In his new job, Tata will serve as principal staff assistant and advisor to the secretary of defense for force readiness, health affairs, National Guard and Reserve component affairs, education and training, and military and civilian personnel requirements and management.

He will be in position to play a key role in guiding implementation of Trump administration policies affecting the DOD workforce, such as Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiatives.

During his confirmation hearing in May, he told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee that he would work with lawmakers on “optimizing” the DOD workforce and military and making sure the Pentagon doesn’t have “personnel gaps” in back offices or on the frontlines.

“It’s clear the DoD has a cyber talent shortage, in part because of stiff competition from the civilian sector where DoD salaries struggle to compete. Building on my understanding of the Cyber Excepted Service workforce, I will, if confirmed, work with cyber leadership to identify and implement enhancements to the program, as needed,” he told members of the committee in response to advance policy questions ahead of his confirmation hearing.

“I believe it is crucially important that the Department seeks to recruit and retain the best technical and digital workforce across the total force, including civilian and Active Duty military personnel. The obvious advantages of uniformed personnel in these roles are they bring a warfighter focus and come at a fixed labor cost. The perceived disadvantages could be frequent reassignment and requirements to deploy. If confirmed, I will assess how we train and assign our Service members to support their ability to maintain currency in constantly changing fields. In addition to balancing the active duty and civilian workforce, I believe we need to assess how we best utilize the talent of our Reserve Component personnel,” he wrote.

The Trump administration is in the process of cutting tens of thousands of DOD civilians as part of a broader DOGE push.

Tata told lawmakers that, if confirmed, he would prioritize assessing civilian workforce morale and identifying challenges that employees face.

“My goal is to ensure we have the right tools and environment to attract, retain, and support the highly skilled workforce essential to the DoD’s critical mission,” Tata wrote. “I recognize that proposed workforce reductions can create uncertainty and impact morale. If confirmed, I will prioritize assessing the effects of any such reductions on the DoD’s civilian workforce and implement strategies to maintain a high-performing and resilient workforce dedicated to the Department’s mission.”

At his confirmation hearing, he vowed to protect DOD personnel’s sensitive personal and health information from potential mishandling by the DOGE team at the Pentagon.

“It’s a massive amount of data,” Tata noted. “If I’m confirmed, before DOGE is able to access anything with regard to personnel and personal protected information, there will be some kind of contract that prevents them from doing certain things. I’m not in there yet, I haven’t worked with DOGE, I don’t know DOGE. But what I do know is men and women in the military and their families deserve to have their privacy protected, and I will commit to them, and I will commit to you, to doing everything possible to get between anyone that wants to get their data and use it for any other reasons.”

He added: “The military health data, the military personnel data — all the records are so critical that we have to have some kind of guardrail in place that helps us prevent improper access to personnel data. And if confirmed, I can commit that I will do my very best to put guardrails in place. And by the way, I don’t suspect that DOGE would try to do anything improper with this information, but sometimes accidents happen, and so we would need some kind of guardrail in place to be able to protect military members’ personal data and their medical data.”

Tata is a West Point graduate who had a 28-year career in the Army and later performed the duties of undersecretary of defense for policy during Trump’s first term.

Since leaving the military, he has made inflammatory statements as a political commentator, including calling former President Barack Obama a “terrorist leader,” among other remarks that critics have panned. During Trump’s first term, the president withdrew Tata’s nomination to be undersecretary of defense for policy in a Senate-confirmed capacity, in the face of political opposition.

In response to questioning from lawmakers at his confirmation hearing in May for the P&R role, Tata said some of his previous comments that have drawn scrutiny were “out of character.”

He told senators that, if confirmed, he would be an “apolitical leader that is trying to take care of the men and women in uniform and their families and the DOD civilians.”

Democratic members of the SASC expressed concerns that he might support a purge of senior military officers who the Trump administration dislikes.

“I would not support any kind of blatant purge,” Tata said at the hearing. “If an officer is not following the constitution, has committed some kind of breach of his or her duty, then that should be investigated, and the investigation should tell us what to do.”

Jules Hurst was performing the duties of undersecretary for P&R prior to Tata’s confirmation.

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“At a time when [Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth] wants to prioritize the use of AI to modernize the Defense Department, it’s more important than ever to have a highly effective and motivated CDAO team,” a source said Wednesday.

The CDAO achieved full operational capability in 2022 — under the Biden administration — after merging four technology-focused organizations at the Pentagon: the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC), Defense Digital Service (DDS), Office of the Chief Data Officer, and the Advana program.

Commercial tech executive Craig Martell initially led the office from its inception until his resignation in early 2024. Defense acquisition expert Radha Plumb served as the second permanent CDAO from April of that year to January 2025. 

Last month, Douglas Matty became the first official to steer the CDAO on a permanent basis under the new Trump administration.

He’s taking the helm as the office is involved in a variety of DOD-wide initiatives that seek to accelerate data analytics, automation, computer vision, machine learning and next-generation AI capabilities for military and civilian personnel — all of which align with the Trump team’s priorities.

Matty’s tenure begins at a time when questions about the defense AI hub’s next chapter continue to swirl. Several officials suggested that government leaders are exploring plans to consolidate CDAO with other DOD organizations, including the Defense Innovation Unit. Simultaneously, the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) team is promoting disruptive initiatives to cut what they consider wasteful spending and drastically reduce the size of the U.S. federal workforce.

Officials who DefenseScoop connected with in separate conversations this week said that over the last few months — both before and after Matty came onboard — a noticeable number of key employees have exited or announced plans to leave their positions in the near term. 

Social media posts and public reports have also reflected those recent departures of experienced CDAO officials in high-stakes positions, including former deputy for mission analytics, Garrett Berntsen; former acting deputy for acquisitions and assurance, Bonnie Evangelista; former deputy for advanced C2 acceleration, Jock Padgett; former Global Information Dominance Experiments lead, Matt Strohmeyer; as well as Defense Digital Service director Jennifer Hay and her team.

Replacements for those positions, as well as the office’s algorithmic warfare chief and Advana platform lead have not been named publicly, and leadership roles listed on the CDAO’s official website continue to dwindle.

“The organization is clearly in crisis, with a continued stream of leaders and technical staff departing either through the Trump administration’s workforce reduction efforts, or simply by choice,” one official told DefenseScoop.

They and other sources also said that, over the last week or so, DOGE officials have called current and former staff asking for direct feedback on CDAO leadership, culture and organizational challenges.

A spokesperson for the office did not provide comments by press time on the alleged exodus, or disclose the number of CDAO officials who have opted into the Trump administration’s various accelerated departure options for DOD civilian employees.

“CDAO fully supports the department’s efforts to identify efficiencies while improving our ability to deliver lethality for our warfighters. While we don’t comment on individuals leveraging existing and recently initiated human resource initiatives, many of the personnel actions are aligned to continuous improvements that align human capital to organizational functions. Additionally, these transitions illustrate the high quality of individuals that have added value in government service and continue to have opportunities in the private sector,” a defense official said Wednesday. 

“CDAO continues to execute its mission and process Deferred Resignation Program requests. The department approved approximately 22,000 employees to participate in the OPM DRP (Round 1). The DOD offered its own DRP (Round 2) from April 7 through April 14, 2025, and the department is still collecting and evaluating that data,” they also told DefenseScoop.

Matty is set to testify Thursday on Capitol Hill at a House Armed Services subcommittee hearing on the Pentagon’s current IT and AI posture.

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Talented, mission-driven professionals — some who left lucrative private-sector careers, others tracking lifelong roads of public service to serve — are now being pushed out of the very institutions they fought to improve. These weren’t side projects or token hires. They were seasoned professionals, some with decades of experience, brought in to modernize critical systems, close digital equity gaps, and help rebuild trust in institutions that have too often failed the people they serve. When we lay them off, it sends a clear message: Innovation is expendable. And people feel it.

This isn’t a story about loss. It’s about what it takes to say yes to service — and why the door into government needs to stay open, especially for those who’ve had to work twice as hard just to reach it.

A long road to “yes”

I came to this country as a Cambodian refugee. I didn’t grow up with a roadmap to public service. My family didn’t have connections in Washington, and we didn’t understand the unspoken codes of federal hiring. But we believed in this country — and I believed that government should be open to anyone willing to do the work. 

So I showed up. I waited months for onboarding. I filled out background checks that asked me to recall details from places I barely escaped. If you’re an immigrant or refugee, the clearance process isn’t just paperwork — it’s a trial of faith. You’re asked for documents you may never have had. You’re scrutinized for family ties to regions you fled. You’re questioned about timelines you barely survived. And all the while, you carry the quiet weight of knowing your origin story, not your ability, might be the reason you’re screened out.

And yet, we persist. 

Because we believed in the opportunity to serve. We know that this country doesn’t just need the most polished resumes. It needs lived experience, grit, and people who understand government — not just as insiders but as everyday users of its services. 

Because we believe that our experiences — our differences — are part of what makes this country stronger. We believe in the mission. And we’re willing to endure the gauntlet not for prestige or power, but for the chance to give back to the very system that gave us a second chance.

Because we believe this system doesn’t account for people like us — but it requires people like us. People with resilience, range, and a deep sense of mission.

And that’s why, even after all the waiting, the uncertainty, the second-guessing — I still said yes.

Not because it was easy. But because I believe the opportunity to serve — to shape the system from the inside — was too meaningful to walk away from. I knew that if I could make it through the door, I could help open it for others.

Why we still choose to serve

And I was fortunate because people believed in me. I had the opportunity to serve first at the Defense Digital Service (DDS), the Department of Defense’s “SWAT team of nerds,” where I worked on mission-critical programs like Project Rabbit in support of Operation Allies Refuge. Later, I returned to the department as the first-ever Customer Experience Officer and helped transform how our nation’s largest employer delivers digital services to those in uniform and those who support them.

The path wasn’t easy. But it was worth it.

What kept me going was the people: brilliant, mission-driven civil servants and digital leaders who believed that technology should serve the public, not the other way around. I was proud to stand beside them, bringing not just my experience from the tech world, but my lived experience as someone who knows what it means to build a life from nothing and still give back.

And now — even fewer seats at the table

As if the hiring process weren’t challenging enough, we’re now watching the table itself shrink.

Across government, layoffs, restructuring, and budget constraints are forcing talented, mission-driven professionals out of the very institutions they worked so hard to get into. Some of the most impactful programs, created precisely to bring in fresh perspectives and accelerate innovation, are being scaled back, defunded, or sunsetted altogether.

What’s worse is the ripple effect. Talented early-career professionals now see instability. Refugees and immigrants wonder if they were ever really welcome. Private-sector experts question whether the sacrifice is worth it.

This is more than just organizational reshuffling. It’s a loss of momentum and, for many, a loss of faith. We’re not just losing people; we’re losing trust, and that’s harder to rebuild.

The bar should be high — but the door should be open

I still believe in a high bar. These roles shape policy, security, and lives. They should demand excellence. But excellence and exclusivity aren’t the same.

Too often, our hiring systems reward familiarity over capability. They favor the polished, not the prepared. They assume that if you don’t speak the language of USAJobs or clearance investigations, you must not belong. That’s not merit — that’s legacy.

We can do better. We can build systems that uphold rigor and recognize resilience. That treats unconventional paths as assets, not risks. That makes space for the startup founder, the refugee, the self-taught technologist — the person who didn’t grow up imagining they’d work in government, but showed up anyway.

Final thoughts

Public service isn’t perfect. But it’s one of the few places where your work can outlive you.

I didn’t come from the system, but I was trusted to help improve it. I built things that mattered. I brought urgency where there was inertia. I advocated for the user when no one else was in the room. And I did it all with the perspective of someone who never expected to be let in and never took the opportunity for granted.

Keep the bar high. But keep the door open.

We can’t afford to lose them.

And we can’t afford to lose what they still have to offer.

This piece isn’t a eulogy. It’s a message to leadership: Don’t confuse short-term disruption with long-term disqualification. The people who were laid off aren’t gone — they’re watching. They’re weighing whether government will still make space for builders, reformers, and outsiders. If we let this moment pass without intention, we risk shrinking the very table we worked so hard to expand.

The post We came in believing. We left in silence. appeared first on DefenseScoop.

The aim is to “cut wasteful spending” and “support the continued rationalization” of the Defense Department’s IT enterprise, Hegseth wrote.

The move comes amid a broader push by the Trump administration to implement Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiatives across federal agencies.

Hegseth’s new memo to senior Pentagon leadership ordered the termination of contracts affecting a variety of DOD components, including a Defense Health Agency contract for consulting services; an Air Force contract to re-sell third party enterprise cloud IT services; a Navy contract for business process consulting services; and a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) contract for IT helpdesk services.

In a video released on social media touting these DOGE-related efforts, Hegseth estimated that those contract terminations would save the Pentagon approximately $1.8 billion, $1.4 billion, $500 million and $500 million, respectively.

“These contracts represent non-essential spending on third party consultants to perform services more efficiently performed by the highly skilled members of our DoD workforce using existing resources,” he wrote in the memo.

Hegseth also tasked the Pentagon CIO to work with the DOGE team to produce a plan within 30 days for how DOD will in-source IT consulting and management services to the department’s civilian workforce.

The new call for in-sourcing comes as Pentagon leaders are advancing efforts to make major cuts to the civilian workforce. Hegseth has said he wants to reinvest savings from employee reductions into higher-priority warfighting capabilities.

The plan from the CIO that Hegseth ordered in Thursday’s memo must also address how the Defense Department will negotiate “most favorable rates on software and cloud services, so the DoD pays no more for IT services than any other enterprise in America,” the SecDef wrote.

The memo also tasks the chief information officer to complete an audit of Pentagon software licensing by April 18. The purpose of the audit is “to ensure we are only paying for the licenses we actually use, the features we actually need, at the most favorable rates,” according to Hegseth.

Katie Arrington is currently performing the duties of DOD CIO.

Earlier this week at the Sea-Air-Space conference, Navy Chief Information Officer Jane Rathbun said DOGE and the DOD CIO were reviewing the service’s software enterprise.

“It’s all about making the right investments in modernizing, but modernizing with an eye towards effectiveness and efficiency. We’ve got this new administration. We’ve got the DOGE in working with us, and they’re focused on effective consumption of commercial software. Are we doing the best job we can deliver in buying and utilizing the software that we have?” she said.

The Navy is a huge purchaser of software licenses, Rathbun noted.

“It’s a big number. And so are we buying effectively? Are we utilizing the things that we’re buying effectively? There’s always opportunity for improvement. And I would say that’s an area in my portfolio that I want to focus on but have not a lot of people to do that, which is something that has always bothered me and I want to be doing better at is really this optimization concept. I’ve got to continuously modernize but I have to do it in an optimal way,” she said.

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“Unfortunately, after years of misplaced priorities and poor management, our defense acquisition system does not provide the speed and flexibility our Armed Forces need to have decisive advantages in the future. In order to strengthen our military edge, America must deliver state‐of‐the‐art capabilities at speed and scale through a comprehensive overhaul of this system,” Trump stated in the directive.

The EO on “Modernizing Defense Acquisition and Spurring Innovation in the Defense Industrial Base,” directs Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Pentagon leadership to complete a comprehensive review of all major defense acquisition programs (MDAPs) within 90 days.

Any program more than 15 percent behind schedule, 15 percent over cost, unable to meet any key performance parameters, or “unaligned” with the SecDef’s mission priorities, could get the axe.

“The Secretary of Defense shall submit the potential cancellation list to the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for future budget determinations,” Trump wrote.

After that review is completed, the Pentagon chief must provide the director of the Office of Management and Budget with a plan for reviewing all other “major systems” that aren’t categorized as major defense acquisition programs.

“It is the policy of the United States Government to accelerate defense procurement and revitalize the defense industrial base to restore peace through strength. To achieve this, the United States will rapidly reform our antiquated defense acquisition processes with an emphasis on speed, flexibility, and execution,” per the EO.

The directive also tasks Hegseth to submit a plan within 60 days to reform the Pentagon’s acquisition processes, including a preference for commercial solutions, other transaction authority, application of Rapid Capabilities Office policies, and other pathways to encourage streamlined acquisitions.

“Starting upon issuance of this order, and during the formation of the plan, the Secretary of Defense shall prioritize use of these authorities in all pending Department of Defense contracting actions and require their application, where appropriate and consistent with applicable law, for all Department of Defense contracting actions pursued while the plan directed by this section is under consideration,” Trump stated.

Trump also wants to update the “duties and composition” of DOD’s acquisition workforce.

Within 120 days, Hegseth — in coordination with the secretaries of the Army, Navy and Air Force, and component acquisition executives — must submit a plan to “reform, right-size, and train the acquisition workforce.”

The plan should include “restructuring of performance evaluation metrics for acquisition workforce members to include the ability to demonstrate and apply a first consideration of commercial solutions, adaptive acquisition pathways through the Adaptive Acquisition Framework, and iterative requirements based on the perspective of the end user,” as well as an analysis of acquisition workforce staff levels required to “develop, deliver, and sustain warfighting capabilities,” per the EO.

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The effort is part of the new Workforce Acceleration and Recapitalization Initiative that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth launched in late March.

In two memorandums, obtained and authenticated by DefenseScoop Tuesday, Feinberg directs Defense Department leadership to carry out an incentive program and comprehensive organizational review that Hegseth ordered as part of a broader, disruptive campaign to promote efficiency by reorganizing the department’s workforce and investments.

“I will lead the DOD effort to rebalance and optimize its civilian workforce to urgently rebuild our military, revive the warrior ethos, and deliver maximum deterrence,” Feinberg wrote in the new directive on the organizational review and potential restructuring.

The guidance was sent to Pentagon leadership, combatant commanders, and defense agency and DOD field activity directors.

He confirmed that the “proposed future-state organizational charts” that Hegseth previously requested, which are set to be delivered to Feinberg by April 11, mark an early step in achieving the overarching aims.

Those proposals for the preliminary review “should communicate potential opportunities to reduce or eliminate redundant or non-essential functions and include adjusted civilian manpower levels that reflect these projected changes,” Feinberg wrote.

The Pentagon’s No. 2 told DOD component leaders to conduct a more detailed assessment based on additional guidance attached to the memo and to provide updated proposals to the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness by May 24. Those suggestions will inform the department’s fuller, comprehensive review and other organizational modifications in fiscal years 2025 and 2026.

“Every civilian role should directly enable lethality, readiness, or strategic deterrence. If not, it should be reclassified, outsourced, or removed,” Feinberg wrote in the attached guidance.

“Every role must now meet a simple test: If this position didn’t exist today, and we were at war tomorrow, would we create it? If the answer is no, it should be consolidated, restructured, or eliminated,” he added.

In the process, DOD will aim to consolidate duplicative functions, overlapping offices, and parallel authorities while also eliminating any identified excessive layers of supervision and middle management. 

Further, Feinberg said “Digital-First Operations” associated with technology innovation will be prioritized in this new initiative.

“We should modernize or eliminate manual workflows, paper-based processes, and outdated IT platforms and leverage automation and artificial intelligence to power the mission impact of our civilian workforce,” he wrote. 

Pentagon Spokesman Eric Pahon told DefenseScoop in a statement over email that this memo sets off “one of the most ambitious efforts in decades to modernize how the department is organized and operates.” 

“This is about more than efficiency — it’s about designing a workforce and structure that moves at the speed of today’s challenges,” Pahon said.

In a separate issuance on the WAR initiative focused on providing incentivizes to DOD’s workforce, Feinberg directed DOD component heads this week to “identify and reserve appropriate funding for civilian awards and bonus pools to recognize and reward truly outstanding performance,” adding that he will “also support a broader utilization of bonuses to ensure the department is best positioned to recruit and retain extraordinary civilian employees.”

He called on the undersecretary of defense for P&R to supply him with their recommendations for changes to the department’s civilian personnel performance management and promotion systems within 60 days of the memo’s release. 

Feinberg is “asking leaders across the department to use bonuses and awards not just as a tool — but as a strategy. A strategy to attract, empower, and celebrate extraordinary civilian talent at a time when their contributions are more vital than ever … As we continue to streamline and modernize the Department’s structure over the next 12 to 18 months, this initiative helps ensure that our best people remain at the center of the mission,” Pahon said.

The post Feinberg releases new guidance for DOD’s civilian workforce shakeup appeared first on DefenseScoop.

Voluntary early retirement authority will also be offered.

The initiatives, ordered by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, come as the Pentagon is looking to reduce its civilian workforce and implement the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) efforts.

“The DoD DRP provides a generous opportunity for employees to enter a paid leave status for several months, prior to resigning or retiring. Employees pending approval or approved for the DoD DRP will not be subject to Return to In-Person Work requirements,” Jules Hurst III, acting undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, wrote in an April 1 memo to senior Pentagon leadership, combatant commanders, and DOD agency and field directors.

“Exemptions to DRP should be rare,” he noted.

However, principal staff assistants and DOD component heads may exempt “mission critical positions” from the offerings and deny workers’ requests to participate.

“PSAs and DoD Component heads will ensure that all eligible employees in their respective organizations are notified of the availability of DoD DRP and VERA, and are provided a means to elect to participate,” Hurst wrote.

He added: “PSAs and DoD Component heads will conduct the analysis required by 10 U.S.C. § 129a when determining which positions will be exempt. They should also consider the loss of that position’s impact on readiness and the performance of mission essential functions.”

Eligible workers can choose early retirement without participating in the deferred resignation program.

Employees approved for either initiative will have to leave federal service by Sept. 30, which is the end of the fiscal year.

Probationary employees are eligible to participate in the deferred resignation program. However, it’s not available for Non-Appropriated Fund employees, Foreign Local National employees, Dual-Status Military Technicians, Highly Qualified Experts, and Re-Employed Annuitants, according to the memo.

“Employees participating in the DoD DRP will begin administrative leave no earlier than May 1, 2025. Before beginning administrative leave, employees must enter a written agreement to resign or retire by September 30, 2025. Retiring employees will not be permitted to extend until December 31, 2025. Where appropriate, management may agree not to establish a debt for unfulfilled time-in-service requirements,” Hurst wrote.

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Hegseth signed a memo on Friday, “Initiating the Workforce Acceleration and Recapitalization Initiative,” that was directed to senior Pentagon leadership, combatant commands, and defense agency and field activity directors. The move comes as department leaders are looking to shed civilian employees and reinvest the savings elsewhere as part of the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency efforts.

“It’s an important new opportunity to right-size DOD,” Hegseth said in a video.

“The Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness (USD(P&R)) will immediately open the DoD Deferred Resignation Program and offer the Voluntary Early Retirement Authority to all eligible DoD civilian employees. Exemptions should be rare. My intent is to maximize participation so that we can minimize the number of involuntary actions that may be required to achieve the strategic objectives,” Hegseth wrote in the March 28 memo, which was viewed by DefenseScoop.

Prior to the issuance of the new directive, the Pentagon was already placing more than 20,000 employees on administrative leave and a path to full termination, following staff approval for voluntary participation in the Trump administration’s previous round of the Elon Musk-inspired “fork in the road” initiative, according to officials.

“Employees who accept deferred resignations should promptly have their duties re-assigned or eliminated and be placed on paid administrative leave until the end of the deferred resignation period (generally September 30, 2025, unless the employee has designated an earlier resignation date), unless the agency head determines that it is necessary for the employee to be actively engaged in transitioning job duties, in which case employees should be placed on paid administrative leave as soon as those duties are transitioned,” the acting director of the Office of Personnel Management wrote in a Jan. 28 memo.

In his March 28 memo, Hegseth emphasized that the department needs to realign resources.

“DoD civilians already support mission-critical requirements, but an honest analysis will reveal opportunities to consolidate duplicative functions, reject excessive bureaucracy, and implement technological solutions that automate routine tasks, particularly at the headquarters level. The net effect will be a reduction in the number of civilian full-time equivalent positions, and increased resources in the areas where we need them most,” he wrote.

Defense officials previously said Pentagon leadership was aiming to reduce DOD’s civilian workforce by 5-8 percent — upwards of 50,000 employees — via multiple pathways, including the Deferred Resignation Program, removing certain probationary employees and instituting a civilian hiring freeze.

“Important changes are required to put the department on ready footing to deter our enemies and fight for peace. This is not about a target number of layoffs at the DoD. The intent is to execute a top-to-bottom methodology that results in a force structure that is lean, mean, and prepared to win,” Hegseth wrote in the new memo.

He directed the secretaries of the military departments, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, directors of defense agencies and field activities, and his principal staff assistants to deliver a “proposed future-state organizational chart.”

“It will reflect required analysis and include functional areas, consolidated management hierarchy, and position titles and counts clearly depicted,” he wrote.

The undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness is expected to submit the initial proposal to Deputy Secretary of Defense Stephen Feinberg by April 11.

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Margie Palmieri, the longtime senior CDAO official who’s temporarily heading the office until the Trump administration names a new chief, sent an email to her colleagues Thursday that provides insight into how implementation of President Donald Trump’s DOGE directive across the federal government is impacting the military’s artificial intelligence hub.

DOGE is an acronym for Department of Government Efficiency, an initiative that’s being led by billionaire Trump adviser Elon Musk.

“We recognize the many moving pieces [with regards to] personnel moves in CDAO and appreciate your patience and support as we respond to emerging guidance and events,” Palmieri wrote.

Agency leaders across the federal government have been scurrying to carry out the mandate Trump announced early into his second administration to “maximize efficiency” via a massive, rapid reduction of the civilian workforce and major budget shifts. Certain moves agencies are pursuing to meet the objectives are now under litigation — leaving some federal employees’ work statuses in limbo.

Following Trump’s order, Pentagon leaders are planning to cut more than 50,000 of the DOD’s 900,000-plus civilian personnel, via the application of three primary mechanisms: the deferred resignation program that employees can opt to participate in; removing probationary staff; and setting a temporary hiring pause.

In Thursday’s email, Palmieri pointed out that “DoD remains in a hiring freeze,” but that on Wednesday officials from the Personnel and Readiness directorate “provided additional guidance on exemptions.” She noted that those include for “positions essential to national security to be filled by non-competitive reassignment, detail, conversion, term or temporary employees, reemployed annuitants, and Intergovernmental Personnel Act employees.”

“DoD is still limited in the number of people it can hire, but the new guidance gives us more flexibility to request exemptions. We will work with hiring managers to determine if any outstanding hires fit into this category, and we expect further guidance to be forthcoming for additional exemptions,” Palmieri wrote.

In recent weeks, CDAO spokespersons have repeatedly declined to share estimates for how many of the office’s employees are part of the pool of more than 20,000 who were granted approval to depart through the deferred resignation program — or its number of recently hired or promoted workers who are in a trial period that gives them probationary status.

Palmieri wrote in her email Thursday that the office has “not terminated any probationary employees” so far.

Elsewhere in the email, she noted that shortly after his Senate confirmation and swearing in last week, Deputy Secretary of Defense Stephen Feinberg “has been getting up to speed on the POM-26 [budget] relook and held a great first Unders meeting” with the principal staff assistants.

She also highlighted “front office changes” happening at CDAO, with transitions planned to play out over the next month.

Specifically, Chris Skaluba, who serves as the executive director and acting principal deputy CDAO, and the office’s Chief of Staff Amy Schafer are exiting in early April. Both entered their positions about a year ago.

Palmieri confirmed that Danny Holtzman will step into the acting principal deputy role. According to CDAO’s website, Holtzman was serving as deputy executive director and acting deputy CDAO for acquisition and assurance. Palmieri said that Andy Mapes will join the front office to cover executive director and chief of staff duties. The email did not provide information about Mapes’ expertise or where the official is moving from.

“We continue to have incredible advocacy and support for the work we do at multiple levels inside and outside DoD,” Palmieri also wrote.

DefenseScoop has reached out to CDAO spokespersons for comment.

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Questions have swirled inside the DOD since President Donald Trump directed all federal agencies to dramatically shrink their civilian workforces early into his second administration. 

Those efforts began with actions by multiple agencies across the federal government to fire recently hired or promoted workers who are in a trial period known as probationary status. Several recent legal decisions, however, have reversed those terminations — at least temporarily. The decisions include an order from a Baltimore-based federal district judge affecting 18 federal agencies and another from a San Francisco-based federal district judge affecting six agencies, including DOD.  

Although it’s not a definitive number of all probationary employees separated from DOD to date, a new declaration filed in the case before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California sheds light on some of the early impacts defense personnel are experiencing as a result of Trump’s order. 

In the filing, Timothy Dill — the official performing the duties of the assistant secretary of defense for manpower and reserve affairs — revealed DOD records indicate that since Feb. 13, the department “separated, or notified of termination, 364 probationary employees in light of recent” guidance from the Office of Personnel Management.

Since then, the Pentagon “directed DOD military departments and components to offer reinstatement or revoke pending termination notices for these employees,” he noted. The department started a process to rehire roughly 65 employees, so far.

“The remainder are pending notification, declined to accept the offer of reinstatement, or requested additional time to consider the offer,” Dill wrote.

This declaration came after Judge William Alsup requested information from the government about placing reinstated probationary employees on administrative leave. 

Alsup cited “news reports” that at least one agency had placed reinstated staff on administrative leave, and said that was “not allowed by the preliminary injunction.” He later followed up that request, noting that the documents the government provided showing compliance with an order from the District of Maryland didn’t include DOD, and asked for an update from the Pentagon.

In the declaration, Dill confirmed that staff being reinstated are being placed on administrative leave from the time of their termination until they complete appropriate onboarding procedures. Those with pending statuses will remain on administrative leave until a decision is made about their future.

That process appears to reflect a similar approach being taken at other agencies. In the declarations provided in the District of Maryland case, most of the 18 agencies said they were placing reinstated workers on administrative leave.

In a response Thursday, the unions and other organizations that brought the Northern District of California case argued that the information the government provided — including the statement from DOD — doesn’t show compliance with the preliminary injunction.

Specifically, the plaintiffs said the government falls short “by failing to communicate the information ordered by the Court; and by placing previously-terminated employees back only on ‘administrative leave’ rather than returning to service.”

The plaintiffs include AFL-CIO affiliates the American Federation of Government Employees and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Main Street Alliance, the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks, and other groups.

In an off-camera press briefing Tuesday, two senior defense officials noted that removing probationary employees is one of three primary mechanisms DOD is applying to carry out its workforce reduction process across a pool of more than 900,000 employees. Originally, as part of the plan, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced aims for the department to part ways with about 5,400 probationary employees.

“The first removals of probationary employees were directly focused on employees that were documented as significantly underperforming in their job functions, and/or had misconduct on the record,” a senior defense official told reporters.

They also suggested that in recent weeks “there has been no other signal from the department on future intended removals of probationary employees.”

It remains unclear on Thursday where technology-aligned positions fall among the Trump administration’s priorities for what roles will be retained during their major workforce reduction effort. 

DefenseScoop sent requests for more information to spokespersons at DOD’s personnel and readiness directorate, Chief Information Office, Chief Digital and AI Office, Defense Innovation Unit, All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office and the Defense Information Systems Agency.

A communications official for the P&R directorate referred DefenseScoop to each of those individual offices for breakdowns of their probationary terminations and reinstatements. 

Spokespersons from the department’s CIO and DIU acknowledged the inquiries but haven’t yet provided responses. CDAO and AARO spokespersons declined to provide personnel numbers or share details about the impacts on their workforce.

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