Learning, Leading, and Getting Stuff Done in the Cloud

When a small business owner files their taxes, a medical researcher accesses online studies, or a veteran navigates their benefits, they’re taking advantage of government operations through the cloud.

By making services available with the click of a mouse or swipe on a phone, cloud technology has made federal services far faster, more convenient, and more accessible. However, implementing cloud services successfully is easier said than done. 

“Done with purpose, cloud can pave the way for tighter security, more efficient operations, seamless integration of new technologies, and agile footing across an enterprise,” says Vice President Delie Minaie, a leader spearheading Booz Allen’s cloud solutions for civil agencies. “Done haphazardly, it can leave agencies with a new set of challenges that are just as formidable as those they experienced with on-premises IT.”

Read on to learn how Delie’s career has evolved alongside Booz Allen’s cloud services and how she is helping to shape the future as the executive sponsor of the civil cloud business’ Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Council. 

Nearly 20 years ago, Delie started her career with a degree in finance and an internship in Booz Allen’s cost accounting group. She gained what she calls “a good foundational understanding” of operations like financial reporting and profit and loss statements, in other words, learning “how you run financial operations for a company of this size.”

“It was an awesome opportunity to truly understand how we as an institution do financial reporting, what I’m calling ‘back of the house’ financial operations. I quickly realized I need to be in the ‘front of the house’ supporting customers’ missions,” she says.

But Delie soon realized that she was interested in helping Booz Allen’s clients build their own operations with a focus on enterprise IT programs helping our clients pitch their case for better government with emerging technology, digital products, and more efficient, constituent-focused services. “Growing up, I always had an entrepreneurial bug, where you’re literally flying by the seat of your pants and wanting to build something from scratch.” As a firm, Booz Allen had begun to realize that the industry was on the cusp of a sea change.

As the federal government enacted policies like Cloud First and Cloud Smart to bring their implementation and operations online, cloud sits at the intersection of so many government modernization goals that don’t seem related at first glance. For example, improving mission delivery to citizens by making government more accessible, reducing the government’s data center footprint, modernizing government IT infrastructure, and improving security and reliability—all these goals have a commonality in that they are achievable through cloud adoption.

Delie quickly realized that whatever part of the government mission really speaks to you, cloud can further it in some way. “My strengths were in IT strategy, people, and processes. Given my deep client relationships with chief experience officers, I had the opportunity to champion the evolution of their service delivery model and could bring the thought leadership and both functional and technical capabilities to help them deliver on it,” she says. In order to understand her clients’ needs and how the engineering team proposed to solve IT modernization challenges, “I realized I needed to fundamentally understand the underlying technology, network, and security stack,” says Delie.

This has been a multiyear journey spanning critical infrastructure to DevSecOps, taking labs, earning certifications, and learning how to “leverage this emerging technology to really change the game” throughout.

“That's at the core of Booz Allen—continuous learning and continuous improvement,” she says. Booz Allen afforded Delie the opportunity to stay relevant in the fast-paced world where technology has become an important facilitator for businesses. Technology is critical in driving optimization and efficiency across all sectors today, including the public and private sectors. She quickly realized that tech adoption is not only an investment but a business imperative to keep the country competitive in an ever-changing global economy. 

As Delie’s expertise grew across the many aspects of cloud, so has Booz Allen’s. Today, the firm offers a comprehensive framework for federal cloud solutions, with support at every phase and level of maturity, with especially strong capabilities in data enablement and cloud security. 

“Booz Allen is known for our cyber capabilities, and our cloud solutions are made with a security-first mindset,” she explains. For federal agencies, this means that Delie’s team can develop cloud environments for the highest federal security standards of Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP), and other security levels.

Ensuring consistent security baseline configurations and a “single pane of glass” promotes better enterprise visibility in a world where nation-state actors are looking for the most vulnerable targets that can be exploited. If done wrong, cloud or multicloud risks losing a consolidated view because each has its own interfaces. In addition, splitting systems with some in the cloud and some still residing on-premises, with varying degrees of modernization, creates a new problem that did not exist before: Agencies have to create hybrid-style IT operating models for this hybrid landscape. How do the on-prem apps/systems talk to the cloud-based ones? Is the organization creating security risks by trying to connect these systems? “With our Booz Allen Smart Platform, we select cloud service provider (CSP)-agnostic tools that integrate with all CSP environments and customer environments to efficiently and centrally deliver platforms that specialize in cloud/multicloud integration,” notes Delie. “Cloud-to-cloud connectivity between platform as a service (PaaS) or software as a service (SaaS) providers, on-premises data centers, and shadow clouds will require deliberate integration.”

Delie and her team are looking to the future, too. “We're thinking through the next wave of capabilities, including AI and machine learning, where we’re leading the way in the federal sector,” she says. Her team is also reimagining how agencies execute their missions, using large language models (LLM) to help them translate legacy code into modern programming languages, while preserving the business logic and reducing the time and cost associated with manual translation. “A cloud solution has to be deliberate,” she explains, “from the procurement process to how the cloud solution’s being adopted and used.” 

The people behind the scenes—the cloud security engineers, strategists, developers, DevOps engineers, and the like—are critical to enabling a modern, secure web-based service experience. And Delie is hard at work cultivating this next generation of talent, both through her day-to-day work at Booz Allen and through her involvement on the firm’s civil cloud DEI Council.

Mentorship and sponsorship are crucial to career growth and success at Booz Allen. “I’ve been incredibly blessed with awesome mentors and sponsors, and these relationships have happened organically,” says Delie. “Much more than mentorship, sponsorship is a critical key to success. Those who reach the top can almost always point to a sponsor who took a vested interest in them along the way and advocated on their behalf.”

“There are a lot of eager folks, and they just need someone to invest in them,” she declares. “I’m happy to be that person and pay it forward”.

She cites the influence of past generations on her own life. “I grew up with two very strong independent women: my mom and my grandmother. These women—and my Iranian-American culture—absolutely shaped who I am and how I show up every day: being empathetic, being communicative, and doing what I say I’m going to do.”

In her work, Delie uses what she learned in her culture to her advantage. “I am passionate, open, and direct (and at times loud!) in engaging with others,” says Delie. “I look you in the eye and say what I mean, with a strong sense of who I am and where I come from.”

After nearly 20 years at the firm, why has Delie chosen to stay at Booz Allen? “It’s the people, for sure,” she says. “Folks around here dream big, get stuff done, and know how to have fun. Every time I talk to a client or a recruit, I know wholeheartedly that I 100% believe in what I’m selling. We have the best people. We have teams of people who care about doing what's best for the client. It’s in our DNA and values, how we show up and follow through on our commitments."