Colonel Michael I. Maharaj was commissioned as a Field Artillery Officer upon graduation from Officer Candidate School Class 01-95 at Fort Benning, Georgia, on 26 January 1995. His first assignment was as a Platoon Leader, 1^st Battalion, 12 Field Artillery, Multiple Launch Rocket System, Fort Sill, Oklahoma.

His subsequent duty assignments were: Aide-de-Camp to the 2ID Commanding General, Assistant Fire Support Coordinator, Deep Operations Cell OIC, 2nd Infantry Division, Camp Red Cloud, South Korea; Fires Planner, U.S. Forces Korea; Battery Commander OIF 1, Charlie Battery, 1st Battalion, 10th Field Artillery, 3rd Infantry Division, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, Fort Benning, GA; Delta Company Commander, Officer Candidate School, Fort Benning, Georgia; Stability Transition Team Field Artillery and Intelligence Advisor, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colorado; Division Chief, G6, 8^th Army, South Korea; Branch Chief, Multi-National Cyber Operations, Joint Staff J6, Norfolk, VA; Director, Regional Cyber Center Southwest Asia, Kuwait; Branch Chief, Network Modernization, U.S. Army Cyber Command, Fort Belvoir, VA; U.S. Army War College, Carlisle, PA; Director, Survivability Evaluation, Army Evaluation Center, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland.

His military education includes U.S. Army War College (resident), FA 26 Information Systems Engineering Course, Joint Combined Warfighting School, and multiple basic and advanced Field Artillery Officer Qualification courses.

His highest military awards include Bronze Star Medal (3), Defense Meritorious Service Medal (2), Meritorious Service Medal (4), Army Commendation Medal (4), Joint Service Achievement Medal (1), Army Achievement Medal (4), Presidential Unit Citation award, Joint Meritorious Unit Award, Army Reserve Component Achievement Medal, National Defense Service Medal (2), Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, Iraq Campaign Medal (3), Global War of Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, Global War of Terrorism Service Medal, Korea Defense Service Medal, Army Service Ribbon, Overseas Service Ribbon (5), Joint Chiefs of Staff Identification Badge. Colonel Maharaj is the 2021 U.S. Army War College recipient of the Commandant’s Award for research on the use of a semantic-based artificial neural network to predict and prevent Russian bots’ effectiveness from manipulating and amplifying disinformation, the 2017 Federal Computer Weekly and the 2016 DoD CIO individual cyber award winner for developing and incorporating tactics, techniques, and procedures for blue and red teams on a Mission Partner Environment network.