You posted a cleared role. The job description says "active TS/SCI with a current CI poly." Maybe it says "full-scope required." Your applicant pool dried up to almost nothing. The few resumes you got are missing the one thing you cannot train into someone.

A polygraph is not a skill. It is a gate. A veteran either has a current one tied to an active clearance, or they do not. So the way you source for these roles is different from how you fill anything else. You are not casting a wide net. You are looking for a small, specific group of people who already cleared the bar.

Most of that group came out of military intelligence, signals, and special operations. They are out there. The hard part is that they do not always describe their background in words your search will catch. This guide walks through the poly types, why veterans from those fields fit, and where to actually find them.

What does "requires a polygraph" actually mean?

Before you source, get the requirement right. Recruiters lose good candidates by treating every poly the same. They are not the same. The type changes who qualifies and how fast.

There are two you will see most often on cleared roles. A counterintelligence (CI) polygraph covers a narrow set of topics. Espionage. Sabotage. Unauthorized contact with foreign governments. Unauthorized disclosure of classified material. That is the scope. Many Department of Defense positions need only a CI poly.

A full-scope polygraph, sometimes called a lifestyle poly, covers all the CI topics plus personal conduct. Drug use. Finances. Criminal history. The agencies that lean on full-scope tend to be the intelligence-community heavy hitters. A candidate cleared for full-scope can almost always meet a CI requirement, but not the other way around.

One more detail that saves you time. A poly is tied to an agency and a moment in time. It can lapse. It can be agency-specific. So "has a poly" is not a yes or no. Ask which agency administered it and when. The exact rules on portability and currency change, so confirm the current standard before you rule a candidate in or out. For how the three poly types map to clearance levels, send your team to our breakdown of polygraph requirements for cleared roles.

Why do veterans fill this pool so well?

Cleared, poly-holding talent is scarce on the open market. The military builds it on purpose. People in intelligence, signals, and special operations get cleared early and get polyed as part of the job. That makes veterans the deepest source for these roles.

Think about where the poly-cleared come from. Military intelligence analysts. Cryptologic and signals roles. Human intelligence collectors. Special operations support. Many of these jobs sit behind a TS/SCI and a poly from day one. When that person separates, the clearance and poly do not vanish overnight. You get a window to hire someone already through the gate.

There is a second reason beyond the clearance. These veterans were trained to handle classified work, follow strict security rules, and operate under pressure without cutting corners. That is the exact mindset a cleared employer needs. The poly is the filter. The discipline is the bonus.

The pool is large too. In 2025 there were 5.6 million Gulf War-era II veterans, about a third of all veterans, per the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Not all of them held a poly. But the slice that served in intelligence and signals is a real, sizable group. And they hire fast because good cleared candidates do not stay on the market long.

Why won't a standard keyword search find them?

This is where most sourcing efforts stall. You type "polygraph" into your applicant tracking system or a job board and get almost nothing back. The talent is real. The search misses it.

The reason is how veterans write their own history. A signals intelligence analyst might list their job as "35N" or "SIGINT analyst" and never write the word polygraph. Their resume describes the mission, not the clearance paperwork behind it. So your keyword filter slides right past them.

Remember what an applicant tracking system does. It racks and stacks. It ranks resumes against the words you fed it. A strong cleared veteran whose resume says "cryptologic technician" instead of "full-scope poly" sinks down the list. They do not get filtered out by some gate. They just never surface to the top, so a recruiter never sees them.

It helps to know the codes that map to this work. The Army uses 35-series codes for intelligence, like 35F all-source analyst and 35N signals analyst. The Navy has Cryptologic Technicians and Intelligence Specialists. The Air Force runs 1N intelligence and signals career fields. The Marines use the 02 and 26 occupational fields. A veteran from any of these often held a TS/SCI and a poly. Their resume may show only the code, so train your team to recognize them.

So search for the work, not the paperwork. Look for the clearance level, the intelligence discipline, and the job codes that sit behind a poly. Then confirm the poly in your first call. You will surface far more qualified people that way than by hunting for the word "polygraph" on a resume.

Where do you actually find poly-cleared veterans?

Once you stop searching for the wrong word, the question becomes where to look. The poly-cleared do not gather in the same places as general applicants. They move through cleared and military-specific channels. Hit those.

Start with a candidate database built for veterans. The right one lets you search by clearance level and military background, so you can filter to the intel and signals fields that come with a poly. That beats blasting a cleared role to a general board and praying.

Bases matter too. Major intelligence and signals commands cluster cleared, poly-holding service members in one region. Their transition offices see these people in the months before they separate. Build a relationship there and you get a steady feed.

SkillBridge is the early-access play. The program lets transitioning service members do a civilian work placement before their separation date. You host a cleared veteran, see the work firsthand, and extend an offer when they leave the service. Learn the basics on the official SkillBridge site. For a deeper walkthrough, see our guide on sourcing through the SkillBridge provider directory.

And do not overlook referrals. A veteran who held a full-scope poly trained and deployed next to others who did. One good cleared hire opens a door to a whole network. Ask every cleared veteran you bring on who else they would vouch for.

How do you read a cleared veteran's resume?

You found a candidate. Now you have to read the resume right, because the clues to a poly are rarely spelled out. The skill is decoding the military language into what it means for your cleared role.

Look for the clearance line first. "TS/SCI" plus any mention of a poly is your strongest signal. If the resume names an intelligence agency or a sensitive program, that points to a high-level clearance and likely a poly. When the poly is not stated, the job history fills the gap. Certain fields almost always carry one.

Treat the resume as a starting point, not the final answer. A thin resume from a cleared veteran is often a sign of good security habits, not a weak candidate. They were trained not to write down sensitive detail. So when the background fits, do not pass. Pick up the phone and ask the clearance and poly questions directly.

For more on this, our piece on how government contractors hire cleared veterans breaks down the full read. And when you are weighing two strong candidates, our guide on comparing two veteran candidates fairly keeps the call clean.

What should a midsize employer do differently?

Big primes have whole teams chasing cleared talent. If you run a midsize firm, you do not need that. You need to be sharp about a smaller number of moves. Speed and focus win here.

Move fast. Cleared, poly-holding veterans get multiple offers. A slow process loses them. Pre-clear your interview loop, line up your facility security officer, and be ready to give a real answer on the role within days, not weeks.

Be precise in the job post. State the exact poly you need. "Active TS/SCI with CI poly" pulls the right people and saves you from screening a flood of partial fits. Vague posts waste everyone's time.

Keep your process fair while you move fast. Veteran status and clearance are real, lawful job requirements for these roles. But screen on the requirement itself, the poly and the clearance, not on assumptions about a person's background. If you have questions about how that interacts with employment law, talk to counsel. The Department of Labor's veteran hiring resources are a solid starting point for employers.

Where BMR fits

The whole game with poly-cleared roles is finding a small group of qualified people fast. That is a sourcing problem, and a veteran candidate database is built for it. You can search by clearance level and military field instead of hoping the right keyword shows up on a resume.

Best Military Resume adds more than 1,000 new veteran profiles every month, and over 60,000 resumes have been built on the platform. For a cleared role, that means a steady, growing pool of veterans, including the intelligence and signals backgrounds that come with a poly. You search for the work and the clearance, and the hidden fits surface.

If you are hiring for cleared roles that need a CI or full-scope poly, BMR can put you in front of the right veterans. Reach out to access BMR's veteran talent pool and start sourcing the poly-cleared candidates other channels miss.