The US government has announced a ‘Tech Force’ to attract early-stage technology and AI workers to the public sector, just months after 200,000 federal workers were fired by Elon Musk’s controversial DOGE.

The US Tech Force was unveiled earlier this week, comprising a talent development program addressing “critical skills gaps” across the US public service when it comes to software engineering, data science and AI.

It will see mostly early-stage workers and some more experienced tech figures acting as trainers and mentors completing two-year assignments with individual agencies on specific projects.

Office of Personnel Management director Scott Kupor said these projects could include introducing advanced AI into drones and other weapons, developing the Trump Accounts platform at the Internal Revenue Service and using AI to improve intelligence at the State Department.

“If you’re thinking about, long-term, a career in technology, there is no bigger and more complex set of problems we face than in the federal government,” Kupor told the media earlier this week.

Long-term private sector prospects

These tech workers will be on salaries of about $225,000 to $300,000 ($US150,000 to $US200,000) and will have the opportunity to get a job at more than 20 partnering tech organisations at the completion of the program.

The partnering companies, which have not made a direct commitment to hire the participants, include Amazon Web Services, Apple, IBM, Meta, Nvidia, OpenAI and Oracle.

Tech Force workers could be paid upwards of $200,000. Photo: Shutterstock

“There is an incredible race for talent in these areas…so part of what we want to do is be competitive on compensation,” Kupor said.

“They’re going to learn a bunch, they’re going to tackle really complex problems, and then they can ultimately go back to the private sector, if that’s what they want to do, and certainly will have the opportunity to maximise their financial opportunity as a result.”

Applications for Tech Force are now open, and the program is expected to begin in the first quarter of next year.

On its newly launched website, the program bills itself as “tech for the American people” and “elite corps of engineers to build the next generation of government technology”.

It is specifically looking for early-career tech workers focusing on software engineering, AI, cybersecurity, data analytics and technical project management.

Just months after mass job cuts

The Trump administration is looking to implement AI and other technologies across its operations.

In July, Trump signed an AI action plan laying out a number of initiatives and policies focusing on growing local AI infrastructure and cutting regulation to boost competitiveness.

The launch of the recruitment drive comes just months after the controversial Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) laid off about 200,000 federal workers and led to 75,000 others accepting redundancies.

The actions of DOGE led to more than 20 tech workers at the US Digital Service quitting en masse after the agency was folded into the new initiative, led by tech titan Elon Musk.

Musk stepped back from his role at DOGE earlier this year to focus on Tesla.

It now appears that DOGE has been dissolved entirely, with eight months still left to run on its official contract.

US government officials have confirmed it is no longer a centralised entity.

Musk recently said that he believes DOGE was only “somewhat successful”.

The US government also recently imposed a $150,000 application fee for the H-1B visa that is popular among the tech sector.

The top 10 companies using this visa in the US include Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, Apple, Google, AWS and Oracle.

The new fee quickly led to a lawsuit from a coalition of education and research groups, who claim it is unconstitutional and unlawful.