Damien McLachlan has been appointed Field Chief Technology Officer at Kompozition. He joins from the Department of Defence, where he served 31 years, most recently as Director General Defence Landworthiness.He is a Chartered Professional Engineer and Fellow of Engineers Australia, with a Masters of Laws (ANU) and degrees from UNSW and Monash. In the Field CTO role he works directly with Defence and government customers, bridging Kompozition's platform and their operational requirements. Kompozition is an Australian sovereign digital engineering company serving Defence and adjacent customers.
Canberra, Australia 3 June 2026. Kompozition, Australia's sovereign digital engineering company, today announced the appointment of Damien McLachlan as Field Chief Technology Officer. McLachlan joins Kompozition after a 31-year career with the Australian Department of Defence, most recently as Director General Defence Landworthiness, where he held senior accountability for the technical regulation for the Australian Defence Force land materiel systems and land capabilities.
Damien is a Chartered Professional Engineer (CPEng), Fellow of Engineers Australia (FIEAust), Engineering Executive (EngExec), and National Engineering Register member. He holds a Masters of Laws from ANU, a Master of Systems Engineering from UNSW, a Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical) from UNSW and a Bachelor of Science from Monash University. Across three decades in uniform and as a senior Defence executive, he has shaped how Australia evaluates, regulates, and sustains complex engineered capability, with deep experience spanning the Royal Australian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (RAEME), the former Defence Materiel Organisation, senior technical regulation roles and support to land capability manager within Army.
The Field CTO role sits at the intersection of Kompozition's technology and the missions of the customers it serves. Where a traditional CTO is focused inward on the platform itself, a Field CTO walks alongside customers throughout their journey: translating technical capability into operational outcomes, advising senior stakeholders on adoption and strategy, and ensuring that the realities of Defence and government practice flow back into how the platform evolves. For Kompozition's customers, Damien's appointment means having a peer in the room who has lived their challenges and now brings the full weight of Kompozition's technology to solving them.
"Damien's appointment reflects a deliberate investment in our capability to support Defence and Defence Industry in Australia," said Michael Ninness, Chief Executive Officer of Kompozition. "We have always believed that sovereign digital engineering must be built by people who understand the obligations of the customers we serve. Damien has spent his career holding the line on engineering rigour for the Australian Army and the land domain. His experience will help us deepen the partnership we offer to every organisation working to deliver capability to the Australian Defence Force."
Damien said he was drawn to Kompozition's mission and to the opportunity to apply his experience on the industry side of the engineering challenge.
"Throughout my career I have seen the cost of poorly defined requirements, and the impact that has on schedule, cost, and ultimately the warfighter." Damien said. "Kompozition is solving that problem with a sovereign capability built with a focus on understanding the needs of the warfighter. This will ensure Australia delivers defence and government programs more efficiently and at speed while achieving the required capability effect. I am proud to join the Kompozition team and to work directly with our customers as they modernise how requirements and engineering are managed across their portfolios."
About us:
Kompozition is a 100% Australian founded and owned sovereign technology company specialising in digital engineering for the Australian Government and Defence sectors. Its model-based Definition Operations (DefOps) platform replaces document-centric approaches with a living digital model, helping organisations mitigate the risk and cost of poorly defined requirements across complex programs. Kompozition is headquartered in Canberra and works with Defence, government, and industry partners across Australia.
Contact details:
For media enquiries, contact Carlo Nizeti, Chief Operating Officer, at [email protected]
