The Department of Government Efficiency is the new Trump administration’s main vehicle for at least starting the process of change at many federal agencies and on a very fast turn.

Natalie Alms, who covers federal technology policy and tech workforce matters at our partner publication NextgovFCW, broke the story that DOGE’s leader Elon Musk visited the General Services Administration’s headquarters and is asserting his influence there.

What was he doing there? Nat joins our Ross Wilkers in this episode to answer that question and many others surrounding GSA’s role in the Trump 2.0 transition.

Be sure to read Nat’s articles below as they take you close to the action, and are the foundation for her discussion with Ross.

Senate Democrats call for DOGE to halt until details are provided

Musk takes aim at GSA tech shop

Musk visits and asserts growing influence at GSA

Musk's role as ‘special government employee’ raises ethics questions

GSA announces new FAS, TTS leadership

GSA will ‘recommit’ to ‘founding purpose,’ says acting administrator

As the Trump administration gathers names of recent hires, some are being asked to justify their jobs

Trump administration opens the door to politicize government tech executives

Gregory Barbaccia named federal CIO

The first two weeks of President Trump’s second but non-consecutive term in office have brought with it a breathless pace of executive orders and other actions that government contractors must take note of.

Clarity on many of those moves, including a (maybe? sort of? but not really?) freeze on certain contracting activities remains hard to come by.

In this episode, Nick and Ross work through the questions that they can provide some answers to on what has happened so far. They also highlight the questions everyone in the ecosystem is seeking answers to.

As they say, drop a line if you have an answer or at least part of one to help solve more of the mysteries.

Where can GovCon find clarity in the Trump transition turbulence?

ANALYSIS: Signs of small business shifts to watch out for

GSA procurement pause sparks confusion

Lockheed's CEO: Efficiency push is 'an opportunity' for both industry and government

First wave of DEI-related contract cancellations hit the market

Contractors face greater scrutiny from anti-DEI executive orders

CACI's CEO weighs in on efficiency and acquisition

COMMENTARY: Contractors embrace Trump's potential to modernize procurement

Accenture Federal’s new CEO eyes AI-driven transformation during Trump 2.0

Industry execs weigh potential impacts of presidential transition

Many questions about talent in public sector often center around the hiring process and what happens after the offer letter is signed, that being the onboarding phase.

Where technology fits into agencies’ efforts at making the entire lifecycle more seamless is the focus of this episode featuring Jill Jones and Yoko Jolly, respectively chief strategy officer and federal market leader at CrossVue.

In talking with our Ross Wilkers, Jones and Jolly also offer their perspectives on how agencies are addressing the challenge of scaling the tech they use for human capital management.

(The survey mentioned in this episode was produced by Market Connections, which is owned by WT’s parent company GovExec)

Jacobs carved out its Critical Mission Solutions and Cyber and Intelligence businesses in late 2024, but still remains a technology company for the markets it does work in.

In this episode, Shannon Miller — Jacobs' president of growth, strategy and digital — discusses how Jacobs has evolved following that divestiture of its federal-facing units to Amentum.

Miller told WT Editor Nick Wakeman that Jacobs' tech strategy focuses on applying digital solutions and artificial intelligence to critical infrastructure, environmental sustainability, and life sciences challenges.

That includes incorporating AI into water treatment plants, infrastructure resilience tools at Air Force bases.

She also outlines Jacobs' strategic focus areas: addressing climate challenges, advancing life sciences solutions, developing sustainable transportation infrastructure, and tackling talent shortages through AI and automation.

WT 360: Where Amentum wants to go next following its big merger

A reader's guide to 'New Amentum' on its launch day

WT 360: Our snap reax to Jacobs' spinoff plan

WT 360: Jacobs' third wave is all about data and tech

The ongoing transition to a Trump 2.0 administration is far from the only key happening that government contractors have to take note of and follow closely with 2025 now underway.

But our first episode of this New Year has to start with transition talk. We do just that with the help of Stephanie Smith, GovCon industry senior analyst and valuation services director at the global professional services firm RSM.

Here are the other big-picture items Smith and our Ross Wilkers went over:

• The nexus of macroeconomics and industrial policy
• Cyber and supply chain security priorities
• The U.S.’ push to regain global tech leadership
• Customer demand areas that remain paramount
• M&A transaction themes to watch in 2025

The ongoing White House transition is unprecedented because before Donald Trump’s (re)-election in November, Grover Cleveland’s win in 1892 was the last time a president was voted into office with a gap between terms. 

David Berteau, president and CEO of the Professional Services Council, and his team are fielding many questions on the transition from government contractors they represent as one of their leading trade associations.

In this episode, Berteau explains to our Nick Wakeman and Ross Wilkers what contractors are asking the PSC team about and all the key indicators that matter to industry when a new administration moves in.

Some priorities are poised to carry over like the CMMC cybersecurity standard, but time will tell if others continue on. The Biden administration also has priorities to work on as it moves out and Berteau goes over those as well.

(We recorded this conversation before the final 2025 National Defense Authorization Act's text was released. The reading list below includes coverage of it from our GovExec colleagues.)

FY2025 NDAA angles to enhance DOD’s AI and quantum sciences capabilities

FY2025 NDAA targets spyware threats to U.S. diplomats, military devices

Could Biden’s recent strategy to streamline government hiring be scuttled under Trump?

Trump teams to deploy throughout government after reaching agreement with the Biden administration

OMB releases federal tech impact report as Biden admin winds down

How the federal CIO is prepping for the presidential transition

‘Shock the system’: Startups and DOGE take over Reagan forum

Defense officials hopeful incoming administration keeps funding cutting-edge tech

When Leidos unveiled its current structure in the fall of 2023, chief executive Tom Bell emphasized repeatability as how the company would approach its digital transformation efforts for agencies.

That means Leidos has a single business segment dedicated to digital modernization and one that covers the company’s entire customer base. 

In this episode, Leidos’ digital modernization president Steve Hull explains why the company decided to put all of that work under one roof and how it defines “repeatability” in its offerings for agencies.

Leidos has four other customer-facing sectors that Hull’s team is in close contact with to find out what their particular client sets need, as he explains to our Ross Wilkers in a conversation that of course covers much of today’s major tech trends like artificial intelligence and autonomy.

Some jobs will require college degrees for as far as the eyes can see.

But in this episode, NextgovFCW’s tech workforce reporter Natalie Alms describes how what government and business leaders call “skills-based hiring” is becoming more of the norm for certain tech jobs.

As Natalie tells our Ross Wilkers, some agencies and contractors are de-emphasizing educational requirements for those roles and replacing them with other means.

Three big government contracts are now all about skills-based hiring. “Nat,” as some of us coworkers call her, gives some signposts to watch for how much further that approach could expand across public sector and more.

We recorded this episode before Nat’s next big story she teased toward the end landed on Nextgov/FCW. That article is link number one in the list below.

Trump’s first White House debated the role of USDS. What will Trump 2.0 do?

Major federal IT contracts to remove ‘unnecessary’ degree requirements

Harris touts skills-based hiring for feds on the campaign trail

Mace sponsors bill to ban educational requirements for government contractors

Goodbye degree requirements? Biden administration pushes skills-based hiring for tech talent

White House looks to eliminate college degree requirements for cyber jobs with federal contractors

Never mind the degrees – here's skills-based hiring

OPM issues guidance on implementing Trump-era hiring policy

Big mergers that essentially create new companies require a lot of work to harmonize all of the people, processes and resources into something more cohesive across the organization.

Jeremy Wensinger joined V2X as chief executive in June to lead this new phase of what he calls “optimization” now that all the integration activities stemming from the 2022 merger that made the company are done.

In this episode, Wensinger explains to our Ross Wilkers how V2X is working to optimize the broader portfolio it now has in the name of growth and expansion across the government market. 

Wensinger also describes where he sees V2X residing in the still-very fragmented federal services landscape, how it approaches technology insertion and what this new chapter means for the company’s 16,000 employees.

One of the government market’s most-anticipated transactions closed on Sept. 30 when what we can call “Old Amentum” joined forces with Jacobs’ federal-facing units.

This episode sees Steve Arnette, chief operating officer at what we can now call “New Amentum,” take our Ross Wilkers through all that went into putting this larger company together and where everyone wants to go from here.

Underpinning this new version of Amentum’s vision and goals is what it calls a “technology-enabled growth strategy.” Arnette walks through that very strategy, how it applies to the company’s priority markets and what all of this means for Amentum’s 53,000 employees around the world.