Jon Lavender

Chief Technology Officer Dragos, Inc.

Last Reviewed: September 26, 2026

Executive Summary

Jon Lavender is a co-founder and the Chief Technology Officer of Dragos, the company that protects industrial control systems and other operational technology, such as power grids, water systems, pipelines and factories, from cyber attack. He founded it in 2016 with Robert M. Lee, now Chairman and CEO, and Justin Cavinee, now Chief Data Scientist, after the three met in the U.S. intelligence community. Before Dragos he was at the National Security Agency, where he led a hand-selected team building the analytics and tools used to identify national-level adversaries breaking into U.S. government and infrastructure networks. As CTO he is responsible for keeping Dragos’s product strategy aligned with its business strategy and for technology decisions across the company.

Career Highlights

• Co-founded Dragos in 2016 with Robert M. Lee and Justin Cavinee; the Fulton, Maryland startup closed a $1.2 million seed round from the DataTribe startup studio that August.
• Chief Technology Officer of Dragos, listed on its executive team after Chairman and CEO Robert M. Lee and Chief Data Scientist Justin Cavinee.
• Responsible for aligning Dragos’s product strategy with its business strategy and making sure its products meet customer needs, and a champion for technology decisions across both products and corporate solutions.
• At the National Security Agency, led a hand-selected team developing analytics, tools and best practices for identifying national-level cyber adversaries, and built relationships with partners across the U.S. Intelligence Community and allied agencies.
• Holds a bachelor’s degree in Management Information Systems from Wake Forest and a master’s in Cyber Security from UNC Charlotte.

Professional Journey

Lavender took a bachelor’s degree in Management Information Systems at Wake Forest School of Business and later a master’s degree in Cyber Security at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He then joined the National Security Agency, where he led teams working on both red team and blue team operations. His most notable assignment there was leading a hand-selected team that developed analytics, tools and best practices for identifying national-level cyber adversaries breaking into U.S. government and infrastructure networks. The job also meant managing relationships with key partners across the U.S. Intelligence Community and its allies.

He met Robert M. Lee and Justin Cavinee in the intelligence community, and in 2016 the three founded Dragos to secure industrial control systems. In August 2016 the startup, then based in Fulton, Maryland, closed a $1.2 million seed round from DataTribe, a startup studio in Howard County.

As Chief Technology Officer, Lavender connects the product roadmap to the business plan, making sure what Dragos builds meets its customers’ needs. He is also the company’s champion for technology decisions, covering both the products it sells and the systems it runs itself.

Dragos is now headquartered in Washington, DC. In September 2026 it acquired NetRise and runZero, and Chairman and CEO Robert M. Lee said the acquisitions coincided with the close of Accenture’s majority investment in the company.

Education

Wake Forest School of Business

Bachelor’s degree, Management Information Systems

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Master’s degree, Cyber Security