At ClearanceJobs Connect San Antonio, Laken Kennedy, Product Manager for Agile ATS Powered by ClearanceJobs, demonstrated what happens when an applicant tracking system is built specifically for government contractors rather than retrofitted from commercial recruiting tools.
Kennedy opened by naming a truth every recruiter in the room knows: cleared recruiting is uniquely challenging. Contract award delays, prime hold-ups, letters of intent, and the difficulty of reaching full-scope polygraph candidates all create complexities that traditional ATS platforms simply aren’t designed to handle. Agile ATS exists to solve those GovCon-specific issues.
The system began as an internal tool for IC1 Solutions, founded by Ross O’Rourke. Agile ATS helped the company scale from zero to roughly 250 fully cleared employees in four years—an extraordinary pace in the national security space. As more recruiters saw the tool in action, demand grew, and the platform evolved to support a broader GovCon user base. In 2025, Agile ATS was acquired by ClearanceJobs, aligning a GovCon-built ATS with the leading cleared talent marketplace.
In his demo, Kennedy showcased the platform’s Kanban-style hiring board, which gives recruiting teams a real-time view of contracts, open roles, and candidate pipelines. Recruiters can drag candidates across custom workflow stages and automate emails, notifications, and internal processes. Separate boards support proposals, overseas hiring, or standard stateside workflows.
Kennedy also highlighted AI-powered relevance scoring, fueled by AWS Bedrock, which compares resume text to job descriptions and surfaces strengths and weaknesses—helping recruiters refine submissions to primes and hiring managers. Built-in OFCCP, AAP, and EEO reporting, along with detailed time-in-stage and time-to-fill analytics, provide compliance support and operational clarity without additional spreadsheets.
For cleared recruiters, Kennedy’s session illustrated how Agile ATS brings speed, structure, and GovCon-specific intelligence to the hiring process.
