Senior Executive Service (SES) — Federal Leadership Corps

The Senior Executive Service (5 U.S.C. §§ 3131–3136, 3391–3397) is the corps of approximately 8,000 senior leaders who serve just below presidential appointees in the federal government — the career executives, managers, and supervisors who run federal agencies' day-to-day operations. Created by the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, the SES was designed to build a cadre of highly qualified executives with broad government experience who could be flexibly assigned across agencies and positions based on government needs. SES members hold the most senior non-political positions in the federal civil service — equivalent to generals and flag officers in the military — with pay above the General Schedule and subject to Hatch Act restrictions on political activity. There are three types of SES appointments: career (selected through a competitive merit process — about 90% of SES), noncareer (political appointees serving at the pleasure of the agency head — limited to 10% of SES positions governmentwide), and limited-term/limited-emergency (temporary appointments for specific projects or needs). SES pay ranges from approximately $151,661 to $228,000 (2026), and career SES members are eligible for performance bonuses of up to 20% of base pay and Presidential Rank Awards (Meritorious: $10,000 lump sum; Distinguished: $20,000 plus a year of sabbatical-equivalent time).

Current Law (2026)

Legal Authority

• 5 U.S.C. § 3131 — The Senior Executive Service (establishes SES to ensure top managers meet the nation's needs; requires accountability, competence, and high-quality leadership)
• 5 U.S.C. § 3132 — Definitions and exclusions (defines SES positions, career/noncareer/limited appointments; excludes certain agencies like FBI, CIA, GAO, and intelligence agencies)
• 5 U.S.C. § 3133 — Authorization of positions (agencies must project SES needs biennially and submit requests to OPM; total SES allocation is controlled by OPM)
• 5 U.S.C. § 3134 — Limitations on noncareer and limited appointments (noncareer SES positions may not exceed 10% of all SES positions governmentwide or 25% within any single agency)
• 5 U.S.C. § 3393 — Career appointments (competitive process required; candidates reviewed by agency qualification boards and a governmentwide Qualifications Review Board at OPM)
• 5 U.S.C. § 3394 — Noncareer and limited appointments (must meet qualifications written by the appointing authority; noncareer appointees serve at will)
• 5 U.S.C. § 3395 — Reassignment and transfer (career SES may be reassigned to any SES position in the agency they're qualified for; 120-day moratorium on involuntary reassignments when a new agency head or supervisor takes office)

How It Works

Becoming a career SES member is one of the most rigorous selection processes in government. Candidates must demonstrate Executive Core Qualifications (ECQs) in five areas: Leading Change, Leading People, Results Driven, Business Acumen, and Building Coalitions. After an agency selects a candidate, the nomination must be approved by OPM's Qualifications Review Board (QRB) — an independent panel that prevents agencies from promoting favorites into career SES without meeting the competency standard. The career vs. noncareer distinction matters enormously: career SES members are selected through merit competition and form the professional backbone of agency leadership across administrations, while noncareer SES are political appointees who serve at the pleasure of the agency head and typically turn over with each administration. A governmentwide cap of 10% on noncareer SES positions protects the career character of the service.

SES members have their own pay system outside the General Schedule. Agencies with OPM-certified performance appraisal systems can pay up to Executive Level II ($228,000 in 2026); agencies without certification are capped at Executive Level III ($209,600). Career members can earn performance bonuses of 5–20% of base pay and Presidential Rank Awards (Meritorious at $10,000; Distinguished at a higher lump sum plus government-paid development time). Career SES members can be reassigned to any SES position in their agency they're qualified for — but a 120-day moratorium prohibits involuntary reassignments during the first 120 days after a new agency head or immediate supervisor takes office, preventing political appointees from immediately retaliating against career executives. Removal requires a performance improvement period (for performance cases) or a conduct process (for misconduct), with appeal rights to the MSPB; a career appointee removed from the SES who previously held a career civil service position is entitled to placement at the GS-15 level or equivalent.

How It Affects You

State Variations

The SES is exclusively federal:

Implementing Regulations

• 5 CFR Part 317 — Employment in the Senior Executive Service. The procedural rulebook covering how SES positions are filled, who has authority to appoint, and what rights appointees carry. Key provisions:

  • § 317.401–317.402 — Agency qualifications standards: the head of each agency must establish written qualifications standards for every SES position; career reserved positions (those that must be filled by career SES members) require a written standard identifying the depth of professional/technical and executive/managerial competencies needed; standards must be retained for 2 years after any change or position cancellation — this creates an audit trail if a qualification standard was improperly reduced to ease a specific appointment
  • § 317.501 — Executive Resources Boards (ERBs): each agency must appoint one or more ERBs composed of agency employees or commissioned officers; the ERB handles competitive merit recruitment — reviewing applications, evaluating candidates against written standards, and making recommendations; agencies must recruit "from the brightest and most diverse pool possible," which requires affirmative outreach beyond posting on USAJOBS
  • § 317.502 — Qualifications Review Board (QRB) certification: before any initial career appointment to the SES, OPM must convene a QRB to certify the candidate's executive/managerial qualifications; more than half of QRB members must be career SES appointees — this majority-career-SES requirement is the primary structural protection against politicization of the initial career appointment process; the QRB evaluates whether the candidate meets the five Executive Core Qualifications (ECQs); agencies cannot bypass the QRB for initial career appointments
  • § 317.503 — Probationary period: a career SES appointee's appointment is not final until completion of a 1-year probationary period; during probation the agency assesses performance; if performance is unacceptable, the agency may remove the appointee from the SES and return them to a GS position without the full Chapter 75 adverse action process; probationary removals are harder to appeal than standard SES removals
  • §§ 317.601–317.605 — Noncareer and limited appointments (political SES): each individual noncareer appointment must be individually approved by OPM; the appointment authority automatically reverts to OPM when the incumbent departs; noncareer appointees are terminable at any time; they acquire no career SES status from the appointment; agencies cannot require a career SES appointee to accept a noncareer or limited appointment as a condition of appointment to another position (§317.904)
  • §§ 317.701–317.703 — Reinstatement rights: a former SES career appointee who completed a probationary period and separated for reasons other than misconduct may be reinstated to a career SES position without going through competitive merit staffing or QRB certification; former SES members who were later appointed by the President to a Senate-confirmed position and then left that appointment are entitled by law to guaranteed reinstatement (§317.703)
  • § 317.901 — Reassignment rules: a career SES member may be reassigned to any SES position within the same agency for which qualified; the agency must give 15 days advance notice before most reassignments (60 days in some circumstances); the employee is entitled to consultation; reassignment cannot be used to coerce the employee or as a form of retaliation — a reassignment motivated by the employee's protected disclosures is challengeable before the MSPB; reassignments do not require QRB re-certification
  • § 317.902 — Transfers: a transfer (moving a career SES member to a position in a different agency) is always voluntary — the appointee must consent, and the gaining agency must accept; no one can be compelled to transfer; an agency may not use threatened reassignment to pressure an employee to accept an unwanted transfer

• 5 CFR Part 430, Subpart D — Performance management for SES members (performance requirements, appraisal systems, performance awards, minimum appraisal period)

• 5 CFR Part 534, Subpart D — SES pay system (pay ranges, pay adjustments, aggregate limitation on pay, locality-based comparability payments). Key regulatory mechanics:

  • § 534.403 — SES rate range: the statutory floor is the minimum SL/ST rate under 5 U.S.C. § 5376 (itself set at 120% of the GS-15 step 1 rate); the ceiling is Level III of the Executive Schedule for uncertified agencies or Level II for agencies with OPM-certified performance appraisal systems — this pay difference is a significant lever for recruiting and retaining senior executives at high-performing agencies
  • § 534.404 — Setting and adjusting individual SES pay: agency officials may place an individual anywhere in the SES range on initial appointment, transfer, or reappointment; pay above Level III (requiring OPM certification) must be justified on individual performance and must reflect "meaningful distinctions" across SES members — agencies cannot use OPM certification authority to elevate all SES members uniformly
  • § 534.405 — Performance awards: only career SES appointees (not noncareer political appointees) are eligible; the individual must have a "Fully Successful" or better rating of record; the statute caps SES performance awards at 10% of base pay for most awards, but agencies with certified systems can go higher; aggregate awards across all career SES in the agency are capped by statute as a percentage of total SES payroll
  • § 534.407–534.408 — Pay computation and overtime exclusion: SES annual pay is divided by 2,087 hours to derive the hourly rate; SES members are entirely excluded from overtime and premium pay under § 5541(2) — no matter how many hours they work, they receive only their annual SES rate; this exclusion reflects the expectation that senior executive responsibility is not bounded by a 40-hour work week

• 5 CFR Part 534, Subpart E — Pay for Senior-Level (SL) and Scientific or Professional (ST) positions — the "above-GS-15, below-SES" tier for highly specialized technical and professional roles:

  • § 534.504 — SL/ST pay range: minimum rate must be at least 120% of the GS-15 minimum (step 1); maximum is Level III (uncertified agencies) or Level II (OPM-certified agencies) — same ceiling structure as SES
  • § 534.505 — Required written procedures: agencies must establish and publish internal pay-setting procedures; the procedures must produce meaningful pay distinctions among SL/ST employees based on performance — a requirement that parallels the SES performance-differentiation obligation
  • § 534.507 — Annual pay adjustments: when GS pay scales are adjusted (typically each January), agency heads must consider each SL/ST employee's rate and adjust it by an amount reflecting individual performance, up to the GS adjustment percentage; unlike GS employees, SL/ST workers have no automatic step increases — all annual pay movement is performance-based
  • § 534.508–534.509 — Reductions and pay preservation: SL/ST pay reductions require Chapter 75 (adverse action) procedures unless the employee is moving to a lower SL/ST rate range; an employee who transfers between agencies keeps their established rate even if it exceeds the new agency's Level III ceiling, until a new pay determination is made

• 5 CFR Part 214 — Senior Executive Service: OPM rules covering SES position classification, agency designation authority, exclusions, and the critical distinction between general and career reserved positions (implements 5 U.S.C. §§ 3131–3136):

  • § 214.202 — Agency authority to designate SES positions: each agency is responsible for determining which of its positions qualifies as an SES position, using OPM guidelines; agencies cannot simply claim any senior position is SES — the position must be at the executive level and meet OPM standards; agencies report SES position inventories to OPM under § 214.203
  • § 214.204 — Interchange agreements: OPM may enter interchange agreements with agencies that have executive personnel systems "essentially equivalent" to the SES (such as the Foreign Service), allowing movement of career executives between the two systems without losing career status; this provision enables lateral mobility for senior executives across different federal personnel systems
  • § 214.301 — Agency exclusions: agencies and units specifically excluded from Chapter 31 or 32 of Title 5 (such as the intelligence community agencies) are not covered by Part 214; those agencies administer separate executive personnel systems outside the SES framework
  • § 214.401 — Two SES position types: all SES positions are either General or Career Reserved; a General position may be filled by a career, noncareer, limited term, or limited emergency SES appointee; a Career Reserved position may be filled only by a career SES appointee; this distinction is not optional — the designation is a binding classification that determines who can be placed in the position
  • § 214.402 — Career Reserved position requirements: a position must be designated Career Reserved if it has national scope or significant effect on a regulated industry, concerns a major regulatory program, or involves the exercise of significant discretionary authority and independent judgment; the OPM Director issues guidance listing the specific criteria; career reserved designation exists to protect certain senior government functions from political appointment — a career reserved position cannot be filled by a Schedule C or Schedule Policy/Career political appointee under any circumstance
  • § 214.403 — Changing position type: an agency may not change a Career Reserved designation to General, or from General to Career Reserved, without prior OPM approval; this restriction prevents agencies from converting career-protected positions to politically fillable ones without OPM review — a protection that became particularly salient during 2025 executive workforce restructuring

  Part 214's career reserved vs. general position distinction is the SES system's structural protection against wholesale politicization of senior executive leadership. Without career reserved positions, a new administration could simply reclassify all senior career positions as General positions and fill them with noncareer (political) appointees — bypassing the QRB certification requirement and the competitive merit staffing process. The career reserved designation prevents that reclassification unilaterally; OPM approval is required. In practice, major regulatory agencies, scientific agencies, and enforcement functions concentrate career reserved positions in positions that most directly bear on regulatory and investigative independence.

Pending Legislation

No standalone SES reform bills have been introduced in the 119th Congress. Senior executive provisions appear in broader civil service and government operations legislation — see Federal Employment Law and Federal Employee Benefits.

Recent Developments

Schedule F re-implemented (2025): Shortly after taking office in January 2025, President Trump re-established a version of Schedule F (now called "Schedule Policy/Career") through executive order — reclassifying federal employees in policy-related positions to at-will status, removable without the usual civil service protections. The Biden administration had rescinded the original 2020 Schedule F EO, but the second Trump administration moved quickly to restore it. SES members in positions deemed to involve policy development or discretionary decisions are the primary targets of this reclassification, as these positions most closely touch on presidential policy priorities.

DOGE restructuring: The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative has driven significant SES-level disruptions. Several agencies experienced mass exodus of career SES members through forced reassignments and workforce reductions (the law permits reassignment within 120 days of a new presidential term without the usual 15-day advance notice requirement) or through the pressure of working within dramatically reduced agencies. Some SES members who refused or resisted DOGE-directed actions were placed on administrative leave or separated.

Mass reassignments and legal challenges: Multiple career SES members challenged reassignments and terminations, with federal courts issuing some injunctive relief. The underlying legal question — whether the SES statutory protections and the QRB process can be circumvented through at-will reclassification — is being litigated, as was the extent to which courts can review political SES personnel decisions.

Recruitment and retention crisis: The combination of pay compression, political turbulence, and DOGE-driven workforce reductions has intensified an already significant SES recruitment and retention challenge. Many experienced career executives retired early or departed rather than navigate the current environment, creating significant institutional knowledge gaps across agencies.