The National Design Studio Became a DOGE Landing Pad. Now ‘Big Balls’ Is Recruiting
WIRED spoke with an engineer who was interviewed by Edward “Big Balls” Coristine for a government engineering role at the NDS, the White House agency staffed by other DOGE veterans.
The National Design Studio (NDS), led by Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia, has become a hub for former members of the Do Something Good (DOGE) community. NDS aims to redesign government websites with a focus on aesthetics and user experience, but maintains many characteristics of DOGE, such as an opaque structure and a lack of adherence to government processes.
An anonymous engineer who interviewed for a position at NDS described the interview process as "casual to the point where there was no process established." Unlike typical government job interviews, the NDS interview was conducted via video call without a recruiter, and the interviewer, Edward "Big Balls" Coristine, seemed unfamiliar with the required skill set.
Coristine, a former DOGE member and now head of engineering at NDS, is responsible for a project called Rampart, which aims to prevent personally identifiable information from leaving a user's browser. However, the specifics of how this tool is intended to be used within government services are unclear. NDS, HHS, and OPM did not provide comment on these developments.
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