Carter Baxter is a senior technologist with more than 25 years of experience leading complex digital modernization efforts across federal agencies and the private sector. He currently serves as a Digital Services Fellow at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

 

In his federal career, Mr. Baxter was a member of 18F and GSA’s Technology Transformation Services, where he served as Director of Engineering and Chief of Practices. As a contractor, he has led engineering, design, and product management efforts at the Department of Veterans Affairs, CMS, SBA, and other agencies.

 

His work spans engineering leadership, service design, and enterprise operations, with a focus on aligning technical delivery with strategic policy and organizational goals. He has overseen large-scale platform initiatives, directed multi-agency digital services portfolios, and led cross-functional teams through the modernization of high-impact systems.

 

More recently, he has brought his deep expertise in cloud-native architecture, agile delivery, and automation to the practical application of AI—particularly in natural language processing, machine learning, and code generation—within large, regulated environments. His leadership emphasizes resilience, transparency, and long-term maintainability, balancing innovation with the operational and compliance realities of government-scale systems.

 

Whether advising executive stakeholders or building tools from scratch, Mr. Baxter approaches modernization as both a technical and organizational challenge—one that requires systems thinking, disciplined execution, and a clear-eyed understanding of how to deliver lasting public value.