If you held a security clearance during your service and still have it active (or even lapsed within the last 24 months), you are walking around with a credential that adds five figures to your annual market salary. Most separating vets dramatically underestimate this.
The premium, by level
Recent ClearanceJobs salary surveys and BLS contractor data converge on roughly:
- Secret clearance, active: ~$15,000–$25,000 above the uncleared equivalent role in the same field and city.
- Top Secret, active: ~$25,000–$40,000 premium.
- TS/SCI, active: ~$35,000–$55,000 premium. Add another 10–15% if you have a polygraph (CI or full-scope).
These aren't theoretical numbers. They're what federal contractors actually pay because they have to. A cleared role that sits open is a cleared role costing the contract money. Sponsors get refilled. You're walking around with a credential that takes the government 6–18 months and $5K–$15K to issue, and the market prices it accordingly.
Why the premium exists
Three reasons, in this order:
1. Time to fill. A new Top Secret clearance takes 6–12 months on average to process from start to finish. A TS/SCI with full-scope poly can take 18–24 months. During that time, the contract slot sits empty, the contractor is missing revenue, and the government customer is missing a person. Hiring an already-cleared person fills the slot today.
2. Sponsorship cost. The estimated investigation cost for a Top Secret SSBI is $5,000–$15,000. For TS/SCI with full-scope poly, more. The contractor either pays this directly (rare, for a known high-value hire) or eats the time-to-fill cost. Cleared candidates skip both.
3. Limited supply. There are about 4 million cleared individuals total in the US, including all federal employees and contractors. Of those, far fewer are actively in the labor market in any given year. The pool is small and the demand is constant.
The 24-month reciprocity window
This is the part most separating vets don't know.
If your clearance was active at any point in the last 24 months, you are still considered "current" under federal reciprocity rules (DCSA / OPM's Trusted Workforce 2.0 framework). A new employer can reactivate your existing clearance instead of starting a new investigation, meaning you can be working a cleared role within weeks of being hired, not 6–12 months.
Even after 24 months, if you go through periodic continuous vetting (which is now standard) or you have an active polygraph in the past 5 years, much of your investigation history is still usable. The cost and time to re-investigate drops significantly compared to a fresh applicant.
Bottom line for separating vets: if you held a clearance during your service, capture the exact date your access was last active and put it on your resume. "Top Secret, active through April 2026" is a different (much stronger) credential than "Top Secret" alone.
Where the cleared jobs actually are
Cleared work clusters around physical SCIFs (Secure Compartmented Information Facilities), which are mostly:
- Northern Virginia / DC metro, biggest concentration, especially Fort Belvoir, Quantico, Tysons Corner, Reston, Arlington.
- Maryland, Fort Meade corridor, NSA, CYBERCOM, signals intelligence contractors.
- Colorado Springs, Space Force, Peterson, Cheyenne Mountain, USSPACECOM.
- Tampa, FL, CENTCOM, SOCOM, contractors clustered around MacDill.
- San Antonio, TX, JBSA, Lackland, AF cyber.
- Huntsville, AL, Army Materiel Command, Redstone, DIA elements.
- Augusta, GA, Cyber Center of Excellence, Fort Gordon.
Remote cleared work exists but is rare. Most cleared roles require physical presence in a SCIF because the work itself can't leave the building. Some roles are "hybrid cleared", meaning you work in the SCIF for classified portions and remote for unclassified.
How to package your clearance on a resume
Right under your name and contact info, before your summary:
Active Top Secret / SCI · CI Polygraph (current as of February 2026)
That's it. One line, very specific. Recruiters scanning resumes for cleared roles search for this exact language.
In your work history, for each cleared role:
Cleared Site Operations Lead · [Agency / Contractor] · Fort Meade, MD · 2021–2024 · Held active TS/SCI with CI polygraph for the duration. Specific work, quantified.
You don't have to (and shouldn't) say what you actually did at the classified level. "Conducted analysis on assigned mission sets" is fine. "Led a team of 8 in a 24/7 watch operation" is fine. Specifics about classified content are not fine and will get you contacted by your former command.
What to do if your clearance is lapsed
If lapsed within 24 months: apply to cleared roles as if it's active, with the caveat clearly stated. "Top Secret, lapsed November 2024 (within reciprocity window)." Many contractors will sponsor reactivation immediately on hire.
If lapsed 2–5 years: still worth mentioning. Some contractors will sponsor a re-investigation if your experience is otherwise strong. The cost-to-investigate is lower for someone with a prior favorable adjudication than for a never-cleared candidate.
If lapsed 5+ years: treat it as "prior clearance, history available" rather than as a current credential. Useful as a signal that you've been investigated and adjudicated favorably in the past, but not as a working clearance.
What this app does
If you held a clearance, add it to your profile. The Benefitry /app/jobs page pulls cleared federal listings daily from USAJOBS and surfaces them in the "Cleared roles" tab. If your clearance status is set to "active," a separate "Matches my clearance" tab appears that filters down to roles at or below your level, so a Secret-cleared user doesn't see TS/SCI roles they can't qualify for, but a TS/SCI user sees everything they're eligible for.
The Ask Benefitry AI page knows your clearance level too. Ask it "what cleared roles match my background in cyber" and it will pull from the cleared listings using your specific MOS/AFSC and clearance level.
If you're separating in the next 6 months and you currently hold a clearance, the 24-month window starts when your access is terminated, not when your clearance is adjudicated. Capture the exact termination date in your separation paperwork. That date is worth real money for the next two years.