On September 16, 2013 the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics (USD(AT&L)) issued a memorandum entitled “Sunsetting of the Systems Planning, Research, Development and Engineering – Program Systems Engineer Acquisition Workforce Career Path and the Renaming of the Systems Planning, Research, Development, and Engineering Acquisition Workforce Career Field.”

The USD(AT&L) memorandum directs the sunsetting of the “Systems Planning, Research, Development, and Engineering (SPRDE) - Program Systems Engineer (PSE)” defense acqusition workforce career path effective October 1, 2013.

The memo also directs the consolidation of the previously separate SPRDE-Program Systems Engineer and the SPRDE-Systems Engineering career paths into a single consolidated "Engineering" career field effective immediately.

According to the AT&L Human Capital Initiatives (HCI) office, “this sunsetting change has been implemented to simplify processes, reduce cost, and leverage the SPRDE-PSE workforce expertise across the larger Engineering acquisition workforce”. According to the memo, “renaming this career field will emphasize the contributions of these professionals to Department of Defense (DoD) acquisition.”

Further details are available in the memo itself.