One more thing,
most of these jobs require a current, active security clearance. It takes time to be granted if you have been out of the system for a while (I have a friend in exactly that position, too; he can't go to refresher training until his clearance comes in).
You will get better jobs and more money with an active TS/SI than with a Secret clearance, also. A secret clearance usually is nothing more complicated than a criminal records and credit record check. (It's called NACLC). If nothing curious is found they don't often even talk to the individual. A TS/SI requires quite a number of personal interviews (subject, references, employers, neighbours) and costs significant money. Best result on S was about 90 days, TS about a year. Worst result: I've seen investigations that wobbled along for four years and are still inconclusive. It doesn't seem to matter whether the individual has some problems or not.
One sign of an undercapitalized, borderline operator is that they won't do clearance paperwork on a guy (whoever requests the investigation has to pay for it) but will ONLY take people already cleared.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
I forgot about the clearance side of it. More hassles.