How to navigate the new Senior Executive Service hiring process

This year has brought big changes for federal government employment. Those changes have now reached the hiring process used to recruit Senior Executive Service (SES) candidates. If you seek to join the SES, understanding the new application process is critical. 

On May 29, 2025, Charles Ezell, the Acting Director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) issued a memo stating that SES officials must be “equipped to respond to ‘the needs, policies, and goals of the Nation’ and implement the agenda that the American people elected the President to deliver.” Here, I provide an overview of OPM’s changes to the SES hiring process, and what it means for aspiring SES candidates. 

Revamped Executive Core Qualifications (ECQ)

ECQs are the core leadership skills that a candidate must present to be deemed eligible for SES positions. The ability to lead people remains as an ECQ, but the OPM memo removes diversity, equity, and inclusion as a selection criterion. The new ECQs are more achievement-based, requiring candidates to prove their ability to achieve both individual and organizational results aligned with the goals of their superiors. One new ECQ seeks commitment to the “Principles of the American Founding” and rule of law. Ensuring that your résumé speaks to these revamped ECQs is vital to survive the selection process.

ECQ Essays Eliminated 

When I worked at the White House, I reviewed the much-dreaded, 10-page narrative essays that SES candidates wrote for their applications. The OPM memo eliminates those essays. Instead, agencies must conduct structured interviews, an approach that brings federal executive hiring more in line with private industry norms. The OPM memo also requires agencies to use validated executive assessments with objective measures to identify candidates. 

With the essays eliminated, hiring for SES positions will be based on résumé-only applications. That big change took effect immediately. This shift away from narrative essays means that the strength of a candidate’s résumé can’t be overstated. It is the only written document that candidates can use to show how they meet the revamped ECQs. The OPM memo further limits the résumé to just two pages, meaning a candidate must be ruthlessly selective about what career information to highlight.

Professional Development Training

In addition to the procedural changes, the OPM memo announces a fee-based executive development program for aspiring executives and continued professional development for current executives. The OPM memo directs agencies to establish Executive Resource Boards to oversee SES staffing, planning, and development at the agency level. As the memo notes, “[t]hese requirements ensure that effective implementation of the President’s policies is at the forefront of agency executive management decisions.”

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With all the changes abounding in federal employment, it would have been easy to miss this memo. But the impacts it will have on the most senior cadre of federal leaders could be profound. Understanding the new hiring process and having a concise, results-based résumé is now more important than ever. If you have a super long federal résumé and are wondering how to showcase your strongest accomplishments in only two pages, contact me.