The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) awarded a nearly $400 million contract to Oracle on June 10 to deliver a single, governmentwide human capital management (HCM) system.
The award aims to replace a fragmented landscape of more than 100 federal HCM systems with a secure, cloud-based platform that OPM said will improve efficiency, reduce operating costs, and streamline workforce management across agencies.
“Historically, federal agencies have relied on fragmented, aging HR systems that are costly to maintain and difficult to scale,” OPM Director Scott Kupor said in a press release.
“This award represents a foundational investment in the future of federal workforce management and supports the Trump Administration’s broader efforts to modernize government operations, improve service delivery, and increase efficiency across the federal enterprise,” Kupor said.
The Core HCM system will be the system of record for roughly 2 million federal civilian employees.
OPM said the goal is government-wide adoption by fiscal year (FY) 2028. However, the effort will not initially include military personnel and intelligence community agencies.
The transition to the Core HCM platform will be divided into two waves, with Wave 1 agencies beginning the transition in FY 2026. Those agencies include OPM, the departments of Homeland Security, Agriculture, Health and Human Services, Interior, Transportation, Veterans Affairs, and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Wave 2 agencies will follow in FY 2027 and include the departments of Commerce, Education, Housing and Urban Development, Labor, State, Energy, Justice, Defense, and Treasury, the Small Business Administration, the Social Security Administration, the General Services Administration, and NASA, among others.
“Oracle is honored to partner with OPM to establish a secure, trusted foundation to unify federal HR operations,” Kim Lynch, executive vice president of Oracle’s Defense & Intelligence business, said in a June 11 company press release.
The award comes after OPM published a final request for proposals to SAM.gov in October 2025.
OPM initially awarded a task order to Workday in May 2025, but the agency withdrew the contract a few days later.
Notably, recent research from MeriTalk, in partnership with Workday, found that 89% of federal HR leaders say outdated HR management systems hinder mission success.