U.S. Senior Foreign Service

The Senior Foreign Service (SFS) comprises the top four ranks of the United States Foreign Service. These ranks were created by the Foreign Service Act of 1980 and in order to provide the Foreign Service with senior grades equivalent to general- and flag ranks in the military and naval establishments, respectively, and to grades in the Senior Executive Service. Like military ranks and other Foreign Service ranks, the Senior Foreign Service grade system assigns rank in person, not rank in position.

The four grades, from highest to lowest, with their military and former Senior Executive Service equivalents (i.e., prior to the SES's shift to an open-range compensation system), are:

Only one of these ranks, Career Ambassador, is established by law. The Foreign Service Act of 1980 stipulates, "The President may, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, confer the personal rank of career ambassador upon a career member of the Senior Foreign Service in recognition of especially distinguished service over a sustained period." Otherwise, the 1980 Act states the President shall "prescribe salary classes for the Senior Foreign Service and shall prescribe an appropriate title for each class." President Ronald Reagan established the other three Senior Foreign Service ranks with .

According to McCaffree's Protocol: The Complete Handbook of Diplomatic, Official & Social Usage, Career Ministers of the Senior Foreign Service are to be accorded the honorific "The Honorable". Career Ambassadors, as ambassadors, are accorded the honorific "Her/His Excellency".

The Senior Foreign Service pay system is an open-range, performance-based pay system that is linked to the Senior Executive Service (SES) pay system. SFS members, like SES members, are not entitled to automatic across-the-board increases and locality-based comparability payments. Instead, pay adjustments are based on a member’s individual performance and/or contribution to the agency’s performance.

As amended under 5 U.S.C. 5376, Executive Order 12293 prescribes three SFS salary classes linked to the Executive Schedule, ranging from 120 percent of the pay rate for a GS-15, step 1 to the pay rate for ES-II:

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