In 1994 Directorate Services Units was created to provide administrative and technical support to the Director-General and the Directors. The head of the Unit acts as secretary to the Directorate and Management Board. The groups were :

• Office of the Director-General : DG Secretariat, Relations with Member States and Non-Member States (unit created in 1994) and Council Secretariat (from Offices & Services of the Head of Administration)
• Directors' office (from Offices & Services of the Head of Administration)
• Legal Service (from Offices & Services of the Head of Administration)
• Internal Audit Service (from Offices & Services of the Head of Administration)
• Strategic Planning Unit and Industry & Technology Liaison office (from Directorate General)
• Communication & Public Eductation Group (from Directorate General)
• Pension Fund (from Offices & Services of the Head of Administration)

In 1997 the Pension Fund Group moved to the Personnel Division (PE) and the Communication & Public Education Group to the Administration Support Division (AS).

In 2002 creation of CERN Programme Controller group.

In 2004, as part of the Director-General's Services and under the authority of the Secretary General, the Directorate Services Unit provides advice on policy as well as administrative and technical support to the Director General. They are also in charge of demonstrating the relevance of Particle Physics to society, promoting CERN education programmes, communicating technical innovation to industry and managing the CERN library and scientific archives.

In 2009 the CERN management changed and adopted a new organisational structure. Many of the groups formerly in DSU became part of the new DG Office Sector (DG). These included Administration Support (AS), Internal Audit (AU), Communication (CO), Council Secretariat (CS), Legal Service (LS), Relations with Host States (RH), Translation and Minutes (TM), Technology Transfer (TT), the VIP Service (VIP) and functions relating to external relations.

The Scientific Information Service (SI) became part of the General Insfrastructure Services Department (GS).