Who is Nikhil Rajpal, the Indian-origin techie in Elon Musk’s DOGE team with key government access

Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) continues to make headlines. Musk has reportedly assembled a team of six young engineers, some as young as 19 and fresh out of college, to work at DOGE. The group, aged between 19 and 24, includes Edward Coristine, Luke Farritor, Gautier Cole Killian, Gavin Kliger, Ethan Shaotran, and another Indian-origin member, Akash Bobba. Among them, one is still reportedly a student.
In a latest, an unassuming Indian-origin techie has quickly become the center of attention in Washington's corridors of power. Nikhil Rajpal, a 30-year-old engineer with a background in computer science and history from UC Berkeley, has emerged as a key figure in Elon Musk’s DOGE task force. As reported by The Wired, Rajpal holds significant government access through his role as a representative of DOGE's task force at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). But who exactly is Rajpal, and why is his role sparking unease across government agencies?

As per the report, before Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter, Rajpal was employed at the company and, earlier in his career, contributed to redesigning a Tesla console. During his undergraduate years, Rajpal led a libertarian-leaning student group that championed “minimal government, free markets, sound money, non-intervention, and maximum individual liberty.”
In 2014, he delivered a 10-minute presentation on bitcoin to Viget, where he was interning. Additionally, an Instapaper account linked from his personal website under the header “Read the articles I read” featured content from sources like Richard Hanania, Quillette, Zero Hedge, the Financial Times, and Bloomberg.

Rajpal’s involvement at NOAA has raised eyebrows and sparked concerns about DOGE’s growing influence in government. Last week, NOAA employees were instructed by Acting Commerce Secretary Jeremy Pelter to grant Rajpal editor access to all NOAA Google sites. This directive came on the heels of an abrupt shake-up: a longtime NOAA employee who led diversity and inclusion initiatives was placed on administrative leave just three weeks before their retirement.
The report mentions that “Nothing in his background suggests any special expertise relevant to his new role.” Adding to the unease, DOGE workers reportedly entered NOAA facilities in Maryland seeking access to IT systems, as confirmed by Wired and earlier reports from Axios. Critics are questioning why a tech engineer with no apparent scientific background is being placed in a position of authority at a nonpartisan agency central to climate science.