I'm planning to start applying for some security jobs soon and I'm hoping for a little advice.  I have never had a full-time security job, but I have had security responsibilities and would (ideally) like to land an intermediate-level position. 

Is this possible, or do I need to put in some time in an entry-level position first?

My justification for wanting to do this is that I think my technical skills are much more in line with an intermediate-level position.

I have 6 years of full-time experience in networking, programming, and IT management.  My responsibilities have included managing an IDS and performing product security testing.

I'm Security+ certified and plan to pickup the C|EH soon.  I've taken Foundstone's Ultimate Hacking: Expert course.

I've published several articles (in print) on buffer overflows and other security topics and have also contributed to several Wikipedia articles.  I can write exploits and shellcode and can use advanced techniques to bypass StackGuard, PointGuard, no-exec, ProPolice, etc.  I can also find and exploit other vulnerabilities such as as SQL injection and XSS.  About eight years ago, I reported several vulnerabilities on Bugtraq.  I spoke at Defcon around the same time. 

I know TCP/IP really well and have spent hundreds of hours analzying traffic with tcpdump, Ethereal, Wireshark, and Snort.  I've created a lot of custom traffic (for product security testing) using Hping2, Packit, Nmap, fragroute, and my own protocol fuzzers .  One of my work projects required me to analyze and qualify signatures for Snort and the Cisco IDS.  I documented dozens of the signatures in the Snort project.

I've been using Unix for 14 years and can comfortably manage BSD, Linux, and HP-UX.  I have some Windows server experience (and a lot of desktop), but no Active Directory.  I have experience with Cisco routers and switches, HP switches, and Foundry layer-4 devices.  I'm comfortable with Unix firewalls but have no hands-on experience with commercial firewalls.

My knowledge comes mostly from personal projects and reading--I've read more than a thousand articles and conference/journal papers on security (and hacking) over the last ten years.

So, what should I aim for?

If you think I'm getting ahead of myself, say so.  If I should go for an intermediate-level job, how do I get past HR?

I wouldn't hesitate to look for intermediate-level security positions.  It would be beneficial if you had additional certs to get past HR filtering, but if you look for smaller companies you can often get past that - large  companies are a completely different beast.

The 6 years of experience doing IDS is enough to qualify you for something other than entry-level slots, even if it was part time.  Getting into a Sr. position is much tougher, though... just keep that in mind and keep improving your skill set.  Also, load up on HR fodder (disclaimer:  I don't think certs prove anything, but it does get interviews, whether people like to admit it or not... so just bite the bullet and get the certs).