Direct hire authority allows the hiring of candidates without use of standard procedures. Image: Matthew Nichols1/Shutterstock.com
OPM has approved government-wide direct hire authority for certain positions related to work on artificial intelligence, citing what it called a “critical hiring need” for such skills.
The authority, effective through 2028 unless ended earlier, will apply to grades GS-9 through -5 to information technology specialist (occupational series 2210), computer scientist-artificial intelligence (1550), computer engineer-artificial intelligence (0854) and management and program analyst (0343), says the memo.
Direct hire authority allows the hiring of candidates without use of standard procedures into competitive service career, career-conditional, term, or temporary positions for which there is a need to fill positions that traditional hiring procedures aren’t filling. The agency must use an assessment method to determine whether a candidate is qualified but after such a determination the candidate may be hired—subject to meeting suitability and security clearance requirements—without conducting additional ratings to determine relative degrees of qualifications.
Using the same language as in prior direct hire authorizations—such as one last fall for many STEM-related occupations—OPM said that agencies “should assess applicants in the order in which the applications were received and select any qualified applicant in an order that approximates order of receipt.
“Qualified candidates with veterans’ preference should be selected as they are found, just as any qualified non-preference eligible candidate would be,” says the memo, which notes that agency use of the authority is subject to OPM oversight.
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