The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) authorized the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to hire up to 1,000 new cybersecurity personnel, according to a notice published in the Federal Register Nov. 10.
The notice specifies DHS may hire no more than 1,000 positions to perform various cybersecurity duties under an “excepted service” hiring authority. This authority enables agencies to hire when it is not feasible or practical to use traditional competitive hiring procedures to streamline hiring, OPM notes on its website. Excepted service authority is usually used in intelligence and national security functions.
The range of duties includes cyber risk and strategic analysis, incident handling and malware/vulnerability analysis, program management, distributed control systems security, cyber incident response, cyber exercise facilitation and management, cyber vulnerability detection and assessment, networks and systems engineering, enterprise architecture, intelligence analysis, investigation, investigative analysis, and cyber-related infrastructure interdependency analysis requiring unique qualifications not currently established by OPM.
Positions hired under the notice are set to be at the General Service (GS) grade levels 09-15. Appointments can be made under the notice until either the regulations implementing the Border Patrol Agency Pay Reform Act of 2014 (S. 1691) become effective or until June 30, 2016, whichever comes first, OPM said.
S. 1691 authorized the Secretary of Homeland Security to establish positions on cybersecurity within the excepted service and to hire qualified personnel with additional compensation and incentives.