Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has approved direct hire authority for a variety of federal positions, including IT specialist, computer scientist and engineer, and management and program analyst. Direct hire authority speeds up agency hiring by eliminating certain candidate ranking and rating procedures. Department of Homeland Security has started executing an aggressive recruiting strategy to fill positions. While many agencies are still in the planning phase of AI hiring, DHS plans to leverage OPM’s direct hiring authority to recruit 50 AI technology experts in 2024.