Protective Intelligence & OSINT Lead

Emergent Risk International (ERI) is seeking to hire a full-time Protective Intelligence/OSINT Lead to be embedded with one of our multinational clients on an annual contract. Candidates for this mid career role (approx. 4-8 years’ experience minimum) will have an analytical and data-driven mindset, desire to work in a dynamic, fast-paced environment with a focus on threat intelligence analysis and investigations.

The position will be a fully in office role, based in either Clarksville, TN or the Charleston, SC metro area.

THIS IS NOT A CYBER SECURITY ROLE.

The Role 

ERI is seeking a mid-career Protective Intelligence / OSINT Lead to lead and develop a small, growing team of Protective Intelligence, Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT), and Event Analysts supporting a global multinational technology client.

This is a working-lead role for an experienced intelligence professional who can balance people leadership, program development, client engagement, and hands-on analytical work. The successful candidate will oversee analyst scheduling and workload allocation; coach, mentor, and develop team members; conduct quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC); and help mature the program’s intelligence products, workflows, procedures, and service delivery model.

The Lead will also remain operationally engaged, contributing directly to research, analysis, incident reporting, and intelligence production during routine operations and high-priority events. The ideal candidate combines sound protective intelligence and OSINT tradecraft with strong judgement, writing, briefing, client-service, and people-management skills.

Primary Responsibilities

• Lead, supervise, and support a small but growing global team of PI/OSINT/Event Analysts supporting a multinational technology client.
  
• Manage team schedules, shift coverage, workload distribution, time-off coverage, and on-call weekend rotation requirements to maintain consistent service delivery.
  
• Provide regular coaching, mentoring, feedback, and professional development support to analysts in collaboration with ERI corporate; identify training needs and help build individual development plans.
  
• Conduct QA/QC and final review of intelligence reporting, including incident reports, threat assessments, situation reports, executive briefings, and other client-facing products.
  
• Establish, document, refine, and maintain intelligence workflows, procedures, research standards, source-evaluation practices, reporting templates, and escalation protocols.
  
• Support the ongoing maturation and development of the protective-intelligence program, including identifying operational gaps, recommending improvements, and helping implement scalable processes.
  
• Serve as a primary point of contact for day-to-day client engagement, ensuring responsiveness to client requirements, feedback, priority shifts, and emerging concerns.
  
• Conduct multi-source OSINT collection and analysis to assess threats at local, regional, national, and global levels.
  
• Research and evaluate information from social media, deep and dark web sources, local, regional, and national databases, government sources, and other relevant open-source channels.
  
• Deliver timely incident reporting, tracking, and analysis related to security events, protests, civil unrest, political violence, threatening communications, and potentially violent groups that may affect the client, its people, facilities, operations, or reputation.
  
• Develop and maintain detailed knowledge of the client’s operational footprint, personnel, facilities, travel patterns, and risk exposure in order to tailor intelligence reporting appropriately.
  
• Produce clear, concise, and actionable intelligence products for operational stakeholders and senior leadership.
  
• Interpret and present complex information, trends, and data in a way that supports informed decision-making.
  
• Maintain awareness of broader risk factors affecting the client, including geopolitical, political, social, legal, financial, operational, and reputational developments.
  
• Build and maintain effective internal and external working relationships that support timely information sharing and intelligence-led decision-making.
  
• Support urgent incidents and high-priority events outside normal business hours, as required.
  

• Bachelor’s degree in intelligence studies, security studies, international relations, international business, journalism, law enforcement, or a related discipline; equivalent relevant experience may be considered. Master’s degree preferred.
  
• Approximately 4–8 years of progressively responsible experience in protective intelligence, OSINT, corporate security intelligence, investigations, event monitoring, threat assessment, or a related public- or private-sector field.
  
• Demonstrated experience leading, mentoring, training, coaching, or supervising analysts or intelligence professionals.
  
• Proven experience conducting OSINT research and investigations using social media, public-record and government databases, local and regional sources, and other open-source information.
  
• Working knowledge of protective-intelligence principles, threat identification, source verification, source grading, analytical judgement, and intelligence-reporting standards.
  
• Experience monitoring social media, deep web, and dark web sources for threats, adverse information, or indicators of potential violence.
  
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to draft, edit, and deliver concise, accurate, and actionable intelligence products for executive and operational audiences.
  
• Demonstrated ability to conduct QA/QC, provide constructive feedback, and maintain consistent analytical and writing standards across a team.
  
• Strong organizational, prioritization, and problem-solving skills, with the ability to manage competing priorities in a fast-paced environment.
  
• Ability to remain calm, decisive, and responsive during evolving incidents and crisis situations.
  
• Commitment to ethical intelligence practices, confidentiality, appropriate handling of sensitive information, and respectful treatment of personal data.
  
• Ability to pass required employment, education, and background checks, as well as drug screening where applicable.
  

Working Hours

This is a full-time, salaried position requiring at least 40 hours per week. The standard schedule will be Monday through Friday during local business hours. As part of a global security and intelligence team, the Lead must be available to attend occasional meetings or calls outside normal business hours to support stakeholders in other time zones. Flexibility is also required to support on-call rotations, urgent incidents, global events, holiday and weekend coverage, and periods when other team members are on leave.

ERI is committed to maintaining a manageable and sustainable work-life balance. However, only candidates who are willing and able to work a flexible schedule and support time-sensitive operational requirements will be considered.

Remuneration and Application

Compensation will be commensurate with experience. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis until the position is filled.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or national origin. To be considered for the position, all applicants must be legal residents of the United States where the role is located and must independently possess eligibility to work in the US.