Meet our alumni: James Pavur

James is an expert in the USA’s Directorate for Digital Service within the Office of the Secretary of Defense. He explains how the studying at the Department of Computer Science has helped hone skills for his career. 

What course did you study at Oxford University and when?  

I did a DPhil in Computer Science (2017-2021) as part of the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Cyber Security. My supervisor was Professor Ivan Martinovic and I was funded courtesy of a Rhodes Scholarship. My DPhil thesis was about the cyber security of space systems, with particular focus on satellite communications and spaceflight coordination.  

What was your background before that?  

My background was a bit unusual for a CS DPhil actually! My undergrad was at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service in Washington DC. I received a Bachelors of Science in Foreign Service, majoring in ‘Science, Technology and International Affairs.’ I’ve always been interested in the intersection of technology and policy.  

What attracted you to studying Computer Science as a subject?  

I’m a hacker at heart. Even as a kid, I loved taking toys apart to see how they worked and then putting them back together again. As the world around us becomes ever more digital, studying Computer Science presented an opportunity to peel back the hood and understand some of the magic that makes modernity. It’s also just really fun to break systems and then fix them to be even more secure.  

What aspects of the course did you particularly enjoy?  

For me, it was the community around Oxford. Both within the lab and the broader University I was surrounded by so many brilliant people who managed to simultaneously be humble and challenge me. Beyond Oxford, I had the opportunity to do research work with international collaborators, travel the world to present at conferences, and feel like I was part of a collective effort much bigger than myself. The day-to-day of a DPhil is often solitary, but the highlights for me were all communal. 

What did you do when you left Oxford?  

I moved back to Washington, DC and joined the Defense Digital Service. Our mission is to help the Department of Defense tackle really hard technical problems and respond to urgent needs. My work runs the gamut from software engineering, to cyber security, to policy guidance; but the one constant is the sense that I’m empowered to build technologies that improve lives and make the world a safer place.  

How has the course helped you in your current career?  

During the DPhil, I learned a lot about how to be an effective communicator to diverse audiences. Being able to explain complex technical problems to stakeholders with different backgrounds is a superpower in the public sector and the DPhil really helped me develop that skillset.  

What advice would you give to current students on applying their knowledge in the workplace, when they leave university?  

In my experience so far, it’s less about what you learn and more about the skills you develop on the journey to get there. Sometimes the topics I specialised on in my DPhil feel relevant to work outside of academia, but most of the time it’s more the technical and soft skills I cultivated in the process of researching those topics that come in handy. As you leave the university and head to the workplace, thinking about what sort of work you’ve enjoyed doing – rather than simply what you feel most knowledgeable about – is a good heuristic for finding a career fit.  

What would the student you have thought about what you are currently doing – would you have been surprised, proud, amazed? 

At the start of my undergraduate degree, my goal was to become a cyber security lawyer, so I’ve definitely strayed a bit from that trajectory. That said, it’s also not like I’ve run off and joined the circus – so I’ll go with ‘mildly surprised.’ Even when I was a student, I felt that there was an acute need for people with deep technical backgrounds to shape policy around cyber security and technology. While I’m not there yet, hopefully I’m on a trajectory to make student me proud someday!