The Clearance Premium in the Rocket City
How much more do cleared engineers earn in the Tennessee Valley corridor? Computed from live RocketCityEngineers.com listings.
Breakdown by clearance level
| Clearance | Median | Range | Listings sampled |
|---|---|---|---|
| Secret | $115K | $115K – $115K | 1 |
| Top Secret | $130K | $130K – $130K | 1 |
| TS/SCI | — | — – — | 0 |
| Polygraph | — | — – — | 0 |
Sources: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics for the Huntsville-Decatur-Albertville, AL metro area, May 2024 release (bls.gov/oes) · 3 live RocketCityEngineers.com listings (last 90 days). Snapshot last refreshed June 7, 2026.
BLS data reports annual wages for full-time-equivalent positions regardless of clearance, employer type, or experience. Cleared positions in this corridor typically command a 10–25% premium over the BLS median.
Heads-up on sample size: these numbers are drawn from our current live listings. The split widens as the listing pool grows. Treat this as directional until the sample crosses ~100 per clearance level.