security clearance jobs in 2026 — demand, top roles hiring, and related skills
As of 2026-11-05, security clearance appears in 477 job postings indexed by Skillenai over the past 90 days — Program Manager has the most postings mentioning security clearance, with demand share down 19.1% vs the prior 4 weeks.
Last updated · 90d ending 2026-11-05
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.
Frequently asked questions about security clearance
+Is security clearance in demand in 2026?
Yes. security clearance appears in 477 job postings indexed by Skillenai over the 90 days ending 2026-11-05. Program Manager accounts for the most postings mentioning security clearance (13.6% of all postings mentioning security clearance).
+What jobs require security clearance?
According to the Skillenai jobs index over the 90 days ending 2026-11-05, among roles with at least 20 postings, the highest shares mentioning security clearance are Industrial Security Analyst (9.9% of that role’s postings mention security clearance), Systems Security Engineer (9.4% of that role’s postings mention security clearance), Deputy Program Manager (9.3% 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 2026-11-05), security clearance most often appears alongside systems engineering, program management, Python, Risk Management, project management.
+Where is security clearance most in demand?
As of 2026-11-05, the metro areas posting the most jobs requiring security clearance are Washington, El Segundo, Huntsville, Costa Mesa, Tucson, 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
Skills after security clearance
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.
| Connection | Moves |
|---|---|
| Before: POS System | 1 |
| Before: Microsoft Project | 1 |
| Before: SDLC | 1 |
| After: data engineering automation | 1 |
| After: incident management | 1 |
| After: Power BI | 1 |
| After: security posture | 1 |
| After: IT troubleshooting | 1 |
| After: Business Intelligence | 1 |
| After: Ticketing system | 1 |
| After: remote troubleshooting | 1 |
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Industrial Security Analyst | 9 | 9.9% |
| Systems Security Engineer | 9 | 9.4% |
| Deputy Program Manager | 7 | 9.3% |
| Systems Engineer Intern | 2 | 7.7% |
| AI Security Researcher | 2 | 6.7% |
| AI Governance Lead | 2 | 6.5% |
| Space Systems Engineer | 3 | 5.1% |
| AI Tech Architect | 1 | 5.0% |
| Information Technology Specialist | 1 | 5.0% |
| AI Deployment Strategist | 2 | 4.3% |
Roles with the most security clearance postings
| Role | Postings mentioning skill | Share of skill postings |
|---|---|---|
| Program Manager | 65 | 13.6% |
| Systems Engineer | 63 | 13.2% |
| Software Engineer | 32 | 6.7% |
| Technical Program Manager | 14 | 2.9% |
| Cybersecurity Engineer | 12 | 2.5% |
| Industrial Security Analyst | 9 | 1.9% |
| Research Scientist | 9 | 1.9% |
| Systems Security Engineer | 9 | 1.9% |
| Deputy Program Manager | 7 | 1.5% |
| Business Analyst | 6 | 1.3% |
Top companies posting jobs requiring security clearance
Employers ranked by indexed job postings in the last 90 days.
| Company | Postings · 90 days |
|---|---|
| Anduril Industries | 31 |
| Globalpr | 28 |
| Aero | 23 |
| Northrop Grumman | 22 |
| The Aerospace Corporation | 17 |
| GlobaliD | 15 |
| Parsons Corporation | 12 |
| CMU | 12 |
| True Anomaly | 8 |
| Workday | 8 |
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
| Name | Postings | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Washington | 28 | 5.9% |
| El Segundo | 18 | 3.8% |
| Huntsville | 13 | 2.7% |
| Costa Mesa | 11 | 2.3% |
| Tucson | 10 | 2.1% |
| London | 8 | 1.7% |
| Long Beach | 8 | 1.7% |
| Pittsburgh | 8 | 1.7% |
| Chantilly | 7 | 1.5% |
Skills commonly paired with security clearance
Explore related pages
How this was computed
Weekly job-count charts omit the incomplete current week (weeks start Monday, UTC). Totals include all postings in the stated window. Counts derive from the Skillenai jobs index over the 90 days ending 2026-11-05. 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 0.2%. 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 2,472 identified employers and covers 71% of earlier and 70% of latest indexed postings. Windows: 2026-07-07 to 2026-10-05 and 2026-08-04 to 2026-11-02 (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
- 2026-11-05
- window_days
- 90