Skillenai

security clearance jobs in 2026 — demand, top roles hiring, and related skills

As of 2026-09-30, security clearance appears in 580 job postings indexed by Skillenai over the past 90 days — Program Manager has the most postings mentioning security clearance, with demand share down 0.7% vs the prior 4 weeks.

Last updated · 90d ending 2026-09-30

Postings · last 90 days
580
Demand vs prior month
down 0.7% vs the prior 4 weeks
Top role · 11.9% of skill postings
Program Manager
Top hiring metro
Washington

Which roles want security clearance?

Upload your resume and Skillenai will show which roles your security clearance experience fits, which skills you already cover, and what is missing.

See which roles your security clearance experience fits →No account needed.

Prepare to discuss security clearance in your interview

We’re building mock interviews informed by job postings and career profiles, to help you explain how you’ve used security clearance.

Join the mock interview waitlist →AI or human interviews. Coming soon.

Frequently asked questions about security clearance

+Is security clearance in demand in 2026?

Yes. security clearance appears in 580 job postings indexed by Skillenai over the 90 days ending 2026-09-30. Program Manager accounts for the most postings mentioning security clearance (11.9% of all postings mentioning security clearance).

+What jobs require security clearance?

According to the Skillenai jobs index over the 90 days ending 2026-09-30, among roles with at least 20 postings, the highest shares mentioning security clearance are Systems Security Engineer (12.3% of that role’s postings mention security clearance), Space Systems Engineer (9.5% of that role’s postings mention security clearance), AI Security Researcher (9.5% of that role’s postings mention security clearance).

+What skills are commonly paired with security clearance?

Across job postings indexed by Skillenai (90 days ending 2026-09-30), security clearance most often appears alongside Python, systems engineering, program management, Risk Management, project management.

+Where is security clearance most in demand?

As of 2026-09-30, the metro areas posting the most jobs requiring security clearance are Washington, Costa Mesa, El Segundo, Huntsville, Long Beach, according to the Skillenai jobs index.

+How can I keep up with new security clearance content and jobs?

Skillenai indexes news, blog posts, and research papers mentioning security clearance alongside the jobs index. You can subscribe to a daily email digest of new security clearance content from your Skillenai account.

+Which skills come before and after security clearance?

The skill-flow chart shows skills documented in adjacent positions across observed employer changes. An outgoing skill is documented in the following position but not the preceding one. These are ideas to explore, not proven prerequisites, acquisition dates, or levels of mastery. Each ribbon counts employer moves with that skill pair; one move can contribute several pairs.

Weekly indexed postings requiring security clearance — last 90 days

Salary distribution

Box = 25th–75th percentile · tick = median · whisker = 10th–90th · USD, annualized

Career paths around security clearance

Skills documented before and after this skill across employer changes.

Historical career profiles · all locations

Skills before security clearance

Before security clearancePOS System → security clearance: 1 observed employer moves with this skill pairMicrosoft Project → security clearance: 1 observed employer moves with this skill pairSDLC → security clearance: 1 observed employer moves with this skill pairsecurityclearancePOS System: 1 movesPOS System1 movesMicrosoft Project: 1 movesMicrosoft Project1 movesSDLC: 1 movesSDLC1 moves

Skills after security clearance

After security clearancesecurity clearance → data engineering automation: 1 observed employer moves with this skill pairsecurity clearance → incident management: 1 observed employer moves with this skill pairsecurity clearance → Power BI: 1 observed employer moves with this skill pairsecurity clearance → security posture: 1 observed employer moves with this skill pairsecurity clearance → IT troubleshooting: 1 observed employer moves with this skill pairsecurity clearance → Business Intelligence: 1 observed employer moves with this skill pairsecurity clearance → Ticketing system: 1 observed employer moves with this skill pairsecurity clearance → remote troubleshooting: 1 observed employer moves with this skill pairsecurityclearancedata engineering automation: 1 movesdata engineeringautomation1 movesincident management: 1 movesincidentmanagement1 movesPower BI: 1 movesPower BI1 movessecurity posture: 1 movessecurity posture1 movesIT troubleshooting: 1 movesIT troubleshooting1 movesBusiness Intelligence: 1 movesBusinessIntelligence1 movesTicketing system: 1 movesTicketing system1 movesremote troubleshooting: 1 movesremotetroubleshooting1 moves
How to read this chart · view counts

Each side is an independent set of observed employer moves, not the same people followed through three stages. Ribbon widths compare move counts within that side. Internal moves are not included.

The following position documents a skill that the preceding position does not. Skills must be linked to both positions, with clear dates and no overlap. One move can connect several skill pairs. These patterns suggest skills to explore; they do not establish prerequisites, when a skill was learned, or a higher skill level.

Source: Skillenai talent graph, historical career profiles. Historical descriptions and coverage can change. Only the leading published connections are shown.

Observed connections and move counts
ConnectionMoves
Before: POS System1
Before: Microsoft Project1
Before: SDLC1
After: data engineering automation1
After: incident management1
After: Power BI1
After: security posture1
After: IT troubleshooting1
After: Business Intelligence1
After: Ticketing system1
After: remote troubleshooting1

Roles most likely to require security clearance

Among roles with at least 20 postings in the same period.

RolePostings mentioning skill% of role postings mentioning skill
Systems Security Engineer912.3%
Space Systems Engineer49.5%
AI Security Researcher29.5%
Deputy Program Manager69.4%
Industrial Security Analyst69.4%
AI Governance Lead28.7%
Forward Deployed Software Engineer48.2%
Mechanical Engineer37.3%
Flight Test Engineer56.2%
Material Program Manager45.6%

Roles with the most security clearance postings

RolePostings mentioning skillShare of skill postings
Program Manager6911.9%
Systems Engineer6411.0%
Software Engineer549.3%
Technical Program Manager264.5%
Research Scientist152.6%
Cybersecurity Engineer111.9%
Product Manager101.7%
Systems Security Engineer91.6%
Engineering Manager71.2%
Deputy Program Manager61.0%

Top companies posting jobs requiring security clearance

Employers ranked by indexed job postings in the last 90 days.

Top companies posting jobs requiring security clearance
CompanyPostings · 90 days
Anduril32
Aero29
Anduril Industries28
Globalpr20
Northrop Grumman18
The Aerospace Corporation16
GlobaliD15
Applied14
CMU12
Parsons Corporation11

Job postings indexed over the past 90 days, grouped by resolved employer. Counts are postings, not hires. Companies without a published page appear without a link.

Top metros hiring for security clearance

NamePostingsShare
Washington396.7%
Costa Mesa274.7%
El Segundo213.6%
Huntsville172.9%
Long Beach142.4%
San Francisco122.1%
Arlington91.6%
Laurel81.4%
London81.4%

Skills commonly paired with security clearance

Python (102)systems engineering (101)program management (79)Risk Management (61)project management (42)C++ (41)testing (37)cybersecurity (35)machine learning (32)Java (31)

Get a daily email digest of new security clearance content

Skillenai indexes news articles, blog posts, and research papers that mention security clearance. Click below and we'll open a pre-filled daily digest — change the cadence to hourly or weekly if you prefer, then save. Free account required (~30 seconds).

Get the security clearance content digest →Browse all skills →

Explore related pages

How this was computed

Counts derive from the Skillenai jobs index over the 90 days ending 2026-09-30. Skills are resolved against the Skillenai canonical taxonomy, so the same entity is counted whether a posting writes 'Python', 'Python 3', or 'python'. Role prevalence divides postings mentioning security clearance by all postings for each role in the same window, ranking roles with at least 20 postings. Role distribution divides each role’s security clearance postings by all security clearance postings, including postings without a role. Shares need not sum to 100% for the displayed roles. Pages refresh weekly (or daily for the top-50 most-requested skills). Adjusted posting share: 0.3% to 0.3%. Demand share change is the relative percentage change between these adjusted shares. Each employer-and-ATS group has at least 10 postings in each 90-day window; its earlier posting count supplies the same weight in both windows. The panel includes 2,596 identified employers and covers 68% of earlier and 72% of latest indexed postings. Windows: 2026-06-02 to 2026-08-31 and 2026-06-30 to 2026-09-28 (UTC; end dates excluded). The windows overlap by 62 days. Dates reflect indexing, not the employer’s posting date. This measures posting mix, not total hiring or market-wide demand. Matching excludes entrants and exits; changes in crawl completeness within an employer or ATS can still affect the result.

source
Skillenai jobs index, deduplicated daily
entity_id
4af6a779c8006c09
data_as_of
2026-09-30
window_days
90
Hiring engineers who use security clearance?

The demand, skills, and geo numbers on this page come from the same Skillenai labor market index that powers our API. Use it for compensation benchmarking, hiring-competition analysis, and skill-adoption tracking.

Skillenai for recruiters →
Compiled by Jared Rand · Data sourced from the Skillenai labor market index