Ask five industrial security firms what an outsourced Facility Security Officer costs and you will get five versions of “it depends, let’s schedule a call.” That is a reasonable answer to a complicated question and a useless one if you are trying to build a bid. Here is how FSO work is actually priced, what moves the number, and what INTS2 charges.
Why nobody publishes a price
FSO support is not one service. It covers everything from a two-hour records review before a DCSA assessment to a cleared professional embedded in your facility year-round. The work scales with your facility clearance level, your headcount, whether you store classified material on site, how many CAGE codes you carry, and how much of your existing program is documented versus improvised. A single hourly rate cannot describe all of that, so most firms decline to try.
The honest version is that the number is knowable once you know which of three things you are buying.
The three ways FSO support is bought
1. Hourly, in and out
You have a specific problem with a defined edge: a self-inspection that has to happen before a DCSA security review, a gap while your FSO is on leave, a second opinion on a finding, a single on-site visit. You are buying hours, not a relationship. Hourly pricing is the right instrument here because the scope really is small and really does end.
The trap is using hourly for work that is not bounded. If you retain someone hourly and then call them every week, you will pay a premium rate for what has quietly become a standing engagement.
2. Embedded, long-term
You need continuous coverage — someone who holds the FSO appointment, maintains the program, runs the annual self-inspection, handles visit requests and incident reports, and answers the phone when DCSA calls. This is priced on duration, scope, location, and clearance requirements, and it is almost always cheaper per hour than sprint work because the provider can plan around it.
This is where most small and mid-size cleared contractors land. A company with forty employees and a Secret-level facility clearance does not need a full-time FSO salary on the books, but it does need the function covered every week of the year.
3. Staffing — you pick the person, someone else employs them
The one people forget. Sometimes you already know who you want. A retired colleague, an assistant facility security officer you have worked with before, someone your prime recommended. What you do not want is another W-2 on your books, another benefits enrollment, another state payroll registration, and another line item your CFO has to defend.
In that arrangement a temp services provider employs the person, runs payroll, carries the employment compliance burden, and bills you a rate. You get the individual you chose without the overhead of hiring them.
What actually moves the number
| Factor | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Clearance level required | A Secret-cleared generalist and a TS/SCI professional with SAP experience are different labor markets. |
| Safeguarding | Possessing facilities carry materially more work than non-possessing ones — storage, accountability, destruction, and the inspection scrutiny that comes with them. |
| Number of CAGE codes and facilities | Each one is its own clearance, its own DD Form 254 set, and its own self-inspection. |
| On-site requirement | Most FSO work is remote-capable. Where it is not, travel and physical presence carry real cost. |
| Condition of the existing program | Maintaining a documented program is routine. Reconstructing one that was never built is a project. |
| Whether you are in remediation | A program responding to a DCSA finding needs more hours, faster, than one that is current. |
What INTS2 charges
We publish our rates. The full list, including OPSEC and insider threat program pricing and CMMC 2.0 managed compliance, is on the INTS2 pricing page.
| Engagement | What it covers | Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Sprint engagement | Hourly. Targeted audits, single-visit on-site coverage, short-notice gaps, second-opinion consultations. | $250/hr |
| Long-term engagement | Multi-week, multi-month, or year-round embedded FSO support. | Negotiated |
| Personnel security clearance | One candidate, start to finish, through adjudication. Requires a client-executed DD Form 254. | $1,600 |
| Facility clearance (FCL) support | Submission and processing support through to clearance, assuming the company already holds a sponsorship letter from a prime. Flat rate for a straightforward, single-facility, non-possessing case; complexity moves the number. | From $4,500 |
On facility clearances. The flat rate assumes you already hold a sponsorship letter from a prime. A company cannot sponsor its own facility clearance — sponsorship comes from a cleared prime contractor or a government activity with a contract requiring access, and getting to that letter is a business-development problem, not a paperwork one. With the letter in hand, $4,500 covers a straightforward case: one facility, a clean ownership structure, no foreign interest to report. Multiple CAGE codes, a possessing facility, or any foreign ownership, control or influence question moves it out of flat-rate territory, because FOCI analysis and mitigation are their own body of work.
Temp services: 35% on the negotiated wage.
Already have someone in mind, such as an assistant facility security officer? INTS2 employs them, runs payroll, and handles the compliance paperwork, and bills their negotiated wage plus 35%. A negotiated wage of $100 an hour is billed at $135 an hour.
The comparison nobody frames correctly
The usual question is “is outsourcing cheaper than hiring?” That is the wrong comparison, because it assumes the two options deliver the same thing.
An in-house FSO costs salary plus benefits plus payroll taxes plus training plus the recruiting cycle to find a cleared professional in a thin labor market — and then that person takes vacation, gets sick, and eventually leaves, at which point your facility clearance depends on how fast you can replace them. A contracted provider costs a rate and carries the continuity risk themselves.
The real question is how much FSO capacity does this company actually consume in a year. If the honest answer is well under a full-time load — and for most cleared companies under a hundred people it is — you are choosing between paying for a full-time position you cannot fill and paying for the fraction you use. That is a different decision, and an easier one.
Questions to ask any provider
Whoever you end up using, these four questions separate a real proposal from a friendly conversation:
| Who holds the FSO appointment? | A named individual, or a firm that rotates whoever is free that week? Continuity is the whole product. |
| What is explicitly out of scope? | OPSEC program development, insider threat program build, and clearance processing are frequently separate. Find out before the invoice does. |
| What happens during a DCSA assessment? | Included, or billed as a surge? This is the moment you are buying the service for. |
| What is the response commitment? | An incident report has a clock on it. “We’ll get to it” is not a service level. |
Working with INTS2
INTS2 is a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business certified through SBA VetCert and a nontraditional defense contractor as defined at 10 U.S.C. § 3014. CAGE code 9QWG4, UEI TLSKHAZXYFU2, primary NAICS 541690. We are available to support cleared defense contractors in all 50 states, and our SDVOSB status counts toward prime contractor small business subcontracting plan goals under FAR 52.219-9.
Rates are published on the pricing page. If you want to talk through which of the three models fits your facility, get in touch.
Common questions
What does an outsourced Facility Security Officer cost?
FSO support is bought three ways. Hourly sprint engagements for bounded work such as a self-inspection or a short-notice gap, which INTS2 charges at $250 per hour. Embedded long-term support for continuous coverage, negotiated on duration, scope, location, and clearance requirements. And temp services placement, where the client identifies the person and INTS2 employs them, running payroll and compliance for the negotiated wage plus 35%.
How much does facility clearance (FCL) support cost?
From $4,500 for a straightforward, single-facility, non-possessing case with a clean ownership structure, where the company already holds a sponsorship letter from a prime contractor. A company cannot sponsor its own facility clearance, so that letter is a prerequisite rather than part of the engagement. Multiple CAGE codes, a possessing facility, or any foreign ownership, control or influence question is quoted separately, because FOCI analysis and mitigation are substantial work in their own right.
What factors change the cost of outsourced FSO support?
Required clearance level, whether the facility is possessing or non-possessing, the number of CAGE codes and facilities covered, whether on-site presence is required, the condition of the existing security program, and whether the company is responding to a DCSA finding.
Is outsourcing an FSO cheaper than hiring one?
The right comparison is not salary versus rate but how much FSO capacity the company consumes in a year. An in-house FSO costs salary, benefits, payroll taxes, training, and a recruiting cycle in a thin cleared labor market, and the facility clearance depends on replacing that person quickly when they leave. For cleared contractors whose actual FSO workload is well under a full-time load, a contracted provider covers the function without carrying a full-time position.
What should I ask an FSO provider before signing?
Who holds the FSO appointment by name; what is explicitly out of scope, since OPSEC, insider threat program development, and clearance processing are often priced separately; whether support during a DCSA assessment is included or billed as a surge; and what the response commitment is for time-sensitive items such as incident reports.
Pricing referenced in this post is effective September 2026 and subject to change. All engagements are governed by an executed agreement.