Amanda Scales

Administrator, age 34

An associate of Elon Musk from xAI, Amanda Scales has been located at GSA since Day 1, where she acted as the Chief of Staff until swapping places with James Sullivan at the end of March. She seemingly left OPM and government service soon after but has returned in January 2026 to lead recruitment and staffing for OPM’s new Tech Force initiative.

Positions

Position Notes
OPM
OPM 1/20/25-3/28/25 Chief of Staff (ES-00, $195,200)
OPM 3/28/25-c.3/29/25 demoted to Senior Advisor (ES-00, $195,200) «Her LinkedIn profile says she left OPM in March. Assuming it followed her demotion/replacement, assuming pay stayed same»
OPM c.1/28/26 «Own LinkedIn reports back at OPM for Tech Force recruitment and staffing»

Systems

System Notes
website
Agency Website 1/20/25-3/29/25
This is a stand-in for whatever website platform an agency is using
unknown access «listed as grant for “Web Admin” on 1/20. Not revoked as of 2/12»
github
GitHub 1/20/25-3/29/25
A service owned by Microsoft for developers to run version control on their applications and back them up to shared repositories that can be used by other developers. Github is provided as both a hosted service (at github.com) or via versions that can be installed with agency data centers (aka GitHub Enterprise or GHE). Access to Github would be expected for developers, but doesn’t necessarily mean the person is a coder.
unknown access «Github Enterprise»
USA Staffing
USA Staffing 1/20/25-3/29/25
A platform for federal agencies to recruit and onboard employees.
admin access (last access 2/28/25) «for verifying the govt-wide hiring freeze»
STAMP
STAMP 1/31/25-3/29/25
This is a system at OPM that I do not have information about yet
unknown access
Databricks
Databricks 2/03/25-3/29/25
A hosted or self-hosted service that simplifies systems for processing big Data
admin access (never accessed)

Events

Date Event
1/17/25
Noah Peters recalls that he met with Amanda Scales and Brian Bjelde on this day to plan for their upcoming first day at OPM.
1/20/25
Multiple DOGE staff start working at OPM and are listed as part of the Office of the Director.
1/20/25
IT staff at OPM are pulled into a “911-esque call” requesting that “a political team” of 6 individuals must be given access to OPM systems. These include Charles Ezell, Greg Hogan, and Amanda Scales, as well as unidentified employees OPM-03 (Akash Bobba), OPM-05 (Gavin Kliger) and OPM-07 (Brian Bjelde). These DOGE staffers are granted administrative access to USAJOBS, USA Staffing, and USA Performance systems.
1/24/25
Representing OPM, James Sullivan coordinates in an email to Department of Energy officials on several DOGE-led initiatives. One messages states “as discussed over the phone, when you compile the list of 69 DEI employees placed on admin leave, please share with Amanda and myself.” Energy officials also send a list of 1394 probationary employees to Amanda Scales, all of whom will be fired.
1/27/25
A member of the OPM union posts a Reddit message reportedly from an OPM employee which states that the email server is a piece of outside equipment and the its goal is to generate lists of all govt employees in order to send massive firing notices later.
1/28/25
Wired Magazine provides an early listing of which Musk-affiliated DOGE staff now have positions at OPM. (fuzz: didn’t name Coristine or Bobba bc of their ages, but later confirmed as them)
1/31/25
Federal employees at OPM report they are locked out of access to key systems by DOGE and OPM leadership.
2/12/25
3/24/25
Ruling in American Federation of Teachers et al v. Bessent et al, Judge Boardman issues a preliminary injunction against access by DOGE staff to internal systems at OPM by DOGE. However, he still allows access for DOGE-affiliated leadership at the agency including Charles Ezell, Amanda Scales and Greg Hogan.
3/28/25
For reasons that aren’t entirely clear, Amanda Scales is replaced as the Chief of Staff at OPM by James Sullivan. Amanda changes to a Senior Advisor position at the agency. (fuzz: Amanda Scales reports on her LinkedIn that she left DOGE in March, so this might have been the cause)
1/28/26
In a post on LinkedIn, Amanda Scales announces she has returned to a role at OPM, overseeing the recruitment and hiring for the new Tech Force initiative to bring in technical staff from Silicon Valley companies into federal service for 2-year terms.