Blackfyre Talent · Cleared GovCon Recruiting

Cleared AI Talent,
Vetted by Someone
Who's Read the Contract.

Machine learning, data, and cloud engineers for federal programs — plus the capture and proposal people who win the work in the first place. Sourced by a former U.S. Contracting Officer with a Harvard master's in IT and 18 years inside seven federal agencies.

Public Trust → TS/SCI w/ Poly LCAT & Rate Mapping Post-Employment Screening
7
Federal Agencies Worked
18
Years in Federal Acquisition
$1B+
Contracts Personally Awarded
70+
GovCon Firms Advised
Why This Is Different

Anyone Can Send You
a Résumé.

The question a GovCon hiring manager actually has is whether the person can be billed compliantly on the vehicle funding the role — and whether they're legally allowed to work the account at all. That's a contracts question wearing a recruiting costume.

🎓
We Can Read the Résumé

Eighteen years inside GSA, IRS, DoD, DOI, HHS, FTC, and Energy — plus a Harvard master's in IT. We know what a GS-14 actually did versus what the résumé claims, and we can evaluate the engineer, not just the paperwork.

📋
We Map to a Labor Category

Before you make an offer, we tell you which labor category the candidate maps to, whether the rate is defensible, and whether your contract will actually pay for them. We build LCATs and rate structures for GSA Schedules every week.

⚖️
We Screen the Cooling-Off Rules

Post-government-employment restrictions under 18 U.S.C. 207 govern what a freshly departed fed can legally touch. Most hiring managers don't know those rules. We check before an offer goes out, not after.

Roles We Fill

Technical and Revenue Roles
Across the GovCon Stack

From ML engineers with active clearances to the capture managers who win the contract that funds them.

AI & Machine Learning
Model, Data, and Applied AI
  • ML & AI Engineers — model development and deployment in accredited environments
  • Data Scientists — federal health, energy, and defense program analytics
  • MLOps Engineers — model pipelines that survive an ATO review
  • NLP & Computer Vision — document processing, imagery, and sensor programs
Cloud & Platform
Infrastructure That Passes ATO
  • Cloud Architects — AWS GovCloud, Azure Government, IL4/IL5
  • DevSecOps Engineers — pipelines built for federal accreditation
  • Data Engineers — pipelines, warehousing, and governance
  • FedRAMP & ATO Specialists — the people who get you authorized
Growth & Capture
The People Who Win the Work
  • Capture Managers — pursuit strategy, teaming, and positioning
  • Proposal Managers & Writers — volume leads, technical and past performance
  • BD Executives — with real agency relationships, not a CRM export
  • Pricing & Cost Volume Analysts — the ones who make the bid credible
Program Leadership
Named Key Personnel
  • Program Managers — PMP, cleared, with federal delivery history
  • Technical Directors & Chief Architects
  • Contracts & Compliance Leads — former COs and CSs moving to industry
  • Fractional & Advisory — senior help without a full-time line item
We Source Across Every Clearance Tier
Public Trust Secret Top Secret TS/SCI TS/SCI with Polygraph

Clearance is the gating variable in federal hiring, and it's the one a generalist recruiter treats as a checkbox. We verify status and currency before a candidate reaches your inbox — an expired clearance is a wasted interview loop.

Proposal Support

You Can't Bid Without
Naming a PM.

Federal solicitations require named key personnel in the proposal — a Program Manager, a Technical Lead, sometimes more. If you can't name them, you can't bid. If you name someone weak, you lose on the evaluation.

We source named key personnel for active pursuits and secure letters of commitment on your proposal timeline — not your hiring timeline. Almost nobody does this well, and it's the difference between submitting and sitting one out.

Typical Pursuit Timeline
DAY 1You send the solicitation and the key personnel requirements
DAY 2We come back with a sourcing plan and a read on feasibility
WEEK 1Qualified candidates, clearance verified, résumés in evaluation format
WEEK 2Letters of commitment secured for your submission
Services & Pricing

Three Ways to Work
With Us

Pick the model that matches how much hiring you're actually doing.

Most Flexible
Contingency
20–25%
of first-year salary, per hire
No upfront cost
Pay only on a hire
Clearance verification included
LCAT and rate mapping included
Best for one to four hires
Best Value at Volume
Embedded Recruiting
Monthly
flat retainer, unlimited hires
Unlimited placements
We act as your recruiting function
Pipeline built ahead of award
Six-month minimum engagement
Best for staffing up after an award
Senior & Cleared
Retained Search
Retainer
plus success fee on placement
Majority of fee due on success
Named key personnel for live bids
Letters of commitment secured
Post-employment restriction screening
Best for executives and key personnel
How It Works

What Working With
Us Looks Like

1
Send us the role

The position, the clearance requirement, the contract or vehicle it's funded under. We come back within 24 hours with a specific proposal — including an honest read on whether the role is fillable at the rate you have.

2
We check the contract math first

Before sourcing starts, we confirm the labor category, the rate, and the clearance requirement line up. This is the step that saves you from interviewing four people you can't afford to hire.

3
Candidates arrive pre-screened

Clearance verified and current, technical background assessed, post-employment restrictions checked. Résumés arrive formatted for the way federal evaluators actually read them.

4
You interview, we coordinate

Scheduling, candidate communication, and keeping good people warm through a federal hiring cycle that is almost always slower than the candidate expects.

5
Offer, onboard, and stay compliant

We support the offer, confirm nothing in the candidate's background creates a contract problem, and stay available through the start date.

Common Questions

Before You Ask

Do you recruit out of your own consulting clients?+
Never. Every company Blackfyre advises is permanently off-limits as a candidate source, and that's written into our agreement — not left to good intentions. If we advise you on your GSA Schedule, your people are not in our pipeline.
What does the post-employment screening actually check?+
Restrictions under 18 U.S.C. 207 limit what a former federal employee can work on after leaving government — sometimes permanently, sometimes for one or two years, depending on their role and what they touched. We flag those constraints before an offer goes out so you don't hire someone who legally can't work the account you hired them for. This is a screening flag, not a legal opinion; your counsel makes the final call.
Can you fill a role if we don't have the contract yet?+
That's the named key personnel service. We source candidates for an active pursuit and secure letters of commitment on your proposal deadline, so you can name qualified people in the bid before the award exists.
How fast do you fill a role?+
We won't quote you a number we haven't earned. Cleared technical roles move slower than commercial ones, and anyone promising a fixed timeline on a TS/SCI search is guessing. What we will do is give you an honest feasibility read in the first 24 hours — including telling you when a role isn't fillable at the rate you're offering.
Do you work with small businesses or only large primes?+
Both. Blackfyre has advised 70+ GovCon firms from first-time 8(a) holders to established primes. A small business making its first cleared technical hire is exactly the situation where getting the labor category and rate right matters most.
Start a Search

Tell Us the Role.
We'll Tell You If It's Fillable.

Send the position, the clearance requirement, and the vehicle it's funded under. You'll get an honest read within 24 hours — including when the answer is no.

18 Years, 7 Agencies Clearance Verified Contract-Compliant Rates
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