According to the Staff Regulations of European Union civil servants, all permanent EU officials who are in the Administrator (AD) group are categorised into administrative grades ranging from 1-16. For Administrators, this goes from 5-16 where AD5 is the entry level for graduates with little or no work experience and AD16 is the highest level in the hierarchic system.
A head of unit, who is the manager of a team comprising anything between 8-30 administrators and assistants, must have at least AD9 grade. A Director-General, who is the administrative head of a directorate (DG), has the administrative ranking of AD15 or AD16. European Commissioners, however, are not ranked according to this system since their nomination is advanced by EU Member State governments and they are not permanent officials recruited by EPSO.
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