Summer Jones is a career member of the Senior Executive Service and currently serves as the Chief of Staff of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). She works directly with leaders across the Department of Energy and NNSA on various matters affecting the NNSA's mission, organization, and operations. Previously, she served as the Principal Assistant Deputy Administrator (PADA) for Production Modernization in Defense Programs. The PADA is responsible for executing a $6B portfolio responsible for production strategies to improve manufacturing capabilities and implement technologies in support of the stockpile, including managing the life cycle of designated strategic materials. Ms. Jones previously held multiple other senior roles within Defense Programs at NNSA.
Before arriving at NNSA in 2013, Ms. Jones worked at the White House Military Office supporting classified critical infrastructure programs in support of the continuity of the Presidency and spent a few years in private industry as a project manager with an engineering services firm.
A former naval officer for nearly a decade, Ms. Jones’ military career included tours with the USS Nicholson (DD-982), Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Manpower and Personnel, Amphibious Construction Battalion ONE and Naval Facilities Engineering Command Washington. She deployed multiple times in support of Operation Desert Fox, NATO operations in Kosovo and the Iraq War.
Ms. Jones was awarded the Distinguished Presidential Rank Award in 2024 and the Meritorious Civilian Service Award from the Secretary of Defense in 2013. She received her B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1997 and obtained her MBA from Georgetown University in 2009.