OPM is floating hundreds of Tech Force candidates to agencies
The Office of Personnel Management has sent information for hundreds of pre-vetted Tech Force candidates to agencies across the government, including a third list it distributed Wednesday, the agency’s top official and a spokesperson told FedScoop.
In an interview with FedScoop at AITalks on Tuesday, OPM Director Scott Kupor said that the agency already distributed about 550 candidates to agencies via two “shared certificates,” a streamlined process that lets multiple agencies hire for similar positions at once. A third shared certificate Wednesday brings the pool to just over 700 candidates, per figures shared by OPM.
While Kupor also told FedScoop that some offers have gone out, he wasn’t certain if anyone had started yet. He said that “it takes time between” an agency saying yes on a candidate and human resources getting that person an offer.
“I feel like we’ve got the right candidate pool there, and we’re making good progress,” Kupor said.
The hiring push is the Trump administration’s attempt to fill tech vacancies within the federal government — some of which were likely created by its own worker terminations and incentivized departure programs — with young workers who would serve two-year stints. After that, it will be their choice to either stay or join the private sector. The hiring goal for the program is roughly 1,000 workers.
Use of shared certs for the Tech Force is part of a broader push in the administration to use the hiring tool to streamline the hiring process. Shared certs were established under a 2016 law that allows agencies to use a single shared certificate, rather than multiple, to hire for a large group of related positions across agencies.
Through that process, an originating agency assumes the front-end legwork of processing applications and some vetting, and provides other agencies with a pool of candidates they can select from.
Specifically, the two existing OPM certificates for Tech Force included 353 software engineer and 201 data science roles, an OPM spokeswoman confirmed. The third group on Wednesday, meanwhile, included 163 candidates, she said. Per Kupor, the most recent pool included product management professionals, with some engineers and data scientists who weren’t on the first two.
Other certs are on the way.
A certificate for cybersecurity roles is forthcoming, after the agency announced it would be hiring cyber professionals for the Tech Force earlier this week. Kupor told FedScoop the addition was the result of demand from agencies. He also said there may be another recruitment effort around design roles after hearing about interest in those positions as well.
At least some agencies are already selecting from those pools. Department of the Treasury Chief Information Officer Sam Corcos posted to social media earlier this week that he had “already recruited over 100 people” from the Tech Force, and that it was “likely the strongest pool of technical talent ever assembled in government.”
It wasn’t immediately clear if those were offers or people who have started.
For some former federal technologists, the new push for technology professionals echoes efforts in past administrations to boost tech talent in government. It’s also tinged with irony following the Trump administration’s elimination of technology-focused units like the General Services Administration’s 18F and alteration of the U.S. Digital Service to the U.S. DOGE Service. They’ve also expressed skepticism about the program’s industry ties and focus on early-career talent.
Other tech hiring efforts
At the same time that the Tech Force is growing, other government efforts to hire technologists are also percolating.
The U.S. DOGE Service has also been growing its ranks and working with the Tech Force on hiring, an organization official told FedScoop on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, OPM is moving to eliminate degree requirements for certain jobs. Kupor announced in a blog Tuesday that the federal job series for IT and technical roles, known as the 2210 series, will move to a formal assessment of qualifications rather than degree or minimum work requirement.
Eliminating or loosening degree requirements — which can shut some otherwise qualified workers out of federal job opportunities — generally has a history of bipartisan support. The Biden administration had a push toward skills-based hiring and the House passed legislation earlier this year to remove those requirements from federal contracting gigs, including tech roles.
Support for the current effort will likely turn on how the elimination of degree requirements is applied and what the assessments look like.
OPM has come under fire for some of its decisions under Donald Trump, including application questions that require candidates for career roles to describe how they would advance the president’s executive orders. Workers have challenged those questions in court, arguing they amount to a “loyalty test” and dissuade some applicants from even applying.
