'DOGE' squad': Meet the six young engineers in Elon Musk's secretive unit

Musk praised DOGE squad

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has praised employees in the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), for 'doing right thing for American people' despite receiving death threats on a regular basis. DOGE - the new advisory body created by US President Donald Trump - is headed by Musk.

Musk said 'A lot are just kids. They could get jobs for millions of dollars a year, instead, they come here, earn peanuts, and get death threats.'

Musk heaps praise on DOGE team 'doing right thing for American people' while receiving death threats'A lot are just kids. They could get jobs for millions of dollars a year, instead, they come here, earn peanuts, and get death threats' pic.twitter.com/LrVbQb8WLZ

RT (@RT_com) March 25, 2025

Musk here is talking about DOGE kids who have been dealing with the Americans’ sensitive data, they are a group of engineers, many of whom have only recently graduated from college—and in at least one case, are reportedly still enrolled—has come under scrutiny.

The audio, obtained by ProPublica, captures Leland Dudek, the acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration (SSA), referring to young DOGE staffers as "the DOGE kids" and confirming that they have "broad access" to sensitive Social Security numbers and other personal information.

Many of the engineers have ties to Elon Musk, with at least two connected to Peter Thiel, Musk’s long-time associate. Thiel, a co-founder and chair of the analytics firm Palantir, has been a vocal critic of democracy.

From 19 years to 25 years old individuals handling serious American documents. Here’s a closer look at the fresh DOGE engineers: 

• Edward Coristine: A college student at Northeastern University in Boston, has already interned at Musk's Neuralink and is regarded as an expert in his field. Despite his age, his extensive knowledge of technology and coding has led to significant responsibilities at DOGE.

• Akash Bobba: A UC Berkeley attendee in the management, entrepreneurship, and technology program, previously interned at Bridgewater Associates, Meta, and Palantir. He has also appeared on a now-deleted podcast with Aman Manazir last June, discussing his career experiences.

• Luke Farritor: A former intern at SpaceX, who dropped out of the University of Nebraska to work for Silicon Valley entrepreneur Nat Friedman and currently a Thiel Fellow according to his LinkedIn profile.

•  Ethan Shaotran: he was a senior at Harvard studying computer science and also the founder of an OpenAI-backed startup, Energize AI, he wrote in a Business Insider article. Shaotran says he received a $100,000 grant from OpenAI to build his scheduling assistant, Spark he mentioned in the article. He has also taken part in xAI hackathon, held by Musk's AI company.

• Gautier Cole Killian: Gautier, a McGill University graduate, leverages his experience in high-frequency trading from Jump Trading. While currently volunteering with DOGE, his expertise in algorithms and financial markets positions him to potentially transform the management of government funds.

• Gavin Kliger: He is the eldest in the group and a Berkeley graduate, made headlines with a controversial email that unsettled USAID staff. Known for his leadership and bold decisions, he left a seven-figure salary to join Musk’s mission to reform government systems.

Date Security concerns 

Several Social Security Administration (SSA) employees and watchdog have raised concerns over the unrestricted access to the DOGE staffers to SSA's data systems, including the personal records of Social Security recipients.