The US Digital Service seems to have benefitted from having real technologists run it. The current leader is Matt Cutts, the former public face of Google's anti-spam efforts for search.
I remember in my interactions with the White House petitions site folk (when I worked for Avaaz and helped integrate both systems) always impressed me as being very smart and dedicated. Sadly, at some point (during the Trump administration) I lost my White House Github badge. I thought it was quite cool.
