Amanda Simpson (born March 26, 1961) is Vice-President for Research and Technology at Airbus Americas and was the former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Operational Energy. Operational Energy is the energy required for training, moving, and sustaining military forces and weapons platforms for military operations. The term includes energy used by power systems, generators, logistics assets, and weapons platforms employed by military forces during training and in the field. Previously Simpson was the Executive Director of the U.S. Army Office of Energy Initiatives (OEI) (previously named the Army Energy Initiatives Task Force) leading the Army's efforts to implement large-scale renewable energy projects. Her first posting in the Army was as the Special Assistant to the Army Acquisition Executive. In that role she was a principal advisor to the United States Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology on all matters relating to Army acquisition, procurement, research & development and logistics. Upon her appointment to the position of Senior Technical Advisor in the Bureau of Industry and Security in 2010, she became the first openly transgender woman political appointee of any Presidential administration. Simpson worked in the United States Department of Defense. She is Jewish.