Issue 10
Every other Tuesday, the ClearMatch agent reports what it saw in the Cleared GovCon job market: total volume, who's hiring, what skills are in demand, where the work sits. Anonymized aggregate intelligence built from the same daily scan the agent runs for every Cleared candidate on the platform. No promotional fluff.
Issue 09 tracked 47,033 Cleared roles across 778 employer career pages. This issue reads 53,160 across 994.
That is a 13.0% increase, and most of it is coverage. The 216 employer career pages new to the scan this fortnight bring 4,593 of the 6,127 role increase. The employers we were already reading account for the other 1,534, and Northrop, Booz Allen and CACI each moved less than 3%. That is a modest fortnight for the market itself, and a large one for how much of it we can see.
Scan Volume
In the last 14 days, the agent scanned 109,855 GovCon contractor postings across 994 vetted employer careers pages.
Of those, 53,160 explicitly required Secret-or-above clearance. Roles surfaced to cleared candidates after scoring: 10,758.
Every count and share in this memo reflects the GovCon employer career pages the agent tracks — a large and growing sample, not the entire Cleared market. Figures like “share of demand” are of that tracked set.
Clearance Mix
Of the 53,160 cleared roles:
| Tier | Count | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Secret | 27,675 | 52.1% |
| TS | 8,195 | 15.4% |
| TS/SCI | 8,567 | 16.1% |
| TS/SCI + CI Poly | 4,158 | 7.8% |
| TS/SCI + Full Scope Poly | 4,565 | 8.6% |
Secret takes 52.1% of Cleared roles (27,675), up from 51.3% last issue and the third straight issue it has gained share. Above it, 32.5% sits at TS/SCI or higher (17,290): TS/SCI proper at 16.1% (8,567), Full Scope Poly at 8.6% (4,565), CI Poly at 7.8% (4,158). Straight TS holds 15.4% (8,195).
CI Poly gave up the most share, from 8.3% to 7.8%, while still adding roles. TS/SCI and above grew from 15,644 to 17,290 and lost eight tenths of a point doing it. That makes three issues in a row where the top of the stack shrank as a share while growing in count (36.0% in Issue 07, then 34.0%, 33.3%, and 32.5% now). The high end keeps adding roles. Secret simply adds them faster.
Confidential-tier roles excluded from totals above (77 in window — functionally rare in modern GovCon).
Top Hiring Contractors
GovCon employers with the most cleared (Secret+) postings:
| # | Contractor | Cleared | Most common tier |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Northrop Grumman | 3,317 | Secret |
| 2 | Lockheed Martin | 2,840 | Secret |
| 3 | RTX (Raytheon / Collins / Pratt & Whitney) | 2,060 | Secret |
| 4 | Booz Allen Hamilton | 1,777 | Secret |
| 5 | CACI | 1,514 | TS/SCI |
| 6 | Leidos | 1,299 | Secret |
| 7 | Anduril Industries | 1,255 | Secret |
| 8 | Amentum | 1,255 | Secret |
| 9 | Peraton | 1,212 | TS/SCI |
| 10 | GDIT (General Dynamics IT) | 953 | Secret |
Northrop Grumman holds #1 at 3,317 Cleared roles, flat on last issue for the second fortnight running. Lockheed Martin holds #2 at 2,840, up from 2,174, and the gap between the top two is now under 500 roles. RTX (2,060) and Booz Allen Hamilton (1,777) hold #3 and #4.
Below them: CACI at 1,514, Leidos 1,299, then Anduril Industries and Amentum tied at 1,255, Anduril down from 1,306 and Amentum up from 1,197. Peraton takes 1,212 and GDIT closes the table at 953, both up modestly. Leidos (down 80) and Anduril (down 51) are the only two on the table to give back meaningful volume.
The top 10 hold 32.9% of Cleared demand, down from 35.4%. The primes did not shrink. The denominator grew by 216 employers, and none of them is big enough to crack the table on arrival.
Coverage went from 778 employer career pages to 994, the largest single-issue addition this memo has recorded. Issue 09 noted that a handful of majors and FFRDCs were still outside the scan. This fortnight a good share of them came in.
National labs and research: MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Idaho National Laboratory, GTRI. Nuclear and naval: BWX Technologies, Centrus Energy, General Dynamics Electric Boat, General Dynamics Applied Physical Sciences, Mission Support and Test Services. Mission IT and intelligence services at scale: HII Mission Technologies, ECS Federal, Cherokee Federal, Valiant Integrated Services, People, Technology and Processes, RealmOne, DCS Corporation. Test ranges and space: JT4, RGNext, Stellar Solutions, Xona Space Systems.
The biggest single arrival is HII Mission Technologies at 446 Cleared roles, followed by RealmOne at 333 and People, Technology and Processes at 291. None reaches the contractor table, which starts at 953. The true Cleared market is still larger than what is counted here, but the gap closed more this fortnight than in any fortnight before it.
Top Job Titles
The roles employers post most across the cleared pool:
| # | Title | Cleared postings |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Software Engineer | 1,270 |
| 2 | Systems Engineer | 1,265 |
| 3 | Program Manager | 492 |
| 4 | Systems Administrator | 433 |
| 5 | Network Engineer | 400 |
| 6 | Data Scientist | 338 |
| 7 | Information Systems Security Officer | 241 |
| 8 | Software Developer | 235 |
| 9 | Electrical Engineer | 232 |
| 10 | DevOps Engineer | 204 |
Software Engineer holds #1 at 1,270 Cleared roles against Systems Engineer at 1,265. The gap is five roles, down from 12. Program Manager is #3 at 492, up from 431.
The mover is Information Systems Security Officer, up from 181 to 241, a 33% gain that takes it from the bottom of the table to #7, past Software Developer (235), Electrical Engineer (232) and DevOps Engineer (204). Data Scientist rises from 288 to 338. Both grew well ahead of the market. The ISSO number is the one to watch: it is the role that gets a system through its ATO, and it has now grown two issues in a row.
Titles are normalized before counting: seniority prefixes and level suffixes are merged into the base title, and clearance or work-mode tags are stripped — “Sr. Systems Engineer II (TS/SCI)” counts toward “Systems Engineer.”
Geographic Concentration
Where the cleared roles are based:
| Region | Cleared roles | Share |
|---|---|---|
| DC Metro | 18,566 | 40.5% |
| Los Angeles Metro | 2,072 | 4.5% |
| Huntsville | 1,768 | 3.9% |
| Massachusetts | 1,182 | 2.6% |
| Colorado Springs | 876 | 1.9% |
| Remote-eligible | 832 | 1.8% |
| Tampa | 717 | 1.6% |
| Overseas | 676 | 1.5% |
| Tucson | 605 | 1.3% |
| Denver Metro | 499 | 1.1% |
| Hawaii / INDOPACOM | 446 | 1.0% |
| San Antonio | 349 | 0.8% |
| St. Louis | 216 | 0.5% |
| Augusta | 153 | 0.3% |
| Other (distributed) | 16,846 | 36.8% |
DC Metro is 40.5% of Cleared roles (18,566), edging up from 40.3%. Los Angeles Metro holds #2 at 4.5% (2,072), down from 5.0% as Anduril eased again, with Huntsville at 3.9% (1,768) holding its share behind it.
Behind them: Massachusetts 2.6% (1,182), up from 2.4% with MIT Lincoln Laboratory arriving, Colorado Springs 1.9% (876), Tampa 1.6% (717), Overseas 1.5% (676), Tucson 1.3% (605), Denver Metro 1.1% (499), Hawaii / INDOPACOM 1.0% (446). "Other" is 36.8% (16,846), where the labs, plants and ranges sit. Remote-eligible Cleared work is 1.8% (832), down a tenth.
Locations are drawn from the postings themselves where available. About 13.8% of Cleared roles this fortnight carried no structured location and are excluded from the regional breakdown, an improvement on last issue's 16.9%.
Top Skills In Demand
Most frequently required across the cleared role pool:
| # | Skill | Cleared roles requiring |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Python | 9,941 |
| 2 | AWS | 7,431 |
| 3 | C++ | 4,698 |
| 4 | Docker | 3,538 |
| 5 | Kubernetes | 3,501 |
Python leads at 9,941 Cleared roles. AWS holds #2 (7,431) and C++ #3 (4,698), the defense-industrial tell. C++ grew fastest of the five, up 16% from 4,040. Docker (3,538) is back ahead of Kubernetes (3,501), this time by 37 roles.
That is the fourth issue running that these two finish within a few dozen roles of each other. Cleared job descriptions ask for the container runtime and the orchestrator together, and the order between them is noise.
Skill demand is measured across a set of in-demand GovCon skills we track, refreshed each quarter as the market shifts.
Adjacent Market: Public Trust
Public Trust isn’t a security clearance — it’s the federal suitability tier for civilian fed work (CISA, IRS, VA, USDA, HHS) handling sensitive-but-unclassified information. Included separately because many cleared candidates dual-purpose this pool between cleared engagements, and the demand signal is its own market.
In the last 14 days: 4,528 Public Trust-eligible postings.
Top hiring contractors
| Contractor | Count |
|---|---|
| Guidehouse | 282 |
| Leidos | 260 |
| Akima | 213 |
| Peraton | 211 |
| Amentum | 195 |
| CACI | 170 |
| SAIC | 153 |
| Yorktown Systems Group | 137 |
| GDIT (General Dynamics IT) | 103 |
| Steampunk | 95 |
Top regions
| Region | Count | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Other (distributed) | 1,844 | 40.7% |
| DC Metro | 1,531 | 33.8% |
| Remote-eligible | 651 | 14.4% |
| Denver Metro | 44 | 1.0% |
| San Antonio | 44 | 1.0% |
| Colorado Springs | 22 | 0.5% |
| Overseas | 21 | 0.5% |
| Huntsville | 20 | 0.4% |
| Massachusetts | 14 | 0.3% |
| Hawaii / INDOPACOM | 14 | 0.3% |
| Los Angeles Metro | 11 | 0.2% |
| Tucson | 7 | 0.2% |
| Augusta | 6 | 0.1% |
| St. Louis | 1 | 0.0% |
Public Trust reads 4,528 roles, up from 4,197. Guidehouse holds the top seat at 282, then Leidos (260), Akima (213), Peraton (211), Amentum (195), CACI (170) and SAIC (153). Yorktown Systems Group holds #8 at exactly 137 for a second issue, then GDIT (103) and Steampunk (95).
Peraton climbs from #5 to #4 and CACI passes SAIC. Akima gave back the most, 37 roles.
The remote gap widened. 14.4% of Public Trust postings are remote-eligible against 1.8% of Cleared ones, from 12.1% and 1.9% last issue. Six issues in, it is the most consistent finding this memo has.
Public Trust counts reflect JD postings that explicitly name "Public Trust," "MBI," or "Tier 1/2/4." Many civilian fed contractor roles are PT-eligible in practice but don't use that language in the listing — the agency runs the suitability investigation post-hire. Actual PT-eligible volume is materially higher than the explicit count shown here.
Founder Note
The topline grew 6,127 roles this fortnight. About three quarters of that is the scan reaching employers it did not read before.
The additions are the part I'm happiest with. Last issue I noted that a handful of majors and FFRDCs were still outside what we count. Oak Ridge, Idaho National Laboratory, MIT Lincoln Laboratory, BWXT, Electric Boat and HII Mission Technologies are in this issue. If you hold a clearance and work in those corners of the market, the scan now sees your employer.
Underneath the new coverage, the market was steady. Northrop, Booz Allen and CACI are all within 3% of where they were a fortnight ago. The specialty that moved is security. ISSO postings rose a third in two weeks. If you carry a Security+ and a TS, the ATO side of the house is where demand picked up this fortnight.
— Rahul Pandhi Founder, ClearMatch