Senior Personnel Security Manager
Location: Oak Ridge, Tennessee
Work Arrangement: Full-Time, Onsite
Employment Type: Full-Time
Clearance: Must be able to obtain and maintain the security clearance/access authorization required for the position.
Position Summary
The Senior Personnel Security Manager leads a high-volume personnel security operation supporting a large, highly regulated federal security environment. This individual provides technical and operational leadership for personnel vetting, security clearance and access-authorization processing, adjudicative support, background investigation activities, personnel security records, case management, security briefings, and related compliance activities.
The Manager supervises personnel security specialists, establishes standardized processing procedures, monitors workload and case aging, performs quality reviews, resolves complex cases, and ensures sensitive personnel information is handled in accordance with applicable federal security and privacy requirements.
This position requires substantial hands-on federal personnel security experience and demonstrated leadership of personnel performing clearance and vetting activities.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities
- Lead day-to-day personnel security operations and assigned personnel.
- Manage high-volume security clearance and access-authorization case processing.
- Oversee initial investigations, reinvestigations, upgrades, downgrades, transfers, reciprocity, suspensions, terminations and other personnel security actions.
- Review investigative and clearance packages for accuracy, completeness and compliance.
- Provide technical oversight of electronic personnel-security case processing, including eApp and CATS or comparable federal systems.
- Support adjudicative processing and preparation of cases requiring additional review.
- Monitor open cases, aging, backlogs, processing time, error rates and workload.
- Establish workload priorities and distribute cases among personnel.
- Perform quality-control reviews of completed personnel security actions.
- Manage personnel security files and related electronic and hard-copy records.
- Ensure appropriate protection of PII, CUI, classified and other sensitive information.
- Support personnel security records reconciliation and clearance/access validation.
- Support administrative review and hearing processes where applicable.
- Coordinate complex personnel security matters with authorized customer representatives.
- Develop and maintain SOPs, desk guides, checklists and workflow procedures.
- Train and mentor personnel security specialists.
- Establish cross-training and succession plans.
- Develop performance metrics and management reports.
- Support audits, inspections, assessments and corrective actions.
- Identify opportunities to improve processing speed without compromising quality or compliance.
- Support security awareness and personnel security briefings.
- Coordinate closely with badging/credentialing, information security, industrial security and program management personnel.
Required/Desired Qualifications
- 7–10+ years of progressively responsible federal personnel security experience strongly preferred.
- Demonstrated experience with federal security clearance or access-authorization processing.
- Hands-on experience with eApp, CATS, DISS or comparable federal personnel-security systems strongly desired.
- Demonstrated understanding of federal investigative and adjudicative processes.
- Experience reviewing investigative packages and personnel-security documentation.
- Experience protecting PII and other sensitive security records.
- Experience with personnel-security file management.
- Previous supervisory, team-lead or senior specialist experience.
- Experience establishing case-management metrics and reducing processing backlogs.
- Strong analytical, written and verbal communication skills.
- Ability to work full-time onsite in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
- Must satisfy applicable citizenship, clearance and access requirements.
Highly Desired
- Previous experience in a federal energy, nuclear, defense, intelligence or similarly regulated national-security environment.
- Experience with large-volume clearance populations.
- Experience supporting adjudication.
- Experience with PIV/HSPD-12 or federal credentialing programs.
- Current or recently active federal security clearance.
