I left my federal contracting job less than two years ago. I went completely commercial so didn’t use the clearance at all. I came back to federal contracting within two years. Does my clearance get automatically after being hired by a federal contractor or do I need to be reinvestigated ?
Depends on a lot of factors but there is a good chance they will be able to pick up your previous eligibility. You may be asked to fill out a new eQIP/SF-86 but as long as there are no major changes they might be able to pick you up pretty quickly.
As always there are exceptions.
If you have been out of access for less than 24 months, are now in a position that requires a clearannce, and the previous investigation meets the level of clearance needed then they can reinstate eligibilty without a new investigation.
Do I need to be aligned to a specific contract ? Is just being hired by the contractor but not being aligned to a project on a contract enough to reactivate it ?
I’m not sure how this works anymore. Used to be they only worried about that (ie having a ‘billet’ on a specific contract) for SCI access. For Secret clearances there was more flexibility, but I think now it applies to all levels of clearance. Everything seems to be tightening up.