Government
Public work needs people who show up.
Program support, IT and cybersecurity, contracts and procurement, grants, compliance and citizen services. For agencies, and for the contractors who serve them.
- 6 functions
- from program and administrative support through contracts, IT and compliance
- Clearance verified
- status and investigation date confirmed at screening where a role requires it
- Contract vehicles
- staff supplied to primes and subcontractors as well as directly to agencies
Government
The constraint is rarely the candidate.
We staff public sector work across program and administrative support, IT and cybersecurity, contracts and procurement, finance and grants, compliance and records, and citizen facing services. Agencies at every level, and the contractors delivering for them.
Government hiring runs on process. Position descriptions, approval chains, onboarding and, where relevant, clearance. The candidate is often ready weeks before the paperwork is.
So we plan around it: verify clearance status at screening, confirm residency and background requirements early, and tell you plainly when a start date is being set by onboarding rather than by sourcing.
Functions
What we actually recruit for.
Pick one and you get what they actually produce, the seniority we fill, and the tools and standards a screen has to cover.
Program coordination, scheduling, correspondence, records and the reporting a funder will ask for.
- Seniority we fill
- Administrative assistant through to program analyst
- Tools
- Microsoft 365SharePointRecords systemsCase management
- Standards
- Records retentionFOIA awarenessAccessibility requirements
Program coordination, scheduling, correspondence, records and the reporting a funder will ask for.
- Seniority we fill
- Administrative assistant through to program analyst
- Tools
- Microsoft 365SharePointRecords systemsCase management
- Standards
- Records retentionFOIA awarenessAccessibility requirements
The vocabulary
What we verify and recruit against.
In public sector work the paperwork is the timeline. These are the things that decide whether somebody can actually start.
Frameworks
- FAR
- DFARS
- Uniform Guidance
- NIST 800-53
- NIST 800-171
- Section 508
Systems
- ServiceNow
- SharePoint
- Grants management platforms
- Case management
- Azure Government
Clearance status we verify
- Public Trust
- Secret
- Top Secret
- Investigation date
- Reciprocity
Checks we run
- Background investigation history
- Residency requirements
- E-Verify
- Drug screening where required
In public sector hiring the candidate is usually ready weeks before the paperwork is. Plan the paperwork first.
Screening
How we screen for public sector work.
The screen has two halves. Can this person do the job, and can this person actually start. In government work the second half is where most timelines are lost.
- 01
Eligibility established first
Citizenship or residency requirements, background investigation history, and clearance status with the date of the last investigation.
- 02
The environment named honestly
Agency or contractor, on site or remote, and the pace, because public sector work suits some people and frustrates others.
- 03
Framework knowledge questioned
FAR familiarity for contracts roles, Uniform Guidance for grants, NIST for security. Short, specific questions rather than a claim on a resume.
- 04
Onboarding runway mapped
We work out with you how long badging, systems access and any investigation will take, and we set the candidate's expectations to match.
- 05
A reference from a supervisor
Somebody who saw the work and can speak to reliability in an environment where deadlines are statutory rather than commercial.
Straight answer
Where the market is actually tight.
What our recruiters see running these searches. Experience rather than a guarantee.
| Role | What the market looks like | Realistic shortlist |
|---|---|---|
| Administrative and program support | Available in most markets. | About a week |
| Citizen services and call centre | Available, and scalable for a policy driven surge. | Days to a week |
| Grants and government accounting | Steady. Uniform Guidance experience narrows it noticeably. | Two to three weeks |
| Contracts and procurement | Tight. FAR depth is scarcer than the number of resumes suggests. | Three to four weeks |
| IT support and systems | Available, until a clearance requirement is added. | Two to three weeks |
| Cleared cybersecurity | The hardest public sector hire we run, and onboarding adds to it. | Six weeks and up |
Where a role requires an active clearance, the search is a search for a much smaller population. It is worth deciding early whether the requirement is genuine or inherited from an old position description.
Shapes
Three shapes this usually takes.
Public sector demand is driven by budget cycles, contract awards and policy changes.
Surge and backlog
Extra capacity against a spike.
- When it fits
- A policy change, a backlog, a deadline set by statute rather than by preference.
- The arrangement
- Temporary and contract, scaled up in groups.
Contract support
Staff supplied against an awarded programme.
- When it fits
- Prime and subcontractor delivery, task orders, programme ramp up.
- The arrangement
- Contract for the length of the period of performance.
The permanent hire
Roles an agency or contractor intends to keep.
- When it fits
- Contracts managers, grants managers, compliance leads, senior analysts.
- The arrangement
- Direct hire, with onboarding runway planned into the timeline.
Before you call
What to have ready before you call.
The first thing we will ask about is eligibility, because it sets the timeline.
- Citizenship, residency and background investigation requirements
- Whether a clearance is genuinely required, and at what level
- Agency, prime or subcontractor, and the contract vehicle if relevant
- How long badging and systems access realistically take at your site
- The period of performance, if the role is tied to one
- The rate or salary band, and whether it is set by a schedule
Questions
Before you call.
We recruit candidates who hold active clearances and verify status and investigation date at screening. Sponsorship of a new clearance sits with the agency or the prime, and we will tell you plainly when a requirement is going to shrink the candidate pool dramatically.
Staffing a public programme?
Tell us the eligibility requirements and the period of performance. We will be honest about what the clearance requirement does to the timeline.