementations more closely with unique departmental missions. This allows Seattle IT to better support the distinct goals of each team, whether that be improving transportation or enhancing public safety.
“It’s not about the tech; it’s how we use technology to unleash the organization so that we can do great things in service to the community and render exceptional municipal services,” Lloyd said.
Seattle’s Assistant CTO Tracye Cantrell will step in as interim CTO, according to an email from the IT Department's Communications Manager Megan Erb. Cantrell also serves as the city’s public safety technology director and its portfolio, product and project management director. She was also the city’s interim CTO in 2018 before Saad Bashir took the position.
Cantrell has partnered with numerous CTOs, Lloyd said, and has worked closely with him during his tenure. She has a clear view of the path of continuous improvement on which the city is moving and will ensure that progress continues to advance, he said: “So, I don’t think there’s going to be a single hiccup.”
Erb said it is still too early for a recruitment process to be moving forward, but more information may be forthcoming in future weeks.
