Michael Kratsios Confirmed as Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy
Kratsios has been the acting director since President Donald Trump returned to office in January 2025.
The fourth office within the Executive Office of the President of the United States now has a Senate-confirmed leader nominated by President Donald Trump. The Senate held the confirmation vote earlier today.
In a 74-25 vote, Michael Kratsios was confirmed as Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy. Notably, he has been the Acting Director since January 2025, when Arati Prabhakar resigned after serving since October 2022.
20 Democrats and Independent Angus King of Maine joined all 53 Republicans in approving Kratsios’ nomination. 24 Democrats and Independent Bernie Sanders of Vermont voted in opposition. Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA) did not vote.
Kratsios was nominated to this position by Trump in December 2024. This marks a return to the White House for Kratsios as he previously served as Chief Technology Officer of the United States from January 2017 to January 2021 and concurrently as the Acting Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering from July 2020 to January 2021.
While in college, Kratsios was an intern for Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC). Between 2010 and 2017, he was a principal at Thiel Capital and served as Chief of Staff to venture capitalist Peter Thiel. Since March 2021, he has been Managing Director and Head of Strategy at the data management startup Scale AI Inc.
Reportedly, Kratsios has been a member of the U.S. DOGE Service Temporary Organization since February 2025. That means he has worked directly under Elon Musk in dismantling various agencies of the federal government.