BigBear.ai (NYSE: BBAI), a McLean, Virginia-based defense and security technology company, has appointed retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Sean A. Gainey to its Board of Directors, effective August 13, 2026.
Gainey brings a 36-year Army career to the role, during which he helped define the Joint Force’s modern counter-drone approach and commanded Golden Dome’s operational arm.
He became the first director of the Department of Defense’s Joint Counter-small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Office in 2020, when the services operated roughly 40 separate counter-drone systems without a common joint architecture.
Over four years leading that office, Gainey delivered the department’s first C-sUAS strategy and advanced joint operational doctrine, training standards, and an open command-and-control architecture connecting sensors and defensive systems across services.
During his tenure, the Joint C-sUAS University opened at Fort Sill to establish a common training foundation for operators across the force.
In his final Army assignment, Gainey served as commanding general of U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command and commander of the Joint Functional Component Command for Integrated Missile Defense.
In January 2026, he assumed command of Joint Task Force-Gold, the U.S. Northern Command task force established to integrate and synchronize the homeland’s air and missile defense enterprise and serve as the operational arm for Golden Dome.
Peter Cannito, Chair of the Board of Directors of BigBear.ai, said, “Few leaders have his firsthand understanding of how a complex defense architecture becomes a fielded, trusted capability. His perspective will strengthen our Board and the direction we set for BigBear.ai.”
Chief Executive Officer Kevin McAleenan said Gainey’s experience integrating counter-drone and missile defense systems is directly aligned with the company’s mission of delivering AI-enabled decision support to military operators.
McAleenan added, “As the threat from unmanned systems and advanced missile technology continues to accelerate, his firsthand operational understanding of what our men and women in uniform need from AI-enabled decision support is exactly the perspective our Board and our company need.”
Gainey’s background maps closely to BigBear.ai’s ConductorOS platform, an open, vendor-neutral architecture that allows systems from different vendors to share data, models, and inferences across sensors and platforms.
In recent military exercises, ConductorOS enabled a single soldier to command multiple drones from different vendors and connected a sensor with a missile system that had not previously been able to communicate.
Gainey said, “There is no doubt that the speed and complexity of today’s threats are outpacing our ability to process information manually. BigBear.ai’s technology directly addresses that challenge.”
He added that the company possesses “deep customer trust across the defense community, leading-edge technology, capital and a strategic focus that the United States and its allies can benefit hugely from.”
Gainey’s career included command at the battery, battalion, brigade, and general-officer levels, and he holds degrees from Georgia Southern University, Central Michigan University, and the Dwight D. Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy.
His military decorations include the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star Medal, and the Meritorious Service Medal, among others.
