Picture this: You’ve just landed an exciting DoD contract for a cutting-edge IT project. You’ve got the talent, the expertise, and the vision to make it a smashing success. There’s just one tiny problem – your team needs security clearances, and they need them yesterday.
Welcome to the world of DoD IT contracting, where security clearances move at the speed of government bureaucracy while technology sprints ahead at light speed.
The Waiting Game Nobody Wants to Play
The current reality is enough to make any project manager develop a nervous twitch. Top Secret clearances currently take a whopping 137 days on average, while Secret clearances clock in at a still-painful 88 days, according to the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency. That’s nearly three to five months of project limbo – an eternity in the tech world!
This timeline creates a perfect storm for you. Projects get delayed, costs balloon as you either maintain benched cleared personnel or pay premium rates for available ones, and if you’re a smaller contractor without pre-cleared staff, you find yourself at a significant disadvantage against larger competitors.
The Contractor’s Clearance Conundrum
As contractors, the security clearance process feels like trying to plan a picnic while watching an unpredictable weather forecast. Do you hire contingent on clearance and risk talent wandering off during the wait? Maintain expensive benched staff just in case? Or delay timelines and risk contract penalties?
It’s no surprise that research from the Government Business Council found that 71% of federal contractors report security clearance delays negatively impact their ability to compete. The financial hit is equally painful – the Professional Services Council estimates contractors spend around $400,000 annually on clearance-delay costs per 100 employees in the pipeline.
Tech Talent in Clearance Purgatory
For IT professionals caught in clearance limbo, the situation is equally frustrating. Imagine having a job offer you’re excited about, but being told you can’t actually start the meaningful work for another three to five months. Meanwhile, your tech skills – particularly in rapidly evolving fields like cybersecurity or AI – risk becoming outdated.
With the private sector waving immediate job offers with competitive salaries and no clearance hassles, it’s no wonder many talented professionals opt out of the government contracting space entirely.
How We Cut Through the Clearance Chaos
At Cyberstrike, we can’t speed up government clearance processes (we wish!), but we provide smart solutions to help you navigate these choppy waters:
Pre-Cleared Talent Pool
We maintain relationships with an extensive network of pre-cleared IT professionals across various clearance levels and technical specialties. When you need someone who’s already cleared and ready to go, we’ve got connections ready to deploy to your team.
Strategic Workforce Planning
Our team sits down with you to develop hiring strategies that account for those pesky clearance timelines. We create talent pipelines for your future needs, align hiring schedules with your contract timelines, and identify which critical roles absolutely must have pre-cleared personnel for your projects.
Flexible Engagement Models That Scale With Your Needs
What sets us apart is our ability to flex and scale alongside your business. Our fractional and embedded recruitment models are specifically designed to adjust to your contract realities:
Fractional Recruitment
When you win a new contract but don’t need a full-time recruiter, our fractional model gives you access to cleared recruitment expertise for just the hours you need. As your projects ramp up or wind down, we scale our support accordingly – you only pay for what you use. This means you can instantly expand your recruitment capabilities when a big contract lands, without carrying that overhead during quieter periods.
Embedded Recruitment Partners
For larger programs or multiple contract scenarios, our embedded recruiters become true extensions of your team. The beauty of this model is its scalability – we can quickly add resources when you win that massive new contract, and just as easily scale down when hiring slows. Our embedded recruiters understand your business, your security requirements, and your culture, providing continuity even as your recruitment needs fluctuate with government contract cycles.
Both models eliminate the feast-or-famine recruiting challenge that plagues so many defense contractors. No more scrambling to staff up when you win a bid, or carrying unnecessary recruitment costs during contract transitions.
The Light at the End of the Tunnel
While the government has implemented reforms like continuous evaluation systems and improved clearance reciprocity across agencies, significant challenges remain. Until those challenges are fully addressed, we at Cyberstrike are here to help you navigate the clearance maze with minimal pain and maximum efficiency.
After all, in the high-stakes world of DoD IT contracting, the security clearance process may be slow, but your business can’t afford to be. And neither can we – which is why we’re committed to keeping your projects moving forward despite the clearance hurdles.
