Annual Compensation Report for Security Cleared Talent

DHI Group, Inc. announced that ClearanceJobs, its leading career marketplace for security-cleared professionals in the defense industry and national security, has released its 2022 Security Clearance Compensation Report.

Security clearance total compensation averaged $101,395 in 2021. The ClearanceJobs annual survey of cleared professionals about key topics around salary and job satisfaction remains a pivotal pulse point in the health of the overall national security sector. The biggest story around the 2021 survey is the generational shifts hitting the cleared workforce – the survey found a 6 percent decrease in the number of baby boomer respondents, and a corresponding 6 percent increase in millennials. The graying of the aerospace industry is affecting both the skills and average age of professionals fueling the defense workforce. Technical careers remain king, garnering nearly $30,000 more than the overall average for all industries and taking over the top spot in cleared compensation across all job categories.

“The 2022 Security Clearance Compensation Report truly highlights the myriad factors that contribute to compensation across the national security field, from job category and years of experience to clearance level, and number of technical certifications,” said Evan Lesser, Founder and President of ClearanceJobs. “Small shifts in both the industry and individual can have huge impact on compensation, and we see from the survey results that there may be no such thing as the ‘average’ cleared worker. This is an industry fueled by unique and exceptional skills, and unique and exceptional people.”

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D.C. Dips and Workforce Shifts

The D.C. metro remains the main market for security cleared professionals with 42 percent of respondents working in D.C., Maryland or Virginia. But geographic mobility is beginning to be more of an option, and D.C. metro respondents dropped by 3 percent in 2021. While the D.C. monopoly may have dipped slightly, it still pays to work inside the Beltway. Respondents within the I-495 corridor had average compensation $21,576 higher than the average for those who worked outside the Beltway.

The Afghanistan withdraw also created a dip in OCONUS cleared respondents. Afghanistan went from making up 25 percent of overseas cleared workers to just 4 percent. The shift in defense strategy means 97 percent of all cleared respondents now work stateside.

Compensation by Occupation: Cyber and Suits

When it comes to top-paying cleared industries it’s clear: suits and cyber are where the money’s at. The shift to cyber as the highest-paying occupation became a reality in 2022. Business sales topped the list of cleared occupations in 2021, but for 2022 cyber took over the top-paying slot with IT-Software professionals ($129,756) and Systems Engineers ($129,351) garnering the top spots and Management ($123,773), Data Science ($119,759), and Business Sales ($119,221) rounding out the top 5 highest paid cleared positions.

It also pays to be a triple threat – combining skills, experience and certifications is the key to higher compensation in the cleared industry. More than half (52 percent) of respondents reported having at least one industry certification and cleared and certified workers earned an average of $13,000 more than their non-certified counterparts.

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Can You Go Remote in National Security?

For years it was assumed you couldn’t work remote and work in national security. But 46 percent of respondents said remote or hybrid work environments would remain in place post-COVID. Respondents who said remote work wasn’t on the table weighed in on what would make going back to the office better. Most respondents said extra vacation and more vacation days were the best way to lure them back to the office. Gone are the days of the office buffet, however, more respondents cited they would rather receive nothing than on-site food or snacks.

Respondents reported slight decreases in both job and salary satisfaction in 2021, but when it came down to what would help shift the needle toward a happier worker, higher compensation and more training options were top on the list. For those who worry that the lure of commercial sector remote work options will force cleared workers out, it’s worth noting that while 29 percent of respondents said remote work would increase their job satisfaction, a similar figure (27 percent) said a more meaningful mission would.

“The shifts we saw in our 2022 Compensation Report are all relatively small,” noted Jill Hamilton, editor of ClearanceJobs. “But what we’ve seen is that small shifts – in demographics or sentiment – can have a major impact on our very limited pool of cleared candidates. The devil truly is in the details, as well as the opportunity. It’s incredibly important for both employers and federal government agencies to understand how the workforce is changing, from the rise in millennial workers to the dips in D.C. metro respondents.”

The Security Clearance Compensation report includes cleared compensation by state, occupation, education, security clearance level and other criteria.

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