security clearance jobs in 2026 — demand, top roles hiring, and related skills
As of 2026-05-17, security clearance appears in 761 job postings indexed by Skillenai over the past 90 days — most often required for Software Engineer roles, with demand down 58% vs the prior 4 weeks.
Last updated · 90d ending 2026-05-17
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Frequently asked questions about security clearance
+Is security clearance in demand in 2026?
Yes. security clearance appears in 761 job postings indexed by Skillenai over the 90 days ending 2026-05-17, with demand down 58% vs the prior 4 weeks. It is most often required for Software Engineer roles (13% of Software Engineer postings list it).
+What jobs require security clearance?
According to the Skillenai jobs index over the 90 days ending 2026-05-17, the job titles most likely to require security clearance are Software Engineer (13% of postings list security clearance), Technical Program Manager (5% of postings list security clearance), Cloud Engineer (4% of postings list security clearance).
+What skills are commonly paired with security clearance?
Across job postings indexed by Skillenai (90 days ending 2026-05-17), security clearance most often appears alongside Python, systems engineering, C++, networking, computer vision.
+Where is security clearance most in demand?
As of 2026-05-17, the metro areas posting the most jobs requiring security clearance are Costa Mesa, Washington, Herndon, Arlington, Chantilly, 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
Job titles most likely to require security clearance
| Role | Postings mentioning | % requiring |
|---|---|---|
| Software Engineer | 96 | 12.6% |
| Technical Program Manager | 41 | 5.4% |
| Cloud Engineer | 32 | 4.2% |
| Systems Engineer | 31 | 4.1% |
| Solutions Architect | 30 | 3.9% |
| Program Manager | 25 | 3.3% |
| DevOps Engineer | 21 | 2.8% |
| Cloud Software Engineer | 18 | 2.4% |
| Forward Deployed Software Engineer | 18 | 2.4% |
| Cybersecurity Engineer | 17 | 2.2% |
Top metros hiring for security clearance
| Name | Postings | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Costa Mesa | 68 | 27.0% |
| Washington | 44 | 17.5% |
| Herndon | 27 | 10.7% |
| Arlington | 24 | 9.5% |
| Chantilly | 21 | 8.3% |
| Savage | 19 | 7.5% |
| Annapolis | 17 | 6.7% |
| Fort Meade | 17 | 6.7% |
| New York City | 15 | 6.0% |
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 2026-05-17. Skills are resolved against the Skillenai canonical taxonomy, so the same entity is counted whether a posting writes 'Python', 'Python 3', or 'python'. Pages refresh weekly (or daily for the top-50 most-requested skills).
- source
- Skillenai jobs index, deduplicated daily
- entity_id
- 4af6a779c8006c09
- data_as_of
- 2026-05-17
- 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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