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Mike Baylor, Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer, Lockheed Martin

Mike Baylor, Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer, Lockheed Martin

Describe your career to date

As Vice President, Chief Digital and AI Officer (CDAO), I am responsible for the innovation and delivery of advanced Digital and AI technologies across Lockheed Martin (LM). I have over 24 years’ experience serving in various roles both inside and outside the corporation. In a previous role as CDAO, I was responsible for the data and analytics enterprise function and talent of over 300 professionals across LM. In this role, I spearheaded LM’s data and analytics digital transformation, infrastructure, development, and execution.

Within LM, I launched a very successful commercial business comprised of machine learning and analytics technologies for government, commercial, and international customers. Prior to this, I led a team that pioneered innovative systems engineering approaches to help simplify and integrate the data of large complex systems for Government clients.

I started my career with LM at Space Systems Company within a Flight Operations team at NASA where I supported pre-launch, launch, and post-launch satellite operations.

I have a degree in Aerospace Engineering from Penn State University, and I am a graduate of the Lockheed Martin EDGE leadership program.

How are you developing the data literacy of your organization, including the skills of your data teams and of your business stakeholders?

At our corporation, we are dedicated to developing the data literacy of our organization, including the skills of our data teams and of our business stakeholders. To achieve this, we have implemented a comprehensive strategy that spans across the entire organization.

Firstly, we have partnered with our training and development organization to develop a high-end, interactive production quality training course for basic data literacy. This course is available to all employees across the corporation, ensuring that everyone has a solid foundation in data literacy.

In addition to basic data literacy, we have developed data literacy cohorts for employees who already interface with data to an extent in their current role. These cohorts provide more advanced training and resources to help employees deepen their understanding of data and analytics.

Furthermore, a self-service data analyst curriculum has expanded the use of data and analytics to over half of the corporation. This curriculum provides employees with the skills and knowledge they need to effectively use data in their roles.

To support these efforts, we developed a data factory capability, providing centralized, consistent, and high assurance data tools and processes for the entire corporation. This ensures that all employees have access to the same data and analytics tools, regardless of their role or location.

Furthermore, we have developed a data center of excellence. This center of excellence serves as a hub for data and data science expertise and resources and helps to ensure that our data teams have the support needed to effectively use data in their work.

Finally, we have developed a comprehensive data governance framework, which provides a centralized, consistent, and high assurance data tools and processes for the entire corporation. This framework ensures that our data is accurate, reliable, and secure, and helps ensure that our data teams can effectively use data in their work.

Overall, we are committed to developing the data literacy of our organization and are continuously working to provide our employees with the skills and resources they need to effectively use data in their roles.

What role do you play in building and delivering conventional artificial intelligence solutions, including machine learning models? Are you also involved in your organization’s adoption of generative AI?

As the Chief Digital and AI Officer of Lockheed Martin, I play a crucial role in building and delivering conventional artificial intelligence (AI) solutions, including machine learning models. Our overall AI strategy is to be the AI leader in Aerospace and Defense, with our discriminator being trustworthy AI for mission assurance. This strategy recognizes that our engineering discipline and high-assurance rigor to meet our customer’s mission needs at the system-of-systems level sets us apart from competitors.

Our primary differentiator and competitive advantage in AI is our breadth across mission domains coupled with our engineering depth for each system component. To execute this strategy, we have developed an enterprise scale foundational AI ecosystem called AI Factory. AI Factory enables LM engineers to jumpstart AI development by incorporating components for ML and data pipelines, streamlining access to compute, data, software, and security, and ensuring compliance with ethical guidelines, industry best practices, and data privacy standards. AI Factory includes generative-AI (genAI) services, which provide low- and no-code model tuning for end-user applications, and a foundation model API that provides direct access to around 20 centrally hosted large language models for incorporation into other systems.

I am heavily involved in LM’s adoption of genAI. GenAI is a critical component of our AI strategy, and we are using it to meet our AI ethics requirements for increased scrutiny, including V&V and explainability. We are applying genAI to mission planning, DoD business needs, and business functions across LM, including engineering, software, finance, legal, and more. AI Factory now has hundreds of engagements across the business areas, hundreds of active projects, and thousands of users. It also includes multiple classified deployments and running models at the edge.

I play a vital role in building and delivering conventional AI solutions, including machine learning models, and I am heavily involved in our organization’s adoption of genAI. Our AI strategy is to be the AI leader in Aerospace and Defense, with trustworthy AI for mission assurance as our discriminator. We are executing this strategy through our enterprise scale foundational AI ecosystem, AI Factory, which enables us to apply trustworthy AI at scale, streamline enterprise functions, automate production & operations, and change the game in-mission with breakthroughs only achievable through cross-domain informed innovation.

Have you set out a vision for data? If so, what is it aiming for and does it embrace the whole organization or just the data function?

As the Chief Digital and AI Officer of LM, I have set out a clear vision for data that aims to make it a critical enabler of everything we do. Our vision is that data is the new oil, but just like oil in the ground, it has no inherent value unless it is properly discovered, extracted, refined, and consumed. To achieve this, we have developed a comprehensive data strategy that applies to everyone at LM and is designed to drive real adoption and value for the corporation.

The scope of our data strategy is holistic and far-reaching, encompassing various governance, leadership, and cultural elements to drive real adoption and value for the corporation. We have established a data council and governance board with participants across the corporation, as well as a data steward network, which is enabled by the data council to drive consistency and process standardization across the company.

Governance and culture play a critical role in our data strategy. We have developed data strategy and governance policies that have been implemented across the corporation, and we have established a common data language that all our systems will be able to digitally interoperate through our digital transformation program within Lockheed Martin. This will enable us to treat data like a strategic asset, not just within our corporation but also in our work with the department of defense.

The impact of our data strategy has been significant, both within LM and for our customers. By treating data as a strategic asset, we have been able to enhance our war-fighting capabilities, improve our decision-making processes, and drive innovation across the board.

Our vision for data is to make it an integral part of everything we do, and our comprehensive data strategy is designed to make that vision a reality. By treating data like a strategic asset, we are not only driving value for our corporation but also supporting the department of defense in their mission to protect our nation.

Mike Baylor
has been included in:

100 Brands 2024 (USA)

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Mike Baylor, Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer, Lockheed Martin

Join our membership network of over 250 global senior data and AI leaders.

The trusted global collaboration and intelligence platform for data leaders.

Join our membership network of over 250
global senior data and AI leaders.