Issue 12
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 11 tracked 55,961 Cleared roles across 1,093 employer career pages. This issue reads 58,150 across 1,232.
That is a 3.9% increase, down from last issue's 5.3%, and for once the composition splits cleanly. The 139 employer career pages new to the scan hold 1,403 Cleared roles between them. The ten employers on the contractor table added 544, and Lockheed and Northrop are 507 of that 544. Those two lines account for 1,947 of the fortnight's 2,189 new roles.
The more interesting change is in the regional table, and the cause of it sits on our side of the scan. The agent can now place 93.9% of Cleared roles to a region, against 85.6% last issue. The postings it could not place before turned out to sit mostly outside the named metros, so "Other" passed DC Metro for the first time. Washington did not shrink. It added 1,651 roles.
Scan Volume
In the last 14 days, the agent scanned 121,104 GovCon contractor postings across 1232 vetted employer careers pages.
Of those, 58,150 explicitly required Secret-or-above clearance. Roles surfaced to cleared candidates after scoring: 17,503.
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 58,150 cleared roles:
| Tier | Count | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Secret | 31,189 | 53.6% |
| TS | 8,998 | 15.5% |
| TS/SCI | 9,076 | 15.6% |
| TS/SCI + CI Poly | 4,211 | 7.2% |
| TS/SCI + Full Scope Poly | 4,676 | 8.0% |
Secret takes 53.6% of Cleared roles (31,189), up from 52.8% and the fifth straight issue it has gained share. It added 1,631 roles on its own, three quarters of the fortnight's entire increase. Straight TS holds 15.5% (8,998) and added 263.
Above that: TS/SCI proper at 15.6% (9,076), Full Scope Poly at 8.0% (4,676), CI Poly at 7.2% (4,211).
Full Scope Poly is the only tier that shrank, from 4,689 down to 4,676. That is the exact mirror of last issue, when CI Poly was the only tier to lose roles and FSP grew. CI Poly turned around this fortnight, adding 98 after shedding 45.
TS/SCI and above now totals 17,963 roles against 17,668 last issue, which is 30.9% of the Cleared market against 31.6%. That makes five consecutive issues where the top of the stack added roles and lost share: 36.0% in Issue 07, then 34.0%, 33.3%, 32.5%, 31.6%, and 30.9% now. Secret keeps absorbing the growth.
Confidential-tier roles excluded from totals above (63 in window — functionally rare in modern GovCon).
Top Hiring Contractors
GovCon employers with the most cleared (Secret+) postings:
| # | Contractor | Cleared | Most common tier |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lockheed Martin | 3,821 | Secret |
| 2 | Northrop Grumman | 3,342 | Secret |
| 3 | RTX (Raytheon / Collins / Pratt & Whitney) | 2,204 | Secret |
| 4 | Booz Allen Hamilton | 1,725 | Secret |
| 5 | Leidos | 1,364 | Secret |
| 6 | CACI | 1,320 | Secret |
| 7 | Amentum | 1,201 | Secret |
| 8 | Anduril Industries | 1,181 | Secret |
| 9 | Peraton | 1,082 | TS/SCI |
| 10 | L3Harris | 1,045 | Secret |
Same ten employers as last issue, in a slightly different order.
Lockheed Martin holds #1 at 3,821 Cleared roles, up 310. Northrop Grumman recovers to #2 at 3,342, up 197 after last issue's 172-role drop. Between them they are 507 of the 544 roles this table added.
RTX stays #3 at 2,204, up 55. Booz Allen Hamilton holds #4 at 1,725, down 30. Then two swaps: Leidos passes CACI at 1,364 against 1,320, and Amentum passes Anduril Industries at 1,201 against 1,181. Peraton takes 1,082, down 66. L3Harris closes at 1,045, up 73, holding the seat it took last issue.
Four of the ten lost roles. Strip Lockheed and Northrop out and the other eight net 37 roles across a fortnight. Peraton is again the only employer here whose most common requirement is TS/SCI rather than Secret. The top 10 hold 31.4% of Cleared demand, down from 31.7%.
Coverage went from 1,093 employer career pages to 1,232, adding 139 after last issue's 99.
Reading all 147 new seed entries behind those pages: they hold 1,403 Cleared roles between them, and 53 of them carry no Cleared roles at all today. Modern Technology Solutions is the largest arrival at 313 Cleared roles out of 398 postings, with Viasat behind it at 108 out of 281. No other new employer reaches 60.
What came in is specialist and mostly small. Sensors, space and electronic warfare: MB Solutions (59), Blue Sky Innovators (46), Gnostech (44), AI Signal Research (33), Long Wave (32), deciBel Research (30), Albers Aerospace (16), MORSE Corp (16), alongside SEAKR Engineering, TCOM, Urban Sky, Pacific Defense and DeepSig. Alaska Native and tribal holdings: Galapagos Federal Systems (37), S&K Technologies (25), HunaTek (21) and Aleknagik Technology. Shipyards and maritime: Bath Iron Works, Ultra Maritime (19), Advanced Acoustic Concepts, T3W Business Solutions. Cyber: UltraViolet Cyber, Chiron Technology Services, Interclypse, Simis, CertiPath. Civil-agency IT and health: Citizant, CVP, eSimplicity, Axle Informatics, TISTA Science and Technology, Qlarant, DOMA Technologies.
The research complex grew too, and it barely touches the numbers in this memo. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Fermilab and HRL Laboratories arrived with 134 postings between them and eight Cleared roles. Interclypse posts 142 and names a clearance in one. Labs and research institutions hire in volume and hire uncleared, which is worth knowing before you read a lab's careers page as cleared opportunity.
Top Job Titles
The roles employers post most across the cleared pool:
| # | Title | Cleared postings |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Software Engineer | 1,377 |
| 2 | Systems Engineer | 1,333 |
| 3 | Program Manager | 542 |
| 4 | Systems Administrator | 487 |
| 5 | Network Engineer | 442 |
| 6 | Data Scientist | 362 |
| 7 | Engineer | 362 |
| 8 | Software Developer | 297 |
| 9 | Electrical Engineer | 259 |
| 10 | Information Systems Security Officer | 252 |
Software Engineer holds #1 at 1,377 Cleared roles, Systems Engineer #2 at 1,333. The gap between them narrowed from 72 roles back to 44 after widening last issue. Program Manager is #3 at 542, up 18.
Last issue's mover reversed. Software Developer gave back 6 to land at 297, after the climb from 235 to 303 this memo called out a fortnight ago. ISSO moved the other way, adding 12 to reach 252 after a fortnight stuck flat at 240. Systems Administrator (487) and Network Engineer (442) each added about thirty and hold the middle of the table. Data Scientist and the generic Engineer title are tied at 362.
Two issues running, a title in the 250-to-300 range has looked like it was breaking out and then stopped. At that size a fortnight of movement is noise, and this section will stop calling a title of the fortnight until one of them moves three 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 | 20,841 | 38.2% |
| Los Angeles Metro | 2,142 | 3.9% |
| Huntsville | 2,065 | 3.8% |
| Massachusetts | 1,391 | 2.5% |
| Remote-eligible | 1,076 | 2.0% |
| Denver Metro | 973 | 1.8% |
| Colorado Springs | 922 | 1.7% |
| Tampa | 723 | 1.3% |
| Overseas | 691 | 1.3% |
| Tucson | 635 | 1.2% |
| San Antonio | 425 | 0.8% |
| Hawaii / INDOPACOM | 407 | 0.7% |
| St. Louis | 215 | 0.4% |
| Augusta | 176 | 0.3% |
| Other (distributed) | 21,915 | 40.1% |
The regional table changed shape. "Other" is now 40.1% of Cleared roles (21,915), ahead of DC Metro at 38.2% (20,841) — the first issue where the plants, yards, ranges and lab sites outweigh the DMV.
DC Metro added 1,651 roles. Its share fell because the denominator improved, which the methodology note below spells out.
Denver Metro is the largest count move, 532 to 973, taking it past Colorado Springs (922) for the first time. Huntsville added 251 to reach 2,065 and holds 3.8%. Los Angeles Metro is back up in count at 2,142 after three issues of Anduril easing, though its share slipped to 3.9%.
Then: Massachusetts 2.5% (1,391), Remote-eligible 2.0% (1,076), Tampa 1.3% (723), Overseas 1.3% (691), Tucson 1.2% (635), San Antonio 0.8% (425), Hawaii / INDOPACOM 0.7% (407), St. Louis 0.4% (215), Augusta 0.3% (176).
Tampa landed on exactly 723 for the second issue running. Tucson and St. Louis are the only two regions that lost roles.
Locations are drawn from the postings themselves where available. This fortnight 6.1% of Cleared roles carried no structured location and are excluded from the regional breakdown, against 14.4% last issue. The scan now places 54,597 Cleared roles to a region instead of 47,903, and the roles it newly placed sit mostly outside the named metros. That is most of why "Other" grew by 3,882 and why every named region's share moved down even where its count went up. Count changes in this section are comparable with last issue's. Share changes are not.
Top Skills In Demand
Most frequently required across the cleared role pool:
| # | Skill | Cleared roles requiring |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Python | 10,908 |
| 2 | AWS | 7,609 |
| 3 | C++ | 5,297 |
| 4 | Kubernetes | 3,812 |
| 5 | Docker | 3,780 |
Python leads at 10,908 Cleared roles, up 4.2%. AWS holds #2 at 7,609 and grew 1.0%, slowest of the five for the second issue running. C++ is #3 at 5,297 and grew 3.7%.
Kubernetes (3,812) stays ahead of Docker (3,780), now by 32 roles after finishing two apart last issue. Six issues running, these two have landed within a few dozen of each other. Cleared job descriptions ask for the container and the thing that schedules it in the same sentence, so they move together and the order between them carries no information.
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: 4,788 Public Trust-eligible postings.
Top hiring contractors
| Contractor | Count |
|---|---|
| Guidehouse | 283 |
| Leidos | 261 |
| Amentum | 234 |
| Peraton | 206 |
| Akima | 174 |
| GDIT (General Dynamics IT) | 161 |
| CACI | 154 |
| Yorktown Systems Group | 137 |
| SAIC | 130 |
| Koniag Government Services | 91 |
Top regions
| Region | Count | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Other (distributed) | 1,984 | 41.4% |
| DC Metro | 1,805 | 37.7% |
| Remote-eligible | 667 | 13.9% |
| San Antonio | 43 | 0.9% |
| Denver Metro | 37 | 0.8% |
| Hawaii / INDOPACOM | 37 | 0.8% |
| Tampa | 19 | 0.4% |
| Huntsville | 16 | 0.3% |
| Los Angeles Metro | 15 | 0.3% |
| Overseas | 15 | 0.3% |
| Massachusetts | 12 | 0.3% |
| Colorado Springs | 10 | 0.2% |
| Tucson | 8 | 0.2% |
| St. Louis | 4 | 0.1% |
| Augusta | 3 | 0.1% |
Public Trust reads 4,788 roles, up from 4,737. Guidehouse holds the top seat at 283, then Leidos (261) and Amentum at 234, up 26 and holding #3 after climbing there last issue.
Two real moves below that. GDIT added 40 to reach 161 and climbs from #10 to #6. SAIC lost 42 to 130 and falls from #6 to #9. Koniag Government Services gave back 32 to 91 and closes the table. Peraton takes 206, Akima 174, CACI 154.
Yorktown Systems Group has now posted exactly 137 Public Trust roles in four consecutive issues. The board is live and the requisitions turn over. The count does not move.
The remote spread widened again. 13.9% of Public Trust postings are remote-eligible against 2.0% of Cleared ones, from 13.6% and 2.1% last issue, so the gap went from 11.5 points to 11.9. Last issue was the first time it had narrowed, and the narrowing did not hold. Eight issues in, the finding stands: civilian-agency work is where remote Cleared-adjacent hiring lives.
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 number worth talking about this fortnight is 93.9%.
That is the share of Cleared roles the scan can place to a region, up from 85.6% two weeks ago. It sounds like plumbing, and it rewrote the headline of the geography section. "Other" passed DC Metro for the first time, 21,915 against 20,841, and the DMV's share of the Cleared market fell nearly two points.
Nothing moved out of Washington. DC Metro added 1,651 roles this fortnight. What changed is that the agent can now read a location off roughly 6,700 more postings than it could last issue, and those postings sit at plants, shipyards, ranges and lab sites rather than in Arlington. Our reading got better and the map got more honest. Reporting that as a shift in where the cleared work is would be a lie, so the methodology note under that section says plainly which numbers you can compare across issues and which you cannot. Counts, yes. Shares, not this issue.
The same caveat applies to the one place-level number I would otherwise be excited about. Denver Metro went from 532 Cleared roles to 973 and passed Colorado Springs. Some part of that is the same deeper location read finding rows it had been missing, so treat Denver as a number to confirm next issue rather than a trend to act on. I will tell you either way in two weeks.
On volume: 2,189 roles added, 1,403 of them on employer pages the scan had never read before, and 507 of the remainder at Lockheed and Northrop. The eight other companies on the contractor table net out at 37 roles. That makes two issues running where the top of this market has been close to flat while the memo's totals went up, and the growth keeps coming from the scan getting wider rather than from anyone hiring harder.
Two corrections to my own calls. In Issue 10 I named ISSO the number to watch and it stopped dead; in Issue 11 I named Software Developer the mover and it gave back six roles. Both calls rested on one fortnight of movement in a title sitting near 250 roles, which at that size is noise dressed up as a signal. No title of the fortnight from here until something moves three issues in a row.
And Full Scope Poly was the only clearance tier to lose roles, thirteen of them, a fortnight after CI Poly held that spot and FSP grew. Thirteen roles out of 58,150 is a rounding error. I am mentioning it because I flagged CI Poly's 45 last issue, and the two deserve the same weight.
— Rahul Pandhi Founder, ClearMatch