Guidance Regarding Redesignating SES CIO Positions

This Office of Personnel Management (OPM) guidance memorandum encourages agencies to reclassify any Chief Information Officer (CIO) positions so that the jobs can be held by political appointees instead of by career civil servants. The memorandum states: "The role of agency CIOs has changed dramatically in recent years. No longer the station of impartial and apolitical technocrats, the modern agency CIO role demands policy-making and policy-determining capabilities across a range of controversial political topics." It then recommends that agencies request that OPM designate any CIO roles that currently must be held only by a career Senior Executive Service (SES) member, so that a political appointee may hold the role. Generally, roles are designated as "career-reserved," meaning they may only be held by nonpolitical career civil servants, when that is "necessary to ensure impartiality, or the public’s confidence in the impartiality, of the Government.” 5 U.S.C. § 3132(b)(1). This memorandum urges that CIO's are not the type of jobs that meet this criteria.