Musk Connections: 21 years at SpaceX, currently Vice President of Human Resources. Previously occupied a number of management positions. Described as a “Musk insider,” Bjelde was one of the first employees at SpaceX.
Other Corporate Connections: Bjelde is an investor in a self-piloting drone company called Rain.
DOGE Deployments: OPM
- Bjelde was appointed senior adviser in the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. According to CNN, Bjelde has been credited with directing the OPM to cut its staff by 70%.
- Bjelde and other DOGE members focused on gaining access to federal databases at OPM, such as the Enterprise Human Resources Integration, which would give them access to Social Security numbers of federal employees along with a range of other sensitive information about federal employees.
BJELDE WAS A MEMBER OF THE COMMITTEE THAT FIRED 80% OF TWITTER’S WORKERS
- Bjelde was named in court documents as being part of the “Twitter Severance Administration Committee” in the lawsuits that followed the mass termination of 80% of Twitter’s workforce.
AS ONE OF THE HEADS OF HR AT SPACEX SINCE 2014, BJELDE WAS NAMED IN A CIVIL RIGHTS LAWSUIT FOR ALLEGEDLY PROMOTING A CULTURE OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT
- As the VP of HR at SpaceX, Bjelde was responsible for implementing the Equal Employment Opportunity program. Lawsuits have accused the company of a workplace culture plagued by sexual harassment and racism.
- One lawsuit alleged that Bjelde acted in a company holiday party video which mocks sexual harassment in the workplace. The video reportedly featured an instructional segment which showed “the proper” way to spank Bjelde’s rear.
- The social culture at SpaceX has been likened to a college fraternity. It led eight employees to file a civil rights lawsuit against the company and Musk, in which they claimed, per Bloomberg, “men at the company subjected women to crude jokes that echoed Musk’s tweets, openly stared at their chests, relentlessly asked them out and declared them biologically incapable of being engineers. Rather than punishing the misconduct, the fired employees allege, Musk and other executives punished those who called for change.”
- The employees who filed the civil rights case were fired by SpaceX. The NLRB sued SpaceX for the terminations, while “alleging that the company illegally interrogated, surveilled and retaliated against workers.” The case was temporarily blocked in May 2024, though it is still ongoing.
TESLA HAS BEEN SUED IN STATE AND FEDERAL COURT FOR RACIAL DISCRIMINATION AND HARASSMENT
- Fremont plant worker Owen Diaz won $3.2 million in a racial discrimination lawsuit that was settled in 2024.
- In a 2022 lawsuit against the company, California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing alleged that “Tesla operates a racially segregated workplace where Black workers are subjected to racial slurs and discriminated against in job assignments, discipline, pay, and promotion.” The case has not been resolved.
- Tesla was also sued by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for maintaining a culture of racial harassment and retaliation in 2023. The case is ongoing.
BJELDE HAS FINANCIAL INTERESTS TIED UP IN GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS
- Bjelde was compensated $1.8 million for a federal contract with NASA in 2017.
- Rain, the self-piloting drone company Bjelde is an investor in, collaborated with Lockheed Martin company Sikorsky to demonstrate its technology for NASA, FEMA, and DARPA in 2024. Sikorsky has direct ties to DARPA. Rain was also praised by a16z, Marc Andressen’s investment firm. It is unclear if Rain has direct contracts with any federal agencies.
As Elon Musk’s DOGE continues to tear through agencies with little oversight or transparency, the Revolving Door Project is publishing profiles of reported DOGE employees: who they are, where they came from, and any conflicts of interest that might make their unfettered access to the federal government dangerous to the public. Read them all here.