security clearance jobs in 2026 — demand, top roles hiring, and related skills
As of 2026-09-28, security clearance appears in 576 job postings indexed by Skillenai over the past 90 days — Program Manager has the most postings mentioning security clearance, with demand down 46% vs the prior 4 weeks.
Last updated · 90d ending 2026-09-28
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Frequently asked questions about security clearance
+Is security clearance in demand in 2026?
Yes. security clearance appears in 576 job postings indexed by Skillenai over the 90 days ending 2026-09-28, with demand down 46% vs the prior 4 weeks. Program Manager accounts for the most postings mentioning security clearance (11.6% of all postings mentioning security clearance).
+What jobs require security clearance?
According to the Skillenai jobs index over the 90 days ending 2026-09-28, among roles with at least 20 postings, the highest shares mentioning security clearance are Systems Security Engineer (12.5% of that role’s postings mention security clearance), Industrial Security Analyst (10.2% of that role’s postings mention security clearance), AI Security Researcher (10.0% 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 2026-09-28), security clearance most often appears alongside Python, systems engineering, program management, Risk Management, C++.
+Where is security clearance most in demand?
As of 2026-09-28, 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.
Weekly job postings requiring security clearance — last 90 days
Salary distribution
Box = 25th–75th percentile · tick = median · whisker = 10th–90th · USD, annualized
Roles most likely to require security clearance
Among roles with at least 20 postings in the same period.
| Role | Postings mentioning skill | % of role postings mentioning skill |
|---|---|---|
| Systems Security Engineer | 9 | 12.5% |
| Industrial Security Analyst | 6 | 10.2% |
| AI Security Researcher | 2 | 10.0% |
| Deputy Program Manager | 6 | 9.2% |
| AI Governance Lead | 2 | 9.1% |
| Forward Deployed Software Engineer | 4 | 8.2% |
| Mechanical Engineer | 3 | 7.7% |
| Space Systems Engineer | 3 | 7.0% |
| Flight Test Engineer | 5 | 6.2% |
| Material Program Manager | 4 | 6.2% |
Roles with the most security clearance postings
| Role | Postings mentioning skill | Share of skill postings |
|---|---|---|
| Program Manager | 67 | 11.6% |
| Systems Engineer | 63 | 10.9% |
| Software Engineer | 55 | 9.5% |
| Technical Program Manager | 29 | 5.0% |
| Research Scientist | 15 | 2.6% |
| Cybersecurity Engineer | 11 | 1.9% |
| Product Manager | 10 | 1.7% |
| Systems Security Engineer | 9 | 1.6% |
| Engineering Manager | 7 | 1.2% |
| Deputy Program Manager | 6 | 1.0% |
Top metros hiring for security clearance
| Name | Postings | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Washington | 38 | 6.6% |
| Costa Mesa | 27 | 4.7% |
| El Segundo | 19 | 3.3% |
| Huntsville | 17 | 3.0% |
| Long Beach | 14 | 2.4% |
| San Francisco | 12 | 2.1% |
| Laurel | 10 | 1.7% |
| Arlington | 9 | 1.6% |
| Pittsburgh | 8 | 1.4% |
Skills commonly paired with security clearance
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How this was computed
Counts derive from the Skillenai jobs index over the 90 days ending 2026-09-28. 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).
- source
- Skillenai jobs index, deduplicated daily
- entity_id
- 4af6a779c8006c09
- data_as_of
- 2026-09-28
- window_days
- 90
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.
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