Key data leadership roles are becoming vacant as DOGE pushes for access

Leadership vacancies are creating upheaval within many agencies’ data ecosystems, according to a recent report from the nonprofit Data Foundation.

At least seventeen evaluation officers, chief data officers and statistical official positions across federal agencies were considered unoccupied — either without anyone in them or with another official "acting" to fill the role in a non-permanent basis — as of last week when the report was released. That number has gone up since then, said Nick Hart, the Data Foundation’s president and CEO.

“These vacancies, resulting from resignations, retirements, and reductions-in-force, create governance gaps that impact data quality and availability,” the report said.

The leadership gaps may be especially relevant, as Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has been raising concerns over its push to connect government data. These roles associated with the Evidence Act — which Trump himself signed into law in 2019 — are critical, said Hart, especially in “ensuring that privacy protections are appropriately deployed.”

Chief data officers, for example, are meant to help agencies better manage their data. 

“That includes everything from knowing what data an agency is collecting to providing open data and the mechanisms to support the American public's access to that information,” Hart said. 

“They are career officials,” he said of the people leaving vacancies in their wake as they resign, retire or are laid off. “They’re also a fantastic cohort of government leaders, many of whom have years to decades of experience navigating the nuances of government data and trying to improve these systems.”

The report is the second of its kind from the Data Foundation, which launched a platform in February to invite people to share information anonymously so that the nonprofit can track changes on a monthly basis. 

The Data Foundation’s findings also detail the upheaval caused by the termination of research programs and grants; reorganizations of agency data units; and ongoing contract cancellations for data analysis and evaluation services. The Department of Health and Human Services, for example, has shed staff from over a dozen data-gathering teams like the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey.

And it isn’t just leadership that’s leaving. 

“Key federal statistical agencies, including the Census Bureau, are experiencing staff departures that challenge historical knowledge and understanding of key data assets used to produce reliable economic and demographic information,” the report stated. 

Now, the Data Foundation is watching for further signals from the budget process. 

“With large discretionary cuts, it's likely that there will continue to be some capacity and systems implications that we'll be working to sort through in coming weeks,” said Hart.