The Department of Government Efficiency has prodded federal employees to take buyouts, demanded they share the weekly “five things,” shut down numerous programs, and shaped mass layoffs across dozens of agencies.

Now DOGE is asking some feds: Care to join?

Multiple employees in recent weeks have received unsolicited invitations to interview with U.S. DOGE Service. The email typically comes from an unsigned “USDS Recruiting” .gov email address.

“I am reaching on behalf of the United States DOGE Service (USDS),” the email starts. “When applying for a federal government position, you noted that you were willing to share your resume with other federal agencies. After an initial review of your qualifications, we would like to invite you to an initial 20-minute phone interview to share information about USDS, the types of roles we’re looking to fill, and learn more about your background and related experiences.”

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Federal News Network spoke with three current federal employees who received the email pitch. They were each granted anonymity to avoid potential reprisal for sharing the information and their thoughts.

“I would never,” one employee said when asked whether they would consider the pitch.

Another employee who received the pitch is in the midst of retiring after they said they were ousted by DOGE operatives at their agency earlier this spring.

“In March, they almost fired me. In May, they successfully forced me into retirement, and in June, they’re trying to hire me again,” another employee said.

Emails obtained by Federal News Network show USDS is recruiting across different job areas, including technologists and legal counsel.

The group is specifically recruiting for an “ethics agency advisor” position that would provide “comprehensive legal counsel on all ethics matters,” according to the emails. The advisor position would also “ideally” be able to oversee USDS’s Freedom of Information Act infrastructure, the emails add.

DOGE has been under significant scrutiny regarding conflicts of interest, the potential misuse of federal data, and a lack of transparency. The Trump administration is fighting a lawsuit that would force DOGE to turn over records under FOIA.

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The White House did not address questions about the details and goals behind DOGE’s recruiting push.

“The mission of eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse is a part of the DNA of the federal government and will continue under the direction of the president, his cabinet, and agency heads to enhance government efficiency and prioritize responsible stewardship of taxpayer dollars,” White House spokesman Harrison Fields said in a statement.

But DOGE’s recruiting efforts come at an inflection point for the once-barnstorming group. Its leader, billionaire Elon Musk, departed the government in late May, just before a very public falling out with President Donald Trump. Multiple news reports now indicate agencies are trying to reverse many DOGE-inflicted layoffs.

However, Russell Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, told the House Appropriations financial services subcommittee last week that the vision for DOGE is to be “far more institutionalized” across agencies. The administration’s fiscal 2026 budget request includes $45 million in funding for DOGE, including 150 full-time equivalent employees.

“Many DOGE employees and FTEs are at the agencies working almost as in-house consultants as a part of the agency’s leadership,” Vought said. “And I think the leadership of DOGE is now much more decentralized.”

Since the early days of the Trump administration, DOGE has advertised its efforts to recruit “world-class talent.” But many of its operatives came from outside government and had existing connections to Musk or other DOGE leaders.

Current and former government employees FNN spoke with believe DOGE’s new solicitations targeting federal employees likely is connected to data from USAJobs. The official online clearinghouse for government jobs allows applicants to choose whether their resume can be shared with other agencies. However, the DOGE positions are not advertised on USAJobs or any other official recruiting website.

A former agency human capital officer who was ousted by DOGE says the recruiting pitches raise some immediate red flags.

“There should be a name, there should be a specific person to contact that has the authority to conduct qualifications with the subject matter experts,” the former official said. “There is a centralized HR office that does recruiting and hiring and HR work for the Executive Office of the President. So who exactly is USDS recruiting and why are they doing this after firing so many highly qualified USDS employees earlier this year?”

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In February, dozens of employees who were in the former U.S. Digital Service were either fired or quit after it was restructured and renamed the U.S. DOGE Service. The former official says the new recruiting emails raise a lot of questions given DOGE-driven cuts at USDS and numerous other agencies.

“Why are they only targeting specific individuals? How are these individuals more qualified than the prior USDS staff?” the source said. “I would want the statistics. How many people did this go out to and how did you get their resumes?  How do you know they’re interested? What is the criteria they’re using to assess the resumes and is HR involved?”

Employees who received the recruiting pitch said they were surprised to be contacted by DOGE.

One employee said they ignored it – and subsequently received a cold call from a DOGE official. They declined the offer to interview, as they are content in their current federal role.

“I don’t have many feelings about this – other than being surprised by the cold call, which suggested to me that they are having trouble recruiting people via normal channels,” the employee said.

Elaine Kamarck, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said it makes sense to recruit federal employees to government reform initiatives, given their intimate knowledge of federal bureaucracy and processes. Kamarck ran the Clinton administration’s “reinventing government” initiative, which relied heavily on career federal employees to carry out reforms.

But DOGE, she said, will likely have a far more difficult time enlisting career civil servants to their efforts.

“They will clearly have a trust problem recruiting the federal employees because the whole tenor – the chainsaw on the stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference – the symbolism so far has been really hostile and negative,” Kamarck said.

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