The director of data science and engineering at the United States Digital Service (USDS), rebranded as the US DOGE Service by Elon Musk, has stepped down from her role.
Anne Marshall, who recently served as director, joined USDS in September 2023 after working as an engineer at Amazon for over a decade. She was promoted to the position of director of data science and engineering in December, but resigned approximately two months later, on Wednesday.
In a LinkedIn post, Marshall expressed that resigning from the US Digital Service marked the end of a significant chapter in her career, due to the opportunity to collaborate with an exceptional team. However, she lamented that DOGE recently terminated a third of the team, describing the decision as shortsighted and indiscriminate, and suggested that this would ultimately disadvantage the government and American citizens.
Recently, former USDS employees met with Amy Gleason, a former Trump administration USDS official, and Kendall Lindemann, previously with McKinsey & Company, to discuss the entity’s trajectory after the termination of around 50 USDS product managers, designers, and other staff members the previous week. They communicated that DOGE would take a more active role in the organization moving forward, according to USDS sources.
Gleason and Lindemann indicated that individuals who were not terminated would become part of the DOGE team, and it was announced that a merger between the newly incorporated DOGE members and existing USDS staff was underway. This approach signified a shift from earlier this month when USDS employees reported that DOGE had established a “firewall” separating the two groups. Previously, Stephanie M. Holmes was the only DOGE representative to join a broader meeting with legacy USDS members, attending as the new HR contact.
According to a USDS source, the organization would now be entirely under DOGE’s oversight. However, there remains uncertainty about DOGE’s leadership, as even DOGE employees lack clarity on this matter. Joshua Fisher, director of the White House Office of Administration, stated in a legal declaration that although Musk appeared to lead DOGE since Trump’s re-election, he did not hold the official position of administrator. Fisher described Musk’s role as a “senior advisor” to the president, without any authority beyond that of other senior White House advisors.
USDS staff are similarly uninformed about who holds leadership roles within the organization, despite multiple inquiries. On Tuesday, neither Gleason nor Lindemann revealed the identities of the USDS administrator or deputy administrator. The White House did not provide comments on the matter.
Marshall concluded in her LinkedIn post that, based on DOGE’s recent actions, she did not believe they could fulfill USDS’s mission. She emphasized that her departure was a voluntary decision, explaining that it diverged from the mission she had intended to serve.