Career pathways in government can be complicated. You often come across industries and fields that don’t necessarily have a straightforward upward progression, and than can make finding and landing your next position more difficult. Few paths are more niche than personnel vetting, where individuals may have specialties in functions like background investigations, classification markings, or adjudications.
The Performance Accountability Council recently partnered with USAJobs to make it easier for those in the personnel vetting career path to find their next opportunity. With the demand for talent high but the opportunities not always clear, the PAC PMO created a new jobs portal to consolidate positions posted with a personnel vetting function.
Personnel Vetting Jobs
The landing page pulls in listings related to personnel security, including:
- Industrial Security Specialist
- Investigator (Special Agent)
- Supervisory Intelligence Operations Specialist
- Intelligence Operations Specialist
Personnel Vetting Progress
In the past quarter, Secret clearance processing times stabilized at 87 days as the average for Secret clearance cases, but initial Top Secret cases ticked back up to an average of 174 days for the fastest 90% of cases. Secret cases are just 10 days above the goal, but Top Secret averages are 40 days over goal. Overall more cases are meeting timeliness targets, which the government attributes to more use of virtual interviews and growing investigative capacity and overtime.
The in-access cleared population continues to remain stable, while the overall population saw a brief increase.
Personnel Vetting Opportunity
As security clearance reform continues to move forward, demand for competent and qualified personnel vetting professionals will only increase. For those currently supporting government as an investigator, the next step may be personnel vetting specialist, intelligence operations, or adjudications. Today’s adjudicator may also be tomorrow’s senior investigator or specialist.
