The Department of Health and Human Services became the first agency to try out the new direct hire authority for technology positions, less than 24 hours after the final rule came out from the Office of Personnel Management.
But the idea and plan has been in the works for the better part of the last six months.
HHS and the U.S. Digital Service are partnering on the effort, which kicked off April 5 with a job notice on USAJobs.gov. The notice said HHS and USDS would accept the first 100 applicants over a two-day period to hire four people with skillsets around: IT specialist, IT customer support, IT data management and IT policy and planning.