Maintaining the Integrity of the Career Senior Executive Service

The Office of Personnel Management issued this memorandum to direct agencies to convert Senior Executive Service (SES) positions from “career-reserved” to “general” if they had previously been career-reserved on January 19, 2021. The applicable statute on the SES, 5 U.S.C. § 3132, establishes two kinds of SES positions: career-reserved and general. Only career government employees can fill career-reserved SES positions, while both career government employees and political appointees can fill general SES positions.