Managing Senior Professional Performance

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) jointly published a proposed regulation in the Federal Register that would create a dedicated performance appraisal framework for more senior employees who are not members of the Senior Executive Service (SES). Specifically, these are senior-level (SL) and scientific or professional (ST) employees at levels above the GS-15 level, whose pay rates are similar to SES pay rates but who, generally speaking, are experts rather than supervisors. These positions are often occupied by senior scientists, researchers, engineers, and other technical or subject matter experts. The regulation would allow OPM to mandate a "forced distribution" of performance ratings, which would limit how many employees could receive high performance ratings, regardless of the quality of their actual performance. Currently, perhaps because these positions by their nature require very high levels of expertise, the vast majority of people in these positions receive high performance ratings. A similar regulation affecting SES employees was finalized in September 2025.