OPM Extends Tech Force Deadline as Program Tests New Federal Hiring Model

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is extending the application deadline for its United States Tech Force program from Jan. 16 to Feb. 2 due to “tremendous interest” and will review applications on a rolling basis, officials said Thursday in an X post.

OPM launched Tech Force in December as a part of the Trump administration’s broader push to bring early-career hires and industry professionals to government and reform the federal hiring process. Tech Force will place roughly 1,000 technologists within federal agencies to “accelerate AI implementation and solve the government’s most critical technological challenges.”

Participants will spend two years working at their assigned agencies and receive technical training and mentorship through partnerships with private-sector companies. Engineers may also pursue employment with participating companies after completing the program.

OPM Director Scott Kupor told GovCIO Media & Research in an interview that the cross-government initiative aims to institutionalize technical knowledge among the federal workforce. He said the government has long relied on contractors to fill workforce gaps, driving up costs and reducing efficiency due to frequent turnover.

“It’s great that we can rely on contractors where we don’t have those skills, but they will never fully integrate into the organization,” Kupor said. “If we can get the right people in the right seats, we can do this in a more cost-effective way that creates a long-term competitive advantage for the government.”

Expanding Early-Career Pipelines through Skills-Based Hiring

Tech Force also aims to create a stronger early-career pipeline by expanding skills-based hiring. Applicants are encouraged to apply based on demonstrated capabilities, rather than formal educational credentials, and are not required to hold a traditional degree.

Kupor said at a Washington AI Network event that removing degree requirements opens new workforce pipelines beyond traditional sources such as universities.

“We have really smart people who, just because of their zip code, don’t have the same experiences,” said Kupor. “If somebody is fantastic and they don’t have a college degree, but they can perform at the level we need them to, then we should hire them.”

Laying the Groundwork for Centralized Federal Hiring

Executive order 14356, Ensuring Continued Accountability in Federal Hiring, requires agencies to submit annual staffing plans and quarterly updates to ensure new career appointments align with the government’s highest-need areas in the upcoming fiscal year.

Kupor said this requirement will increase the hiring efficiency and improve the applicant experience by “meeting the applicant where they’re at” and positioning OPM as an aggregator to funnel resumes to agencies with relevant positions.

“The idea is that OPM could do an initial evaluation of candidates and then pass that information to agencies to determine fit,” Kupor said. “It’s a better experience for applicants because they don’t have to search for dozens of different jobs across government.”

Tech Force will also serve as a pilot for broader hiring reform. Kupor said the program is pushing the agency to build a centralized repository of applicant data to streamline future federal hiring efforts.

“Tech Force is an important objective of getting more tech people in government, but it’s also an experiment for us on how we create centralized hiring in a way that scales across government,” said Kupor.

Challenging the Career Lock-in Myth

Kupor joked that through Tech Force he hopes to “make government cool again,” attract early-career applicants without requiring a lifetime commitment and challenge the notion that government service must be a career-long choice.

“We want to create this idea where there can be a fluid career track, particularly for early career folks,” said Kupor.

Noble Reach Foundation’s CEO and Tech Force Founding Partner Arun Gupta agreed with Kupor, adding that Tech Force’s two-year term allows employees to see how their skill sets transfer between public and private sectors.

“You may decide you want to stay [in public service], which is great, or you may decide you leave, but we celebrate both options,” said Gupta. “These will be transferable skills for you to be able to take wherever you decide to go in your career.”

What Tech Force Fellows Can Expect

More than 20 industry partners have agreed to participate in Tech Force to help grow fellows’ skill sets. Industry will also create a network for applicants who want to serve the public through government or private industry. This model already connected 50 recent STEM and business graduates across eight federal agencies through the Noble Reach Foundation’s Scholars Program.

Gupta said the cohort-based approach helps new hires feel supported as they navigate government service or transition to the private sector.

“The cohort has a shared mindset of combining personal ambition and civic responsibility, and as that network grows, the terminal value is the community that you’re getting to be part of going forward,” said Gupta.

Fellows will participate in a dual government-industry job fair at the conclusion of the program, in addition to industry-led training and speaking opportunities.

“If we do a good job on the front end of screening these folks, and we do a good job of training them while they’re in [Tech Force], they’re going to be eminently qualified for any public or private sector job,” said Kupor.