Be a Part of Our Nation’s Most Challenging Protective and Investigative Missions

Career Path

Frequent travel and reassignments to a variety of duty stations, occasionally including liaison assignments in foreign countries, are some of the unique opportunities that await a special agent.

A typical special agent career path, depending upon performance and promotions that affect individual assignments, begins with the first six to eight years on the job assigned to a field office. Newly-appointed agents may be assigned to field offices anywhere in the United States.

After their field experience, agents are usually transferred to a protective assignment where they will stay for three to five years. Following their protective assignment, many agents return to the field or transfer to a headquarters office, a training office or other Washington, D.C.-based assignment. During their careers, agents also have the opportunity to work overseas in one of the agency's international field offices. This typically requires foreign language training to ensure language proficiency when working alongside the agency's foreign law enforcement counterparts.

Special agents are usually hired at the GL-7 or GL-9 level, depending on individual qualifications and/or education. The full performance level for a special agent is GS-13. Selection for promotion for positions above the GS-13 level is competitive.

Qualifications

To be considered for Special Agent positions you must:

• Be a U.S. Citizen
• Be between 21 and 37 years of age at time of appointment
• Have (1) a bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university; or (2) three years of work experience in the criminal investigative or law enforcement fields that require knowledge and application of laws relating to criminal violations; or (3) an equivalent combination of education and related experience
• Have uncorrected vision no worse than 20/60 binocular; correctable to 20/20 in each eye (NOTE: Lasik, ALK, RK and PRK corrective eye surgeries are acceptable eyes surgeries for special agent applicants provided specific visual tests are passed. The following are the waiting periods before visual tests are conducted after the surgery: Lasik surgery–three months; PRK–six months; and ALK and RK–one year.)
• Be in excellent health and physical condition
• Pass a written examination
• Qualify for a Top Secret clearance and undergo a complete background investigation, to include in-depth interviews, drug screening, medical and polygraph examinations

Benefits

In addition to federal employee benefits, Special Agent benefits also include:

• Law Enforcement Availability Pay (LEAP) that provides an opportunity for special agents to receive up to an additional 25% of their annual base pay
• Low-cost life insurance
• Individual or family membership in low-cost federal health benefit plans
• Annual leave earned at the rate of 13 to 26 days per year, based on length of employment (prior federal civilian or military service is credited, as authorized)
• Sick leave accumulated at the rate of 13 days per year without limit
• Paid holidays
• Comprehensive retirement benefits (retirement credit is granted for prior federal military or government service, as authorized)
• Eligibility for participation in Flexible Spending Account Program (a tax-favored program offered to employees to pay for eligible out-of-pocket health care and dependent care expenses with pre-tax dollars)
• Foreign language proficiency one-time recruitment bonus, 25% of basic annual pay. This will be paid to newly-hired special agents, who are identified as having a foreign language skill and can test at the S-3 level. This level requires that the applicant is able to speak the language with sufficient structural accuracy and vocabulary to participate effectively in most formal and informal conversations on practical, social and professional topics. The recruitment bonus must be approved prior to the applicant’s first day of employment and will be paid as a lump sum, upon successful completion of all required training and graduation from the U.S. Secret Service training center. The actual payment will depend on the availability of funds.

Conditions

Certain demands are required of all special agents. These include, but are not limited to:  

• Working long hours in undesirable conditions on short notice
• Traveling away from home for periods up to 30 days and sometimes longer
• Carrying a firearm while performing duties and maintaining firearms proficiency
• Carrying out assignments in the areas of both protection and investigations
• Relocating to duty stations throughout the U.S. and abroad as organizational needs dictate
• Working undercover assignments as requested

Maximum Age Entry Restriction

On August 26, 2009, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) published a memorandum for all Heads of Departments and Executive Agencies related to hiring of preference eligible veterans applying for federal positions with maximum entry-age restrictions.

As directed by OPM, the U.S. Secret Service will conduct an analysis of all Secret Service positions having maximum entry age restrictions to determine whether a maximum entry age requirement is essential to the performance of the position. Applicants eligible for veterans' preference who exceed the current maximum entry age requirement will continue to be processed during this ongoing analysis. No final determination regarding affected applicants will be made until completion of this analysis. If it is the determination of the U.S. Secret Service that the requirement is not essential to the position, then the Agency will waive the maximum entry-age requirement for veterans' preference eligible applicants for that position.

Proper notification to all affected parties will be published when the analysis has been completed.