In keeping with the Biden administration’s major push to hire more AI specialists across the government, the Office of Personnel Management is attempting to facilitate the hiring of AI specialists by agencies.
In a memo released on Friday, OPM stated that it has granted direct hire authority for a few government-wide positions, including IT specialist, computer scientist, computer engineer, and management and program analyst.
“This authorization will assist agency efforts to increase AI capabilities in the federal government,” OPM said in the memo.
With immediate effect, the direct hire authority enables agencies to appoint people to four distinct AI-related positions in specific grade levels on the General Schedule using a more efficient procedure.
The authority covers appointments to competitive service, career, career-conditional, term, and temporary positions and is applicable to newly hired federal employees across the country.
President Joe Biden signed a comprehensive executive order on AI in October, and OPM was granted authorization to hire people directly a few months later. The executive order gave OPM the responsibility of spearheading the hiring of AI specialists for all government agencies.
OPM stated in the memo that agencies can only appoint people directly to positions that will be directly related to implementing the AI executive order, even though roles like IT specialist can have a fairly broad scope.
Direct hire authority generally seeks to expedite the hiring process for agencies by doing away with some candidate rating and ranking processes. According to OPM’s website, agencies are typically granted direct hire authority to fill positions “when a critical hiring need or severe shortage of candidates exists.”
OPM also granted agencies direct hiring authority in September 2023 to add more senior-level workers in operations research and data science, two more fields that might further assist AI-related work. In addition, OPM stated in the memo dated December 29 that specific Schedule A appointments are now permitted to help with the executive order’s implementation.
However, it won’t be simple to staff the government’s AI workforce extensively. Former Deputy Federal Chief Information Officer Maria Roat told Federal News Network that in order to integrate AI into their mission, agencies will need to aggressively hire data scientists and computer scientists.
Furthermore, the Government Accountability Office recently noted that while there may be promising uses of AI for agency work, many applications of AI in government are still in the planning stages rather than being fully implemented.
OPM still has work to do to comply with the AI executive order’s requirements. OPM is also responsible for providing agencies with guidance on how to leverage incentive pay plans or current pay flexibilities to draw AI specialists into government employment. Furthermore, OPM will spearhead a government-wide pooled hiring initiative aimed at integrating AI specialists into agencies.
Jobs at AI.gov are posted in a job portal for those interested in applying to various fellowship programs or working for the government as an AI specialist.
For the four AI-related jobs, OPM may terminate the direct hire authority at any time before December 31, 2028, whichever comes first.
OPM stated that it will keep searching for other jobs involving AI-related work in the interim and assist agencies in staffing up in the area as needed.
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