Chief Technology Officer, Royal Navy
Chief Technology Officer, Royal Navy
Jaimie Roylance grew up and was educated in Somerset in the West of England. After graduating from Cambridge University with a degree in Natural Sciences in 1993, he was commissioned into the Royal Marines and completed Young Officer training at the Commando Training Centre in 1995.
His early career included command of an infantry platoon of the Parachute Regiment, and qualification as an Arctic Warfare instructor. Following specialisation as a helicopter pilot, he undertook multiple flying tours with the UK’s Commando Helicopter Force. He was an AH1W Cobra pilot and Squadron Operations Officer with the United States Marines Corps, a two-year tour which included deployment with a US MEU into Iraq in early 2003. He has been a Squadron XO and Senior Pilot and has commanded both 846 and 847 Naval Air Squadrons. For nearly nine months he was the commander of the UK’s Joint Aviation Group (TF Jaguar) in Helmand, Afghanistan.
Staff appointments have included tours in HQ Joint Helicopter Command, Army HQ, Navy HQ, HQ Strategic Command, and in the Ministry of Defence (3rd Floor). He was the Assistant Head Capability Delivery in the Air Manoeuvre Capability Directorate in 2014-16, the MOD’s Defence Attaché to Indonesia and East Timor in 2017-18, and an Assistant Head in the Directorate of Joint Warfare in 2019-2021. He was a member of the Royal College of Defence Studies 2021/22, and in July 2022 he took up the role of the Royal Navy’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO).
The CTO role has entailed close oversight of the activities of one of the RN’s most busy innovation hubs, the Office of the CTO (OCTO). In October 2024, the RN decided to merge OCTO with a sister organisation, NavyX, to form a new organisation to be known as the Disruptive Capabilities and Technologies Office (DCTO). This organisation has a remit to help accelerate the RN’s adoption of autonomy and AI, whilst also delivering prototype development projects of close interest to sailors and marines at the front line of operations.
Jaimie enjoys keeping tolerably fit, re-discovering history, and attempting to understand and anticipate the impact of emergent technology. He spends the spare time which remains walking his dog, travelling and eating, and dreaming about his next motorcycle. He has three children and a long-suffering partner.