Captain Griffen Laird is a Research Analyst serving in the Office of Labor & Economic Analysis (OLEA). OLEA is a research organization that applies labor and economic analytical techniques to inform senior leaders in the Department of the Air Force (DAF) on personnel & manpower policy. OLEA is a strategic analytical arm of the human capital enterprise and reports straight to the Assistant Secretary for Manpower & Reserve Affairs.

Captain Laird commissioned as an operations research analyst (the 15A career field) from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 2020 and went on to receive his master’s degree in operations research from the U.S. Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) in 2022. While at AFIT, Captain Laird developed a new optimization model to match DAF cadets to their career fields as part of his master’s thesis. This thesis won the MORS award for best operations research method applied to a military problem and lent itself neatly to a follow-on assignment at the Air Force Personnel Center (AFPC) in San Antonio, TX where he worked alongside OLEA to modernize the career field matching approach.

Captain Laird served as the Chief of Sustainment Analytics at the Air Force Manpower Analysis Agency upon departing AFPC in the summer of 2024. There he utilized modeling & simulation techniques alongside data science to solve Air Force manpower problems with a personnel emphasis. During his career, he’s used a variety of operations research techniques ranging from optimization to machine learning. When he’s not solving DAF personnel problems, he’s likely enjoying the beautiful state of Colorado with his wife, Josie, and two sons, Callan and Weston!

Graduate Certificate, Data Science, U.S. Air Force Institute of Technology (2022)

Master of Science, Operations Research, U.S. Air Force Institute of Technology (2020-2022)

Bachelor of Science, Operations Research, U.S. Air Force Academy (2020)

Research Analyst, Office of Labor & Economic Analysis (June 2025 – present)

Data Scientist, U.S. Air Force Manpower Analysis Agency (June 2024 – June 2025)

Force Development Analyst, U.S. Air Force Personnel Center (Mar 2022 – June 2024)

Dr. James T. Moore Graduate Research Prize (MORS) Winner, 2022

INFORMS Speaker (2022, 2023)

DAF DAAF Speaker (2025)