Mr. Elon Musk has turned to Silicon Valley to aid recruit executives who will take up unofficial posts across the federal government.

An unpaid set of billionaires, tech executives and some followers of Peter Thiel, an influential Republican donor, are preparing to take up unofficial positions in the United States government in the name of cost-cutting. As President-elect Donald Trump’s so-called DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) girds for fight against “wasteful” expenditure, it is preparing to dispatch individuals with connection to its co-leaders, Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk, to agencies across the federal government.

After Inauguration Day, the set of Silicon Valley-inflected, wide-eyed recruits will be positioned at Washington’s alphabet soup of agencies. The aim is for most key agencies to eventually have two DOGE representatives as they seek to cut costs like Mr. Elon Musk did at X, his social media platform. On the eve of Donald Trump’s presidency, the structure of DOGE is still vague and closely held. People involved in the operation say that confidentiality and evading leaks is paramount, and much of its communication happens on Signal, the encrypted messaging app.

Mr. Donald Trump has said the effort would drive “drastic change,” and that the entity would offer outside advice on how to cut spending. DOGE itself will have no authority to cut spending — that power rests with Congress. Instead, it is expected to offer recommendations for programs and other areas to cut.

But some parts of the operation are becoming clear: Several of the executives involved are expecting to do half-year voluntary stints inside the federal government before retreating to their high-paying jobs. Elon Musk has said they will not be paid — a nonstarter for many originally attracted tech executives — and have been requested by him to work 80-hour weeks. Some, perhaps including Mr. Musk, will be so-called special government employees, a specific category of impermanent workers who can only work for the federal government for 130 days or less in a year.

The representatives will mostly be stationed inside federal agencies. After some consideration by top officials, DOGE itself is now improbable to incorporate as an organized outside entity or nonprofit. Instead, it is expected to exist as more of a brand for an interlinked group of motivated leaders who are on joint group chats and share a loyalty to Mr. Ramaswamy or Mr. Musk.

“The cynics among us will say, ‘Oh, it’s naïve billionaires stepping into the fray.’ But the other side will say this is a service to the nation that we saw more typically around the founding of the nation,” said Trevor Traina (an entrepreneur who worked in the first Trump administration with associates who have considered joining DOGE).