USDA Digital Service (USDA DS)

What is the USDA Digital Service?

The United States Department of Agriculture Digital Service (USDA DS) is a program designed to cultivate and grow a community of multidisciplinary teams to create human-centered solutions that deliver simple, seamless, and secure technology and customer experiences across USDA. USDA DS seeks to attract diverse, talented senior technologists and strategists to further the wide-ranging missions of USDA mission areas, agencies and staff offices. As part of this effort, the USDA DS offers fellowship opportunities in partnership with the Office of Customer Experience to hire talented individuals for term-limited appointments to help partner across the Department and complete this important work. The USDA DS is also responsible for helping to set the strategic direction and priorities for how USDA recruits, hires, and develops our IT workforce across the Department.

Mission

Our mission is to make it as easy and effective as possible for USDA to staff key initiatives with tech talent to shape solutions that provide great experiences to all the people it serves.

Guiding Principles

Delivering a better experience for USDA Stakeholders

• People First – Our top priority is understanding our customers, stakeholders, agency partners, and team-members, and how we can best meet their needs and work together, so the missions of USDA are successful.
• Plain Language – While many of our challenges are technically complex, we will always work to communicate and collaborate with the many diverse stakeholders that drive the USDA mission in a way that is easy for everyone to understand and engage in.
• Enterprise-Focused – The tools and techniques we develop will be created and sustained in a way that can be accessible and provide benefit across the Department, delivering efficiencies and cost savings.
• Collaboration Always – The best solutions are not created in a vacuum. The USDA Digital Service will partner with USDA agencies and end users, meeting them where they are and empowering them with the support, they need to be successful.

Our People

Leadership

• Arianne Gallagher-Welcher, Executive Director, USDA Digital Service
• Fátima Terry, Deputy Director, USDA Digital Service (PDF, 77.5 KB)

Our Key Partners

Our key partners across the Department include but are not limited to the following:

• The Office of the Chief Information Officer Centers and Sub Centers
• The USDA Office of Customer Experience
• The USDA Chief Information Office Council and the USDA Assistant Chief Information Officer (ACIO) Community
• The Associate Chief Data Officer (CDO) Community

What We Do:

Below is a sample of the types of projects and initiatives that the USDA Digital Service works on across the Department and the kinds of impact these projects can provide to the public.

• USDA’s High Impact Service Providers aligned with the Executive Order on Transforming Federal Customer Experience and Service Delivery to Rebuild Trust in Government (Customer Experience Executive Order):
  • USDA houses 5 key High Impact Service Providers that are being tracked as part of the Customer Experience Executive Order and the President’s Management Agenda. These services cover critical programs such as the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), applying for farm loan assistance, the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), and more. These services provide critical benefits and services to millions of people and our planet and are part of USDA’s Mission and Vision.
• Enabling Digitization of USDA
  • Alignment with the Office of the Chief Information Officer’s Strategic goals for leading USDA’s IT efforts to accelerate digital transformation within the agency and across multiple platforms. Through this work we aim to achieve redundancies, cross-pollination of processes and systems, and increased partnerships. All of this work is to help the Department achieve the goals and vision aligned in the 21st Century Integrated Digital Experience Act (21st Century IDEA).
• Strategic IT Recruitment Efforts
  • Creating and enhancing career pathways that strengthen the IT workforce, including strategic workforce planning, development, job analysis, career ladder building and more which impact improving customer experience, digital modernization across multiple programs and mission areas, and increasing diversification of the technical talent pipeline.

News and Updates

Digital Transformation Takes Root at USDA, USDA.gov, August 2024

Cloud Exchange 2024: GSA’s Adam Grandt-Nesher, USDA’s Arianne Gallagher-Welcher on future of federal digital services, Tom Temin, Federal News Network, June 2024

USDA: The People’s Agency a feature on USDA Digital Service Executive Director, Arianne Gallagher-Welcher, Nell Walker, Interface Magazine, March 2024

USDA launches fellows program for customer experience, digital service delivery jobs, Matt Bracken, FedScoop, February 2024

USDA Launches First Digital Service Fellows Program Advancing The Department’s Technology Workforce, USDA.gov, February 2024

USDA Seeks Fellows for its new Digital Service Team, Natalie Alms, GovExec, February 2024

A New Day at USDA- Tech Modernization and Better Service Delivery are Top Priorities for CIO Gary Washington- Frank Konkel, Federal Computer Week- August 2023

USDA Aims to Build In-House Tech Talent, CX Expertise with New Digital Services Team, Natalie Alms, Federal Computer Week, April 2023

Resources and Tools

21st Century IDEA Act Progress Report

Digital Service FAQ Sheet (PDF, 129 KB)

USDA IT Workforce Strategy FY23-FY26 (PDF, 2.3 MB)

USDA IT Strategy FY22-FY26 (PDF, 19 MB)

Federal Technology Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA)

Contact Information

Email: usdadigitalservice@usda.gov

USDA Office of Chief Information Officer

USDA Digital Service
1400 Independence Avenue, S.W.
Suite 439W
Washington, DC 20250