Cleared Recruiting Lead

Kentro • Tampa, FL

2d • Hybrid

About The Position

Kentro is hiring a Cleared Recruiting Lead to oversee cleared recruiting delivery across government contracts, supporting Secret, TS, TS/SCI, CI Poly, and FS Poly hiring needs. The role supervises 1–2 cleared recruiters while remaining actively engaged in recruiting for designated roles, and ensures staffing is consistent, compliant, and timely for intelligence community, Department of Defense, and federal civilian programs.

The Lead is the primary operational contact for cleared recruiting. The position partners with program leadership, Personnel Security, and Talent Acquisition leadership to maintain cleared talent pipelines and meet contract staffing requirements. It reports hiring performance, resource needs, risks, and contract staffing updates to the Director and collaborates on contract start-ups, surge hiring, proposal staffing, and future pipeline development.

The position is preferred to be hybrid in Tampa, Florida, or McLean, Virginia, but remote candidates in the United States may be considered. Travel may be required for events and contract needs, and working hours are in the Eastern Time Zone. The posted anticipated base salary range is $100,000–$140,000 annually.

Candidates must be U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents and willing and able to obtain and maintain a Public Trust clearance or higher. A bachelor’s degree is preferred, or candidates may qualify with 8+ years of experience. The role offers a benefits package that includes paid time off, healthcare and supplemental benefits, a 401(k) with employer match, discount perks, rewards, and education reimbursement for certifications, degrees, or professional development.

Requirements

• 5+ years of cleared recruiting experience supporting intelligence community and DoD programs.
• 2+ years of experience leading cleared recruiting teams or working in a senior cleared recruiter capacity.
• Experience with clearance levels, investigations, adjudications, and crossover processes.
• Experience in federal contracting environments, labor-category requirements, and proposal staffing.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities, deadlines, and customer expectations in fast-paced environments.
• Proficiency with ATS systems and cleared and other sourcing tools.
• Strong communication skills, including the ability to summarize risks, updates, and hiring performance for Talent Acquisition leadership.
• Ability to build relationships across military communities, veteran networks, and cleared talent pools.
• U.S. citizenship or lawful permanent resident status (Green Card).
• Willingness and ability to obtain and maintain a Public Trust clearance or higher.

Nice To Haves

• Bachelor’s degree; alternatively, 8+ years of experience is stated as an option.
• Experience with DoD organizations, SOCOM, DIA, or other federal government cleared networks.
• Experience with iCIMS ATS.
• Location in Tampa, Florida, or the DMV area.

Responsibilities

• Lead cleared recruiting activities and ensure staffing coverage across programs requiring Secret, TS, TS/SCI, CI Poly, and FS Poly talent.
• Manage, mentor, and coach 1–2 cleared recruiters; oversee workflow, performance, productivity, and delivery quality.
• Establish daily, weekly, and monthly operating rhythms to meet recruiting commitments.
• Review and approve job-description submittals for hire and review and approve offers in accordance with approval and exception processes.
• Enforce compliance with government contract requirements, labor categories, candidate documentation, and personnel security standards.
• Serve as the cleared recruiting team’s clearance subject matter expert and support recruiters and hiring managers with clearance-related questions.
• Provide structured reporting to the Director on pipeline status, risks, hiring trends, and contract-level performance metrics.
• Communicate staffing demands, recruiter workload, resource gaps, and escalations proactively; brief the Director on hiring risks, delays, candidate issues, and market conditions.
• Collaborate with the Director and Transition Manager on contract start-ups, surge hiring, proposal staffing, and future pipeline development.
• Build and maintain clearance-specific pipelines and long-term talent communities across clearance levels from Secret through FS Poly.
• Develop targeted outreach programs, including military-transition pipelines and veteran-hiring strategies, and drive referrals through cleared networks and internal employee communities.
• Plan and represent the company at cleared recruiting events, including intelligence community job fairs.
• Coordinate with Communications and Marketing on ongoing presence across marketing and sourcing tools, and maintain connections for recruiting growth and pipelining.
• Serve as the Talent Acquisition point of contact for cleared staffing across intelligence community, DoD, and federal civilian programs requiring clearances.
• Partner with Program Managers to understand hiring timelines, contract deliverables, and customer expectations.
• Support proposal staffing with rapid pipeline development and prequalified candidate pools.
• Communicate hiring challenges, market availability, and competitive intelligence to program leadership and Talent Acquisition leaders.
• Conduct and oversee candidate clearance verification and ensure documentation meets contract requirements.
• Collaborate with Personnel Security on clearance transfers, upgrades, and crossover processing.
• Maintain accurate candidate records in the ATS in compliance with audits and government-contract documentation standards.
• Ensure team members follow customer-specific submission requirements, resume formats, and labor-category validation.
• Actively recruit for designated roles while supervising other cleared recruiters; the posting states that more than 50% of the time remains active recruiting.
• Track, report, and improve cleared recruiting KPIs, including clearance-level time-to-fill, submission-to-interview ratio, interview-to-offer ratio, pipeline health by program and clearance level, and offer acceptance rate.
• Provide weekly and monthly metric dashboards to the Director and conduct quarterly reviews and reporting for recruiter incentives and team metrics.
• Identify performance gaps and implement corrective actions or workflow changes.
• Ensure transparency, consistency, and visibility into contract staffing performance.

Benefits

• Paid time off
• Healthcare benefits
• Supplemental benefits
• 401(k) with employer match
• Discount perks and rewards
• Education reimbursement for certifications, degrees, or professional development
• Virtual and in-person activities, including happy hours, holiday events, fitness and wellness events, and annual celebrations

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior