U.S. Office of Personnel Management www.opm.gov - Recruiting, Retaining and Honoring a World-Class Workforce to Serve the American People

Recruitment & Selection

Basic Facts About Senior Level (SL) Positions

Senior Level (SL) Positions:

The Senior Level (SL) category of high level Federal jobs was established in 1990 to replace GS-16, 17, and 18 of the General Schedule. There are two broad types of SL positions.

Most Senior Level employees are in non-executive positions whose duties are broad and complex enough to be classified above GS 15. However, in a few agencies that are statutorily exempt from inclusion in the Senior Executive Service (SES), executive positions are staffed with SL employees. The exemption from the SES covers Government corporations and a few other small agencies; examples include the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC), Export-Import Bank, and Federal Election Commission.

Allocations:

Executive agencies must be granted an SL space allocation from OPM before filling an SL position. There are more than 640 SL positions allocated to several Executive agencies.

Job Opportunities:

Vacant SL positions are advertised on OPM's website at http://www.usajobs.gov. Agencies with the largest numbers of SL positions include Agriculture, Defense, PBGC, Justice, Treasury, Homeland Security, Interior, National Archives and Records Administration, Energy and NASA. Each vacancy announcement describes the application requirements for the particular position to be filled.

Qualifications:

Each SL position has its own particular set of qualification requirements. As noted above, most SL positions are for experts classified above GS-15. They do not meet the criteria for the SES, nor do they involve the fundamental research and development responsibilities that are characteristic of the Scientific or Professional (ST) system. Examples include a high level special assistant, senior attorney, or policy advisor in a highly-specialized field who is not a manager or supervisor. SL positions in agencies exempted from the SES will typically require executive qualifications. Time in grade requirements do not apply to SL positions, so applicants do not need to have spent a certain period of time at the GS-15 or equivalent level.

Supervisory Duties:

SL positions may include some supervisory and related managerial duties, provided that these duties occupy less than 25 percent of the incumbent's time. Positions in which supervisory and managerial work constitutes 25 percent or more of the incumbent's time almost always meet the criteria for the Senior Executive Service (SES). Again, this rule does not apply in agencies exempt from the SES, where Senior Leaders function as executives and often have extensive supervisory responsibilities.

Appointment: SL positions are in the competitive service unless excepted from the competitive service under statute or regulations. An SES member may be appointed to an SL position noncompetitively if he or she has reinstatement eligibility and is qualified for the position.

Pay:

The Senior Professional Performance Act of 2008 established a new pay system for SL employees effective April 12, 2009. This pay system is similar to the one in place for SES members. Under the new law, SL employees are under a pay-for-performance system. They no longer receive locality pay but receive a rate of basic pay only, based primarily on an annual performance rating.

The top end of the salary range an agency may pay its SL employees depends on whether OPM has certified the effectiveness of the agency's performance appraisal system. The maximum rate of basic pay for SL employees who are under a performance appraisal system that is not certified is Executive Level III and the aggregate compensation limit is Executive Level I. (Aggregate compensation refers to the total compensation an employee may receive in a given year, including salary, awards and other incentives.) An agency with a certified performance appraisal system may pay SL employees basic pay rates up to Executive Level II and may apply a higher aggregate compensation limit (equal to the Vice President's salary). Current salary rates for the various Executive Levels and the Vice President can be found at http://www.opm.gov/oca/10tables/indexSES.asp. On December 22, 2010, the President signed an Executive order containing the 2011 pay schedules for SL employees. The Executive order provides that the 2011 pay rates for SL employees are not adjusted and remain at 2010 levels.  Click here for pay freeze Qs and As.

Awards:

An SL employee who receives a performance rating at the fully successful level or better may be granted a cash award of up to $25,000, but not in excess of $10,000 without the approval of OPM. (The Department of Defense and Internal Revenue Service are authorized to give awards up to $25,000 without OPM approval.) In rare circumstances, cash awards above $25,000 may be given but only with White House approval.

Superior accomplishment incentive awards for a suggestion, invention, or special act or service not linked to a performance rating may also be given. Dollar limits for these awards are the same as those based on performance rating.

Career SL employees can also be nominated for Presidential Rank Awards to recognize sustained and sustained extraordinary accomplishments. Recipients of the Distinguished Rank are entitled to 35% of annual basic pay, while Meritorious Rank recipients are entitled to 20% of annual basic pay.

Benefits:

SL employees qualify for retirement, health and life insurance benefits generally available to Federal employees, and under the same basic eligibility requirements. Additional information can be found at http://www.opm.gov/insure/federal_employ/index.asp and at http://www.opm.gov/retire/index.aspx

Leave:

Employees in SL positions are entitled to accrue annual leave at the rate of 8 hours per biweekly pay period regardless of the length of their Federal service, and can accumulate a total of up to 90 days (720 hours) of annual leave. All Federal employees including SL members earn 13 days of sick leave each year. There is no ceiling on the amount of sick leave that may be carried over from year to year.

Retention, Recruitment, and Relocation Incentives:

SL applicants or employees are eligible for these incentives, if they meet the specific criteria for receiving them.

A recruitment incentive may be used by an agency to pay a newly appointed employee in positions likely to be difficult to fill.

A relocation incentive may be used by an agency to pay a current employee who must relocate to a position in a different geographic area that is likely to be difficult to fill in the absence of such an incentive. The employee must establish a residence in the new geographic area prior to payment.

A retention incentive may be used by an agency to a current employee if the agency determines that the unusually high or unique qualifications of the employee or the agency has a special need for the employee's services that makes it essential to retain the employee in his or her current position during a period of time.

Additional information can be found at: www.opm.gov/3Rs.