Since March 31, 2026, the Air Force has capped SkillBridge placements at roughly 90 to 120 days, down from as many as 180, with the exact window set by a service member’s rank. For an employer trying to move a transitioning service member into a cleared job in that time, the change may look like a squeeze.
But Margarita Howard, the founder and chief executive of contractor HX5, does not read it that way. “Generally speaking, nothing is compressed or cut,” she says.
HX5 has hosted SkillBridge and Hiring Our Heroes fellows since 2021, earned the 2025 HIRE Vets Gold Medallion from the Department of Labor, and counts veterans as more than 30% of its workforce. Howard’s argument is that the clearance process the shorter window has to accommodate was never something a contractor like HX5 could trim in the first place.
The Process Was Never the Place to Cut Corners
A shorter runway does not force shortcuts, in Howard’s account, because the steps are fixed. “It’s less about compressing or cutting something from the process because the process is very clearly laid out,” she says. “There isn’t a lot of room to cut things because certain steps have to be completed.” A security clearance moves through a defined sequence, and no employer gets to skip a stage to hit a deadline.
If the process cannot be shortened, the variable is how well the contractor runs it. Howard puts the weight on her security team. “There are a number of variables outside the company’s control, but having a very good, seasoned security department that understands the process is critical,” she says.
The job is administrative more than anything. “Understanding the systems involved, knowing the particular paperwork that’s required, and being able to assist service members and shepherd them through the process are probably the biggest contributors to expediting things,” she continues.
Where the Time Is Saved
Much of that speed comes from paperwork done right the first time. The Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency considers applicants sponsored by cleared contractors for interim Secret or Top Secret eligibility at the start of an investigation rather than at the end, but only after a favorable review of the SF-86 security questionnaire, a favorable fingerprint check, and proof of U.S. citizenship. A security office that assembles a clean, complete package can put a service member into interim eligibility while the full investigation runs. That is often what lets a 90-to-120-day placement end with a person in a working, cleared role.
Margarita Howard credits experience over any single trick. “Being very familiar with the process and having done it many times is the biggest contributor to helping a service member step directly into a cleared role, assuming all of the other factors line up and that’s what the individual wants to do,” she says. A security department that has run the sequence hundreds of times knows which forms stall, which checks take longest, and how to keep a file moving, and that fluency is what a compressed timeline rewards.
When Speed Changes Who Gets Hired
Run well, the process can occasionally widen the pool as it beats the clock. “Yes, being able to effectively manage and ultimately expedite that process can, in some cases, change who HX5 can bring in,” Howard says. A faster path can make a candidate viable that the old timeline would have ruled out.
But it doesn’t always work. “Depending on the position being considered for a candidate, the available timeline may or may not make it realistic for that person to move into the position. Sometimes speeding up the process still may not be enough,” Howard says. And for scarce skills, the customer sometimes bends instead. “With SkillBridge participants or candidates more generally, if the right person comes along, sometimes a customer may want to reconsider certain requirements in cases involving unique skill sets that are very difficult to find,” she continues.
The cumulative effect is capacity. “Anytime you can save time and resources through efficient and effective processes, that’s a positive, and one result can be the ability to place more candidates than would otherwise be possible,” Howard says.
What the Rank Caps Changed at HX5
For all the attention the rank-based caps drew when the Air Force limited the program in April, Howard says they did little to how HX5 actually runs its program. “From the standpoint of how we run the program, there really have not been any substantive operational changes on HX5’s side because of the rank-based caps,” she wrote. “They don’t necessarily affect how we operate or approach the program, so they haven’t had much effect on how we administer it internally.”
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