Riley previously worked as a partner at McKinsey & Company and completed her Ph.D. in Social Policy and an M.Sc. According to her LinkedIn, in Modern Chinese from Oxford. She joined the ranks of DOGE and was assigned to the Department of Health and Human Services, where Politician said it had pushed for mass layoffs earlier this year.
This was reported by a representative of the Navy GUB that Riley “brings deep acquisition, technology and organizational expertise to her role, and we are pleased to welcome her to the team. We thank Rear Admiral Rothenhaus for his service as he heads to his next assignment. We have no additional information to share at this time.”
Former naval aviator Sen. Mark Kelly, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told The Bulwark that Riley was an unconventional choice. “Typically, the head of naval research is a senior military personnel or senior official with extensive experience in technology, science and engineering,” he said. “That's the kind of person we put in place for this job. So I think it will be important to see – and I don't have a lot of information about this candidate – but I do know that it's somebody pretty young coming from the DOGE world.”
