John Eitel
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology
John Eitel serves as the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology. In this role, he is charged with directing the implementation and management of research and technology programs to drive the Department’s innovation agenda. Eitel leverages over three decades of operational vision to align Departmental programs with national priorities, engineering a resilient, highly integrated transportation network capable of meeting modern logistical demands.
Before joining the Department, Eitel built a distinguished career spanning more than 30 years at United Parcel Service (UPS), where he served in executive leadership roles across large-scale hub, air, and ground operations. Managing multi-site organizations of over 1,100 employees and operating budgets exceeding $40 million, he consistently drove operational process improvements, delivering over $1.1 million in operational savings, a 12 percent boost in productivity, and enhanced service reliability through strategic system redesigns.
Grounded in a leadership philosophy that dictates the safety of people as the unequivocal first priority, Eitel’s programs at UPS achieved a 54 percent improvement in safety performance and a 20 percent increase in employee retention. He brought deep expertise to labor relations, workforce restructuring, and strategic carrier contract negotiations, establishing long-term operational stability while building robust leadership pipelines that mentored and promoted dozens of emerging industry leaders.
Eitel completed the Executive Perspectives Program at Emory University and earned a degree in Business Management from Colorado Technical University. He is a member of The National Society of Leadership and Success and holds extensive specialized training in leadership development, labor relations, project management, and regulatory safety compliance.