According to the
Office of Personnel Management, the SES was designed to be a corps of executives selected for their leadership qualifications, serving in key positions just below the top presidential appointees as a link between them and the rest of the federal (civil service) workforce. SES positions are considered to be above the GS-15 level of the
General Schedule, and below Level III of the
Executive Schedule. Career members of the SES ranks are eligible for the
Presidential Rank Awards program. Up to ten percent of SES positions can be filled as
political appointments rather than by career employees. About half of the SES is designated "Career Reserved," which can only be filled by career employees. The other half is designated "General," which can be filled by either career employees or political appointments as desired by the administration. Due to the ten-percent limitation, most general positions are still filled by career appointees. Senior level employees of several agencies are exempt from the SES but have their own senior executive positions; these include the
Federal Bureau of Investigation,
Central Intelligence Agency,
Defense Intelligence Agency,
National Security Agency,
Transportation Security Administration,
Federal Aviation Administration,
Government Accountability Office,
Members of the Foreign Service, and
government corporations.
Adverse actions SES career appointees have civil service protections; they may only be fired or suspended for more than fourteen days for misconduct, neglect of duty, malfeasance, or failure to accept a directed reassignment or to accompany a position in a transfer of function. These adverse actions may be appealed to the
Merit Systems Protection Board. SES career appointees in the
United States Department of Veterans Affairs have different procedures as a result of the
Department of Veterans Affairs Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act of 2017. The
secretary of veterans affairs has discretion to suspend, demote, remove, or take other actions against SES career appointees or other high-level executives if the Secretary determines that the individual’s misconduct or performance warrants such action, with abbreviated notice and appeals rights. By contrast, noncareer and limited-term SES appointees are generally not subject to removal protections and may be removed from the SES at any time. ==Pay rates==