Are guaranteed job contracts doable for prior service? If so, how?

You can get "soft booked" for a job, you just have to tell your recruiter that you absolutely want those jobs and those only. You might be in DEP for a bit but if you're okay with waiting, you can do it.

I wish I had happier news but in my experience the Air Force is unbelievably negative and reluctant toward any prior service seeking accession to AD. Understand, I did it myself in 2004 as a fully qualified C-5 load (1A2) going from the USAF Reserve to AD - with prior AD time too. And you would think, that would have been simple but it was a massive pain requiring a HQ AF level exception-to-policy waiver. Remember I said "fully qualified" - no training, no check-ride, not even any shots. Likely, the only reason it worked at all was the fact of a "free" qualified crew member being provided to the AD. (Just change patches and go.) If you can apply at a time when the Air Force lifts the general ban on prior service - and this happens occasionally, it could work but it all depends on the policy. Getting a recruiter to actually help you do something non-standard is another challenge too because you're up against inherent laziness at that point. I genuinely hope it's an easier thing for you than it was for me. Best wishes.

Thank you for the input. That's odd, because the recruiter I spoke to said that unless I wanted to be a Battlefield Airman or maintainer, the only other way in (right now at least) was direct duty back to my old AFSC. This is the problem I've run into... there isn't one answer, there's several and none of them support each other.