Every linguist arrives with a dossier.

A linguist's name on a résumé is the beginning of a vetting record, not the end of one. DayDefense treats every prospective roster member as a five-stage subject — credential, test, adjudicate, trial, monitor — and refuses to deploy anyone whose dossier is incomplete on the day of order award. The doctrine is borrowed directly from federal personnel-security practice: a controlled, written, auditable pipeline, with named decision-makers at each gate.

The standard of care is anchored to ASTM F2089-15 for interpreter services, ATA certification for translators, the Interagency Language Roundtable scale for proficiency, and ICD 704 for sensitive-compartmented work. Where the customer's authority requires stricter controls — language-list constraints under DoD Strategic Language List policy, for example — the dossier inherits those constraints by reference.

"Vetting is not a credential check. It is the documented, repeatable disqualification of every linguist who should not be in the room — before they are in the room."

Every dossier opens with a documentary review. We verify credentials at the issuing authority — not on the candidate's résumé — and we reject anything we cannot independently confirm. The stack below is the canonical minimum; senior and specialized billets stack additional credentials on top.

Credentials are time-bounded inside the dossier. An expired ATA certification is treated as no certification; an expired clearance is treated as no clearance. The roster is regenerated nightly against expirations, and no linguist with a lapsed credential is presented to a contracting officer in an RFQ response.

Credentials prove standing; the battery proves performance. Every candidate sits an internal proficiency battery scored against the Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR) scale. The battery is administered by a credentialed examiner who is not the recruiter, and is scored by a second, blind examiner. Scores below ILR Level 3 in any modality result in disqualification.

Score sheets — raw and adjudicated — are filed in the linguist's dossier and reproducible on audit. We do not erase failure history. A candidate who fails the battery and re-tests successfully twelve months later carries both records; the contracting officer sees both.

For billets requiring access to classified information, DayDefense fields linguists whose security clearances have been adjudicated under Intelligence Community Directive 704, the controlling standard for Sensitive Compartmented Information eligibility. We do not initiate clearance for unaffiliated candidates; we recruit from a pool that already holds, or has held within crossover-eligible windows, the appropriate adjudicated status.

A credential and a clearance still do not authorize unsupervised delivery. Every new roster member completes a ninety-day operational trial during which a senior linguist or program manager observes live deliverables, samples outputs for quality, and issues a written disposition at day 30, day 60, and day 90. The trial is documented; the dispositions are signed.

1. 01
   Day 1 — Onboarding Dossier

   Identity, credentials, clearance, taxes, NDAs, contract-level briefings. The dossier file is opened in the records system and a unique roster ID is assigned.

2. 02
   Day 30 — First Disposition

   Sample of completed work is reviewed against a quality rubric: accuracy, register, terminology, on-time delivery. A written disposition is filed; deficiencies become a development plan.

3. 03
   Day 60 — Mid-Trial Review

   Continued sampling, plus structured client feedback where contractually permitted. Linguist is briefed on findings; corrective actions are documented.

4. 04
   Day 90 — Final Disposition

   Roster admission is recommended, deferred, or denied. Denials are recorded; deferrals carry a re-evaluation date. There is no auto-pass at day 90.

Admission to the roster is not a terminal status. DayDefense conducts continuous monitoring across three independent axes — credential currency, performance sampling, and adjudicative-event reporting — and any axis can demote a linguist off active billet pending review.

Numbers are rolling 12-month aggregates as of Q1 2026 and are reproducible on audit. Customer-facing performance data is provided per-engagement and is not summarized here.

A vetting program that cannot be audited is a slogan. DayDefense maintains the linguist dossier as a discoverable record under the customer's contract, and produces the following on written request from an authorized contracting officer, contracting officer's representative, program-protection officer, or independent auditor under FAR 4.703 retention authority:

• Roster manifest for the contract, with billet, language pair, and credential currency
• Per-linguist credential verification trail (issuing body, expiration, last verified date)
• Proficiency battery score sheets and adjudicator identification
• Operational-trial dispositions (day 30, 60, 90) with signed reviewer attribution
• Clearance status confirmation (level, adjudication date, customer-facing visit auth)
• Continuous-vetting events filed against the linguist during the contract period
• Quality-sampling reports and any corrective-action documentation
• Statement of any roster removal, with reason code (administrative, performance, security)

Records are produced in the customer's preferred format (PDF, encrypted ZIP, or secure transfer to the customer's records system). PII is handled under the Privacy Act and the customer's system-of-records notice when delivery enters a federal records environment.