The White House has hired former Google vice-president Megan Smith to take over the role of US Chief Technology Officer.

The President on Thursday said that his administration had indeed hired Smith away from her role as veep of Google X, the advertising giant's lab that produced techno-specs Glass and self-driving cars. Smith replaces outgoing exec Todd Park, who stepped down from the CTO job in August. Smith was tipped to fill the vacancy at the White House.

"Megan has spent her career leading talented teams and taking cutting-edge technology and innovation initiatives from concept to design to deployment," President Obama said.

"I am confident that in her new role as America's Chief Technology Officer, she will put her long record of leadership and exceptional skills to work on behalf of the American people."

Smith will be the third person, and first woman, to fill the office of CTO. Aneesh Chopra was the first to hold the office and was replaced by Park in 2012. Smith had been with Google for nine years overseeing research and new business development.

The CTO role in the US administration has largely been a policy-focused post. Since its creation in 2009, the job has involved overseeing broadband and IT infrastructure, and crafting White House policy on new projects. In hiring Smith, officials noted her work not only in research and business development, but also in helping to push diversity initiatives at Google.

In addition to the hiring of Smith, the White House named Alexander Macgillivray as deputy US CTO. He has worked as Twitter's head of public policy. Among the planned areas of focus for Macgillivray are the hot-button issues of internet and intellectual property policy as well as privacy, an area where the government under Obama has been less than stellar. ®