Dr Highnam joined DARPA as the deputy director in February 2018 and served as acting director from January- September 2020 and from January-March 2021.

From 2015-2018, he was director of research at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), on assignment from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), and from 2009-2015 was at the ODNI’s Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA), initially as an office director, and then as director.

From 2003-2009, Dr Highnam was at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as a senior advisor in the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and then as a senior advisor to the director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA). Prior to this (1999-2003), he was a DARPA program manager working in electronic warfare and airborne communications.

Dr Highnam worked for over a decade in applied research for Schlumberger Limited, with an emphasis on commercial seismic. He was also a director of a successful biomedical imaging startup. He holds a Ph.D. in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University, an M.Sc. in mathematical logic and the foundations of mathematics from the University of Bristol (UK), and a B.Sc. in computer science from the University of Manchester (UK).