Amanda Scales is an American businesswoman who is currently serving as the chief of staff of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.
Scales attended the University of California, Davis. [1] During college, she interned for the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, DC, while also teleworking for an internet startup based in Davis, CA. [2] [3] She joined the honors program at the College of Letters and Sciences in 2012. [4]
Scales held talent acquisition positions at tech companies, including Uber, before joining xAI, an Elon Musk company. [5]
In January 2025, Scales was appointed to be chief of staff of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. [6] She was reportedly installed to carry out U.S. president Donald Trump and Musk's directives to purge large numbers of staff from the federal government; agencies were directed to send lists of potentially fireable employees directly to her. [7] Scales is one of the only people with the authority to create exemptions for mass firings across federal agencies. [8]