Prime Minister Marjan Šarec picked Kozmelj as an expert on security, POP TV and TV Slovenija reported about the likely successor to Zoran Klemenčič.
Confirming the news for Radio Slovenija, Kozmelj said he was aware how "hot seat" he was planing to fill. Running the agency was all but easy, also because of the ongoing strike.
Kozmelj also told the public radio station that he had not worked with Šarec until last week.
Kozmelj served as deputy director of the criminal police in 2007-2009 and then proceeded to work at the police directorate for migrations for three years before becoming an advisor for police cooperation, terrorism and organised crime at Slovenia's Permanent Mission to the EU, a post he held between 2012 and 2017.
He currently works for the Ljubljana branch of the Centre for Democratic Control of Armed Forces and has also been named by the European Commission as president of the Integrative Internal Security Governance for Western Balkans, an initiative launched a year ago.
Replacement of the head of SOVA is typically one of the first staffing decisions of a new government.
Kozmelj's first order of business will be to tackle the strike that has been ongoing at SOVA since December. SOVA employees demand higher pay, elimination of pay anomalies and additional hiring.
Talking to Radio Slovenija, Kozmelj said his first task would be to "motivate the staff to do their work, see to the citizens' safety as they should and as they know how".
He said he would have to learn about the real reasons for the strike, which he did not think affected work effectiveness and security, but it was a sign that "something is amiss" in the organisation.
SOVA employees are limited by law in their strike activities since they have to carry out a minimum set of tasks at all times.
Klemenčič, who told the STA that he did not know his potential successor personally, only his work, would not comment on the reports, but said that the new intelligence boss would have to constructively contribute to the planned upgrade to the national security system.
The system needs to be continuously upgraded, as it is a live system. Nevertheless it has to be flexible enough to allow for self-adjustments.
Any thorough reform would have to include all subsystems, Klemenčič added.
