The administration is focused on improving citizen services through the use of digital tools — a feat that will require strong technical experts able to quickly turnaround stalled projects and infuse innovation from the private sector.
But the federal government differs significantly from industry, particularly in the hiring process, which often takes several months, if not years.
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To facilitate onboarding of fresh tech talent, the Office of Personnel Management has granted special hiring authority allowing agencies to get the people they need without all the red tape.
The hiring authority allows managers to skip the competitive process for positions on the new Digital Service teams being created at each of the major agencies.
The teams — part of the president's plan for delivering "world-class" citizen services — are funded through a $105 million allocation in the 2016 budget proposal, though several agencies are already standing up their own teams to meet critical needs.
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Along with the official Digital Service teams, agencies can also use this authority to hire personnel for 25 select existing projects, including the 2020 census, Veterans Affairs patient scheduling system and NASA's IT infrastructure integration program.
Citing an exception under Schedule A of the Code of Federal Regulations, agencies will be able to hire for temporary terms, so long as the positions do not deal with confidential information, write policy or qualify for the Senior Executive Service.
Specifically, the appointments are only good for one year but can be extended in one year increments through September 2017.
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"These teams will need staff with skills in modern digital product design, software engineering, product management, creating and maintaining flexible infrastructure and designing and implementing agile governance structures," OPM Director Katherine Archuleta wrote in a May 1 memo to agencies. "These technical positions would involve in-depth knowledge of and experience in creating modern digital services, gap analysis expertise in understanding where shortfalls exist in capacity to design, develop, deploy and operate customer-facing services, specialized knowledge in digital service consolidation and migration, cloud service utilization and business process standardization to support a wide variety of mission requirements."
While agencies are not required to post the positions for competition, Archuleta urged them to do so to ensure they get the best people for the job.
Aaron Boyd is an awarding-winning journalist currently serving as editor of Federal Times — a Washington, D.C. institution covering federal workforce and contracting for more than 50 years — and Fifth Domain — a news and information hub focused on cybersecurity and cyberwar from a civilian, military and international perspective.
