Republicans Pick Facebook Engineer as Chief Technology Officer

For the first time, the Republican Party has a Chief Technology Officer: outgoing Facebook Engineering Manager Andy Barkett.

As CTO, Barkett will oversee the Republican National Committee's recently announced plans to restructure itself around data and analytics. He will also be responsible for training Republican candidates and staffers on social media and technology as well as building relationships with technology leaders across the country.

“It’s essential that the Republican Party has the resources to drive voter turnout as we look toward the elections of 2014, 2016 and beyond," said Barkett in a statement. "Silicon Valley welcomes the party’s efforts to be more creative and innovative, and I look forward to helping the party accomplish these goals."

Before leaving for the RNC, Barkett oversaw dozens of Facebook engineers on six teams handling mobile infrastructure, messaging, ads, newsfeeds, platforms and payments. He previously served as senior director of engineering for Livescribe and had roles at Nvidia and Google. He's also an angel investor for several technology startups, according to the RNC.

"I am confident that with Andy’s experience and our continued efforts to build meaningful relationships with experts in Silicon Valley, we'll see the changes to this part of our operation that we all agree are both important and necessary to winning elections in the future," said RNC Chairman Reince Priebus in a statement on the hire.

Scott McNealy, former CEO of Sun Microsystems and outspoken conservative, said that Barkett will give Republicans a "huge boost" in digital messaging.

"Andy Barkett is a not just a strong advocate of fiscal conservatism and the ability of private enterprise to lift everyone in our nation, but he is the real deal as a technologist too," said McNealy.

The RNC announced it was hiring a CTO in March, when spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski told the New York Times the ideal candidate might well be an "outsider" from the political world — a description Barkett certainly fits.

Barkett's hire comes months after many commentators suggested Barack Obama's data and digital teams gave his campaign an edge over that of Republican opponent Mitt Romney.

Are Republicans behind Democrats when it comes to digital and technology in campaigns? What can they do to catch up? Share your thoughts in the comments.