Paul Robards | Chief Data Integration Officer
Department of Defence

Dr Paul Robards is Chief Data Integration Officer (CDIO). He is responsible for implementing the Defence Data Strategy, and supporting the Defence enterprise to better govern, trust, discover, use and share data. Paul also manages the implementation of the Defence Business Integration Program to ensure the right capability investment and intended effects are realised across the Defence enterprise.
Paul served for over 30 years in the Australian Army before transitioning to the Australian Public Service in 2019. As Assistant Secretary People Systems and Payroll Services he was responsible for payroll payments to over 100,000 personnel, totalling over $8bn per annum. He later held the position of Assistant Secretary HR Transformation Branch, where he managed enterprise HR change and reform activities.
Prior to his current role, Paul acted as First Assistant Secretary People Services within Defence People Group for a period of 18 months. In this role he was responsible for delivering services that support Defence and its people, including work health and safety, payroll services, HR case management, APS recruiting, reward and recognition, HR business partner support to senior leadership, and the maintenance and modernisation of HR and payroll systems and processes.
During his military career, Paul studied for his Civil Engineering degree at the Australian Defence Force Academy before undertaking postings to engineering units in Sydney, Brisbane and Papua New Guinea. After completing a Master’s of Science in Management at the US Naval Postgraduate School in 2001, he worked in roles such as strategic workforce planning, workforce analysis and operational analysis. He deployed to Afghanistan in 2011 and 2012 as an operations analyst; during that time he undertook field work, research and co- authored the Cultural Compatibility Study, which examined the relationships between Australian Defence Force mentors and the Afghanistan military.
Paul was appointed as a Member of the Order of Australia in the 2010 Queen’s Birthday honours. In 2011, he was conferred a Doctor of Philosophy in Information Science from the US Naval Postgraduate School.