Personnel Security Specialist

Description

Do you love to challenge yourself?

Are you searching for important work in a dynamic environment?

Are you passionate about making a difference?

Do you like contributing in a team environment to meet the needs of customers?

If so, we're looking for someone like you to join our team at APL.

We are seeking an enterpriser to help us innovate, streamline, and deliver services to our customers. As a member of the PERSEC team, you will process and manage security clearances, review, create, and implement process improvements, and partner with all levels of APL and its sponsors to ensure mission success.

• Own and manage data quality for assigned personnel security records by entering, updating, and reconciling information across multiple complex systems, ensuring traceability and audit effectiveness, and coordinating with Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA), ITSD, and TSX to support the integration and alignment of external and internal systems under the guidance of senior security staff.
• Support Key Management Personnel (KMPs) by processing clearances, managing self-reporting, and collaborating with industry partners to share and reconcile reporting information in line with regulatory and governance requirements.
• Lead Foreign National and Resident Alien reporting efforts, partnering with TSX to ensure tracking and compliance with all requirements of the Technology Control Plan.
• Partner with Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) on pilot programs by representing the personnel security function in routine meetings and activities, providing feedback on process and system changes, and supporting testing through to implementation, while escalating policy, risk, or complex issues to senior security staff.
• Conduct initial reviews of investigation results and supporting documents to identify routine security or suitability issues; draft clear, concise summaries and develop preliminary analytical recommendations that inform personnel security determinations and management decision-making under the guidance of senior personnel.
• Serve as a first-line point of contact for employees, applicants, and managers on personnel security processes, requirements, and timelines, providing routine guidance on established procedures, resolving procedural issues within delegated authority, and escalating matters involving elevated organizational risk, regulatory ambiguity, or questions that fall outside standard practice.
• Advise stakeholders on timelines, risk considerations, and expectations, and explain complex personnel security forms and investigative requirements using professional-level written and verbal communication, serving as a first-line policy and process resource and escalating nonstandard, higher-risk, or ambiguous issues to senior security staff.
• Support the security team in navigating a complex, evolving regulatory landscape by continuously learning and applying changes in adjudicative guidelines, insider threat and suitability criteria, and government clearance processes and systems; assess how these changes affect assigned personnel security workflows and recommend procedural or workflow adjustments, while partnering with senior security personnel on any broader policy changes needed to maintain alignment with current requirements.
• Focus on risk-based personnel security information by identifying routine and moderately complex risk factors in assigned cases and serving in a consultative role on routine personnel security matters as a first-line point of contact within the security team, with Lab partners, and with external agencies, while elevating higher-risk or ambiguous issues to senior security staff.
• Communicate clearly and professionally (written and verbal) to explain forms and requirements, respond to status inquiries, and provide updates on assigned cases; tailor your communication to the audience and provide guidance that enables informed compliance with personnel security requirements, reporting case status and emerging issues to your supervisor as needed.
• Independently interpret and apply established policies, procedures, and regulatory guidance (e.g., NISPOM, adjudicative guidelines, agency directives) to routine and moderately complex situations, evaluating multiple sources of guidance and exercising independent judgment in determining the appropriate course of action for matters within clearly defined parameters, while seeking guidance on unusual, conflicting, or higher-risk issues.
• Track periodic reinvestigation requirements and initiate updates according to established schedules, planning and organizing your workload to ensure deadlines and quality expectations are met, and informing your supervisor of competing priorities or emerging issues.
• Support internal and external audits and inspections by assembling requested personnel security documentation, verifying file completeness, noting potential systemic compliance trends,…