Under a new governor, New Jersey will keep its innovation office and its innovation chief

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy on Monday signed a bill that establishes an innovation authority in the state Treasury Department and codifies the state’s Office of Innovation.

The innovation office, which Murphy created in 2018 to support the chief innovation officer role, is credited with a broad range of technological improvements to the state government that go beyond the basic IT functions of cybersecurity and network and application support overseen by the state’s separately governed Office of Information Technology. The innovation office is credited with modernizing the state’s call centers, making better use of data to enroll a reported 100,000 additional children in the state’s summer food stamp program and streamlining the process for applying for unemployment insurance.

Murphy, who on Jan. 20 will be termed out of office, after eight years in Drumthwacket, said in a press release that his latest bill signing will ensure the state “continues to deliver more efficient and effective services for New Jerseyans long after my time in office.”

The New Jersey Innovation Authority, which will include a 13-member board of directors appointed by the governor, cements the innovation office, but it will also establish a charter for the state’s innovation functions, something that Dave Cole, the state’s chief innovation officer, said “were endemic to how we worked, but not codified or written out,” beyond the governor firing off marching orders when the office was created.

“It establishes an authority with a charter: that we’re going to be a central modernization team, that we stay very focused on human-centered design and building solutions with residents and businesses, and that we can work and provide services across the entire state government,” said Cole, who’s been in the innovation office for five years, but only started leading it in 2024.

Cole said he expects the innovation authority to be useful advertising inside the state government, where his office already works alongside the technology office and works with many agencies, but not with all of them.

“Not every agency knows that they can work with us or in what ways to work with us,” he said. “This makes it very clear this is now a central resource in state government. We would expect it to continue to be centrally funded so agencies don’t necessarily pay.”

He said the new arrangement will allow the innovation office to recover some of its costs — submitted by agencies it works with into an interdepartmental account — so that it can further expand its technology platforms, like one that replaced clunky or outdated software in 13 state call centers.

“You can get to more of a fiscally responsible approach with a model like this than before when everything had to be centrally funded through one annual grant,” Cole said.

The type of work done by New Jersey’s innovation office — simplifying the experience of interacting with government websites and apps and ensuring that social services reach those who are eligible to receive them — can be found in many state governments. And in an official capacity, at least 17 states — including California, Colorado and New York — officially operate “digital services” teams. New Jersey, though, is the first to codify through legislation one led by a cabinet-level official.

Kirsten Wyatt, senior director of the digital service network at the Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation at Georgetown University, confirmed in an email that New Jersey was the first to codify its innovation office, which she called “yet another example of how states are delivering human centered, data driven digital services.” She added that her research team was “really excited” to see how New Jersey’s approach stacks up. (After this article was published, Wyatt pointed out that California also has a legislatively codified digital services team, but that it’s not led by a member of the governor’s Cabinet.)

On issues of technology and much else, Murphy, a Democrat, is working with the transition team of Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill, also a Democrat and a former U.S. Navy helicopter pilot, federal prosecutor and New Jersey state representative. On Monday, she announced that Cole will continue on as the state’s innovation chief under her administration, and praised him as “a true leader in this space,” alluding to his experience working in state government, for technology startups and in senior adviser roles in Barack Obama’s White House. (When asked whether Christopher Rein, the state’s chief technology officer, will also continue on in his role, a spokesperson at the New Jersey Office of Information Technology declined to comment.)

“At a time when our state programs and economy are under attack from Washington, I’m delighted to have an experienced innovator like Dave on my team to help build a more affordable Garden State,” Sherrill said in a press release.

Cole said the governor-elect likes to talk about “what she calls the save-you-time-and-money plan, a series of reforms for permitting, licensing, just cutting red tape so businesses can operate more quickly.” He pointed to his office’s work on a business portal that will likely aid those efforts. He said she’s also interested in advancing the “basics of customer experience,” like giving website users an easy way to provide feedback. The state’s main website has a feedback form, and similar ones will likely soon show up on the rest of the state’s online properties, Cole said.

Technological reform, inside government but also in the private sphere, has been part of Sherrill’s political platform. In a piece published in the New Jersey Globe last April, she outlined detailed aspirations to “hold Big Tech companies accountable” for harming children and families. The plan included a broad range of reforms imposed on private industry, including requiring social media platforms to display warning labels, the creation of a “social media addiction observatory” and banning cell phones in schools. She’s also said that social media companies should be held liable for their divisive, scammy, extreme or potentially dangerous content.

Inside government, her appointments, such as Cole, offer further indication of her plans for technology. Sherrill has designated Kellie Doucette, the executive director of her gubernatorial transition team, to serve as her chief operating officer, a first for the state. Doucette, according to the state’s website, “will focus on creating and driving efficient systems across state government to save New Jerseyans time and money.”

Corrected Jan. 7, 2026: Details were added to clarify that New Jersey is not the first state to codify a digital services team through legislation, but the first state to codify one led by a cabinet member.