Washington’s city and county governments rely on CISOs who can protect public systems while keeping essential services running across large, complex civic environments. The people in this feature reflect that responsibility at the municipal and county level, where security work often intersects with infrastructure, compliance, privacy, resilience, and day-to-day public trust. Their backgrounds span national security, enterprise security strategy, privacy leadership, risk management, and the practical work of strengthening local government operations in places residents depend on every day.
Jake Hammock — Assistant CTO, Security & Infrastructure Director and Chief Information Security Officer, City of Seattle
Jake Hammock serves as chief information security officer and assistant CTO of security and infrastructure for the City of Seattle, bringing a background that combines military cyber operations, national security work, enterprise transformation, and civic technology leadership. His profile reflects experience across U.S. Cyber Command, the National Security Agency, and private-sector organizations in telecom, SaaS, energy, and fintech, with work spanning zero-trust transformation, cloud migration, incident response, resilience planning, and compliance across major frameworks. In Seattle, that mix of defense-grade experience and public-sector modernization gives him a strong platform for guiding security strategy across a major city environment.
Paul Federighi — Chief Information Security Officer and Assistant Director of Security, Risk, and Compliance, City of Tacoma
Paul Federighi is chief information security officer and assistant director of security, risk, and compliance for the City of Tacoma, where he brings more than two decades of continuity inside the same municipal organization. His career progression through Tacoma includes roles as assistant director of IT, interim director of information technology, and an earlier stint as chief information security officer, following foundational work as SAP Basis team lead. That long institutional history gives him a deep understanding of city systems, governance, and operational realities, making him a notable example of a cybersecurity leader who has grown with the organization and helped shape its security and risk posture over time.
Doug Cavit — Chief Information Security Officer, Snohomish County
Doug Cavit serves as chief information security officer for Snohomish County, bringing a background that spans county government, startup leadership, major technology companies, and enterprise infrastructure strategy. Before joining the county, he held CISO leadership roles at Containn and a stealth startup, served in senior positions at Microsoft including chief security strategist, and earlier was chief information officer at McAfee. His profile stands out for its depth across secure architecture, cloud infrastructure, application security, policy, M&A due diligence, and large-scale technology operations, giving Snohomish County a leader with both public-sector relevance and broad private-sector cybersecurity experience.
Lorre Wijelath — Chief Information Security Officer, King County
Lorre Wijelath is chief information security officer for King County, where her path into the role reflects a strong blend of privacy, compliance, and public-sector governance experience. Before becoming CISO, she served as interim chief information security and privacy officer and earlier as privacy program manager for King County, following prior roles at Vera Whole Health and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. That progression gives her a perspective shaped not only by cybersecurity leadership, but also by privacy risk, personal data protection, and regulatory awareness, which are especially important in county government environments handling large volumes of sensitive public information.
Securing local government across Washington
What stands out across this group is how closely cybersecurity at the city and county level is tied to continuity of public service. These leaders are not only protecting networks and data. They are helping safeguard the systems, agencies, and civic functions that residents rely on every day, from major city operations to county-wide public administration.
Explore more profiles of the leaders shaping cybersecurity across numerous industries in our CISOs to Watch collection.