Gavin Kliger

Kliger attended UC Berkeley but left without completing a degree. His FEC record shows a single $94 WinRed donation in July 2024 from Dove Canyon, California, listing his employer as Brainstorm — his only documented political contribution before the DOGE deployment ¹. He joined Databricks as a Senior Software Engineer in May 2020 and was still listed under that employment agreement on his OGE disclosure filed after taking government roles ².

On January 20, 2025, Kliger was formally appointed Senior Advisor to the Director for Technology and Delivery at OPM. ProPublica’s DOGE tracker records indicate he was simultaneously detailed to USDA, CFPB, USAID, and seeking access at the IRS ¹. By number of concurrent agency placements, the same records show him among the most widely deployed DOGE figures ³.

Kliger’s OGE Form 278 disclosure — document ID 1987 in the ProPublica database — is the primary financial record of his holdings at the time of government service. The disclosure shows Databricks RSUs valued at $1 million–$5 million and a salary and bonus of $251,000, with the employment agreement listed as Present (May 2020–Present), leaving open whether a formal separation from Databricks occurred before or during his federal service ².

Beyond Databricks, the disclosure itemizes equity positions in companies regulated by or contracting with the agencies where Kliger served: Tesla ($50K–$100K), Apple ($100K–$250K), Alphabet ($50K–$100K), Robinhood Markets ($50K–$100K), and cryptocurrency assets including Bitcoin ($100K–$250K via Robinhood) and Solana ($1K–$15K) ⁴. Additional holdings included Microsoft ($50K–$100K) and Arm Holdings ($15K–$50K) ².

The CFPB placement raised a distinct conflict under that agency’s ethics rules, which prohibit employees from holding equity in firms the bureau regulates. Ethics attorneys warned Kliger in writing that holdings valued up to $715,000 in CFPB-regulated companies barred him from participating in agency actions affecting those companies ⁵. The sequence of events that followed — his role in the subsequent reduction-in-force despite that warning — is detailed in the CFPB section below ⁶.

Kliger entered USAID alongside Jeremy Lewin and Pete Marocco as part of the initial DOGE deployment wave ⁶. At the CFPB, reporting described a reduction-in-force that Kliger personally managed, cutting approximately 1,400 of 1,700 employees — roughly 90 percent of the workforce — in a single action. As noted above, CFPB ethics attorneys had warned him days earlier that his holdings disqualified him from such actions. A former CFPB general counsel characterized the sequence as a likely violation of 18 U.S.C. § 208, the federal criminal conflict-of-interest statute ⁵.

According to Bloomberg Law, Kliger screamed at CFPB staff during the 36-hour layoff process, and bureau records show his departure from CFPB on May 8, 2025 ³. The Revolving Door Project subsequently profiled him as a case study in the DOGE conflict-of-interest pattern, citing the combination of regulated-company holdings, written ethics warnings, and participation in consequential agency actions ⁶.

As Senior Advisor to the OPM Director, Kliger was positioned at the agency that controls personnel records for the entire federal workforce — employment histories, SF-86 security clearance questionnaires, and biometric data. ProPublica’s tracking records show his arrival at OPM alongside that of other technology-sector appointees at the agency’s leadership level ¹.

The same records indicate Kliger sought access to IRS systems while simultaneously holding OPM, USDA, and CFPB positions, and that congressional inquiries and media reporting subsequently cited his concurrent agency placements in the broader debate over DOGE data access practices ¹.