Google's Agarwal joins Defense Department

Another former Google employee has joined the Obama administration.

The Department of Defense last week appointed Sumit Agarwal to the Senior Executive Service. Agarwal was previously head of mobile product management for Google in Mountain View, Calif.

He is now deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for outreach and social media in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense.

That's a muddy title-- and his actual job description is also fairly vague. We'll look into it.

Agarwal is the fourth Googler to join the government's ranks since President Barack Obama took office.

Andrew McLaughlin, formerly head of global public policy and government affairs for Google, is now Deputy Chief Technology Officer in the Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Katy Jacobs Stanton, a former Google product manager who was also involved in the company's elections projects, joined the President's team last year when she became Director of Citizen Participation in the White House.

Sonal Shah, who used to be head of Global Development Initiatives for Google.org, is now director of the White House's new Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation.