Scott Kupor's New Plan to Bring Tech Workers Into the Federal Government
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Hello and welcome to another episode of the Oddlots Podcast. I'm Jill Weisenthal.
And I'm Tracy Alloway.
Tracy, one of the topics that we like to talk about, but we haven't talked about it for a while, public sector tech, public sector hiring. We've done a number of episodes on this. It's been a while though since we've uh revisited this question, but it raises so many fascinating things.
I remember the ones that we did with uh Jennifer Palka, which were fantastic. And we got uh a good sense of some of the issues facing um public technology, including I think it was seven thousand requirements in a single RFP. That was at the state level, but you hear stuff like that and it just kind of blows your mind how complex the whole process of developing new technology actually is in government.
Right, so right, and we've also Patrick Mackenzie is the other one we've talked about this with. Like these legacy systems, they have all of this crop or whatever, and some of it's tech, and some of it's related to hiring. Everyone I feel like comes in to the the public sector and they're like, Well, why can't this look more like the private sector, etc.? But I have a I have an observation that I thought about after the last time we talked to Jennifer, which again they're excellent conversations. Maybe we'll move the ball forward. So there are all kinds of obvious problems with the public sector, and we'll get into them. That being said And I think you had the same experience. You hear these descriptions of like say what's bro what's broken with the hiring process and it's like, uh, you know what?
That sounds kind of familiar. I've experienced that in the private sector too. Yeah. A lot of these pathologies seem to exist in large organizations. I was gonna say I think it's in I was gonna say I think it's in
it's endemic to bureaucracy. Yeah. Right. And I remember Jennifer specifically saying that like one of the main choke points is just the operational process of getting stuff approved or getting a new candidate through a hiring process that has been dictated by human resources and you have to fit into certain slots or certain categories. So it's a big deal.
But that's the the whole dealing with HR thing and their role as gatekeepers of the hiring process and their role. I love our HR people here at Bloomberg. I'm just saying some of it sounded a little bit familiar. That's all I'm gonna say. Some of it sounded a little bit familiar. Fair. So of course we know that the new administration of course lots of people from the tech world have come to it. I think probably most famously Elon Musk and the whole Doge endeavor, which You know, we'll get into perhaps uh where where we stand on the verdict for that, but widely viewed is not particularly transformational, et cetera.
What is the role of the Office of Personnel Management and why is it crucial for federal hiring?
Nonetheless, a lot of like buy-in, a lot of people from the tech world thinking about what aspects of our most dynamic industry in America can be brought into the public sector to perhaps make it a More dynamic place, maybe more efficient, maybe more effective, and uh maybe a more desirable place to work for talented people.
Right. And the government, the Office of Personnel Management, is launching a new cross government program, right? To recruit top technologists to modernize the federal government. And I would just add It kind of has some new urgency because the Trump administration has identified the AI race with China as like this existential threat to the US. So you you can see stuff kind of coalescing.
Totally. Well, we literally do have the perfect guest because we are going to be speaking with the director of the Office of Personnel Management in DC.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–3:24
2
What is the role of the Office of Personnel Management and why is it crucial for federal hiring?
3:24–23:51
3
Why did Scott Kupor leave Andreessen Horowitz to lead OPM’s tech recruitment effort?
23:51–34:47
4
What is the US Tech Force program and how does it differ from past government tech initiatives?
34:47–39:09
5
How does the US Tech Force address the federal government’s talent pipeline and early‑career hiring challenges?
39:09–1:01:47
Speakers
8 identifiedMore from Odd Lots
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