# Akash Bobba Indian-American UC Berkeley graduate and former [[Palantir]] intern who became one of [[DOGE Ecosystem]]'s core young engineers. At 22, Bobba was given access to some of the most sensitive personal data in the federal government — OPM personnel records and SSA databases containing information on virtually every American. His Palantir internship makes him the most direct human link between DOGE's engineering corps and the [[DOGE-Palantir Nexus]]. ## Background & Career Graduated from UC Berkeley's Management, Entrepreneurship, and Technology (MET) program — a selective interdisciplinary track combining engineering and business. During a Berkeley project, after a codebase was accidentally deleted, Bobba reportedly rewrote the entire thing from scratch overnight — better than before — and the team submitted early for first place. ### Internships | Company | Role | Significance | |---------|------|-------------| | **[[Palantir]]** | Intern | Worked on "complex data challenges"; direct link to Thiel ecosystem | | **[[Meta]]** | Intern | AI and data analytics projects | | **[[Bridgewater Associates]]** | Investment engineering intern | Financial modeling at world's largest hedge fund | The Palantir internship is the most politically significant. [[Palantir]] — co-founded by [[Peter Thiel]] — has received nearly $2.5 billion in federal contracts since 2009 and is the analytics backbone of DOGE's spending review and the IRS "mega API" project. Bobba's direct Palantir experience makes him a node connecting DOGE's internal engineering to Palantir's external infrastructure. ## DOGE Role ### Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Primary assignment. Listed as an "expert" within OPM, reporting directly to Amanda Scales (OPM Chief of Staff, formerly involved in hiring at Musk's xAI). OPM maintains personnel records containing background checks, medical records, bank account information, and biometric data for millions of federal employees. ### Social Security Administration (SSA) Secondary deployment, working under the agency's Chief Information Officer, Michael Russo. Among fewer than 50 people with the highest-level access to SSA data. DOGE operatives at SSA — including Bobba's team — pressured top officials to give access to "everything, including source code." ### Department of Education Along with [[Ethan Shaotran]], Bobba had administrator-level status in the [[Department of Education]]'s email system. ## Access & Security Concerns Bobba holds a GSA email address and A-suite level clearance — access to all GSA physical spaces and IT systems. His access portfolio includes: - OPM personnel records (SSNs, birth dates, salaries, home addresses, job descriptions for all federal workers) - SSA databases (records for virtually every American) - Education Department email systems (administrator level) Reports emerged that these hires may have bypassed regular security clearance protocols. Whistleblower testimony indicated difficulty persuading career staff to expedite Bobba's hiring. His LinkedIn profile has been deleted. ## SSA Data Whistleblower Investigation (March 2026) The SSA [[Inspector General]] notified Congress on March 6, 2026, that it is reviewing an anonymous complaint "on matters relating to the potential misuse of SSA data by a former DOGE employee." Allegations include a former DOGE engineer taking sensitive SSA databases — "Numident" and the "Master Death File," containing records for more than 500 million living and dead Americans — on a personal thumb drive, claiming "God-level" access to SSA systems. The engineer allegedly planned to share the data with his new employer, Leidos. While the individual named was John Solly rather than Bobba, the investigation encompasses broader DOGE employee misconduct at SSA. Federal courts found that DOGE affiliates were given access to sensitive personal information they "had no need to know," and that DOGE team members circumvented agency IT rules, improperly shared data on outside servers, and retained access even after judges temporarily blocked it. ## See Also - [[DOGE Ecosystem]] - [[DOGE-Palantir Nexus]] - [[Palantir]] - [[Gavin Kliger]] - [[Luke Farritor]] - [[Ethan Shaotran]] - [[Edward Coristine]]