NSF slashes most career executive roles after shedding one-third of staff

The National Science Foundation this week eliminated most of its top career executive positions, with impacted staff either being demoted or reassigned to vacant roles. 

NSF initiated a reduction in force to eliminate the Senior Executive Service roles, which will take effect in early October. Employees will not actually be separated from the agency, provided they accept their new assignments. 

“NSF has assessed its future mission requirements and identified the need to enhance efficiency to better align with the agency priorities,” an agency spokesperson said. 

The agency first told staff to expect the cuts in May, but was forced to pause those actions when a federal court in California issued an injunction on RIF actions. The Supreme Court lifted that block earlier this month and NSF is now moving forward. 

The spokesperson declined to say how many employees would be impacted by the cuts, but NSF told staff in May the agency would go from 143 SES positions down to 59. Some of the eliminated positions were already vacant. Some of those in occupied roles now being eliminated will remain in the SES, though others will go down to the next rung in the career ladder. 

Career senior executives generally maintain “fallback rights” that entitle them to vacant lower positions, but NSF said any who do not hold those rights would be separated. 

The timing of the changes will “allow impacted SES staff to complete FY 2025 activities for their work units and complete the FY 2025 performance management cycle before the RIF is effective,” Micah Cheatham, NSF’s chief management officer, said in a message to staff Tuesday that was obtained by Government Executive. 

NSF previously had one executive for every 17 non-executives, Cheatham said, but going forward that ratio will be one-to-30. He added the actions were necessary to implement NSF’s Agency RIF and Restructuring Plan, which the Office of Personnel Management and Office of Management and Budget previously required of every agency. 

Employees temporarily assigned to NSF from colleges and universities, or state and local governments, via the Intergovernmental Personnel Act will no longer serve in SES positions.

Last week, 149 NSF employees, all members of the American Federation of Government Employees chapter that represents the agency’s workforce, sent a letter to Congress warning staffing cuts and other disruptions to NSF operations were threatening the agency's mission and independence. Jesus Soriano, president of the chapter, said NSF has lost one-third of its staff—or nearly 600 employees—since January. The agency also began canceling hundreds of its research grants in April and has now scrapped 1,600 active grants, employees said. 

Last month, the Trump administration announced it is going to evict NSF from its headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia, to make room for the Housing and Urban Development Department, and has yet to unveil a plan detailing where the agency will relocate. President Trump proposed slashing NSF’s budget by 56% in fiscal 2026. 

“What’s happening at NSF is unlike anything we’ve faced before,” Soriano said at a press conference held last week by Democrats on the House Science, Space and Technology Committee. “Our members—scientists, program officers, and staff—have been targeted for doing their jobs with integrity. They’ve faced retaliation, mass terminations, and the illegal withholding of billions in research funding.”