The National Design Studio (NDS), a White House unit tasked with redesigning government websites, has emerged as a quiet successor to Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), retaining several of its former operatives and much of its opaque, informal approach to hiring and operations. Led by Airbnb cofounder Joe Gebbia, the country's chief design officer, NDS says its aim is to make government sites "beautifully designed" with a "great user experience", but it sits within the Executive Office of the President and appears to bypass standard federal recruitment channels such as USAJobs, echoing DOGE's earlier practices.

Key figures from DOGE's original team, including Edward "Big Balls" Coristine and Akash Bobba, have moved into NDS roles, with Coristine now serving as head of engineering despite a chequered background involving a terminated internship over a suspected data leak. Bobba reportedly retained an unpaid appointment at the Office of Personnel Management until 7 March 2026, months after joining NDS, according to court filings from a federal workers' union lawsuit. An engineer who received a cold recruitment pitch from Coristine described the interview process as informal to the point of having no established structure, with no recruiter present and no clear application route publicly available. The White House, NDS, HHS and OPM did not respond to requests for comment.