FDE Dispatch: Forward Deployed Engineer security clearance index

Files
  fde-security-clearance-2026-10-24.json  hand classification of every
                                      security clearance / clearance /
                                      cleared / TS/SCI / Top Secret /
                                      secret / polygraph / US
                                      citizen(ship) / citizen / US
                                      person / ITAR / EAR / export
                                      control / export license /
                                      FedRAMP / IL2-6 / government /
                                      public sector / DoD / Department
                                      of Defense or War / federal /
                                      defense / national security /
                                      intelligence community / military /
                                      SC / DV / BPSS / CMMC / NIST 800 /
                                      sovereign / warfighter / classified
                                      keyword match, with denominators,
                                      category counts, with- and
                                      without-Palantir splits, employer
                                      and US-location splits, noise
                                      categories, evidence tables, and a
                                      per-match classification table

Used on https://fdedispatch.com/forward-deployed-engineer-security-clearance/

Population
  Engineer-title posting texts pulled October 25, 2026 (566 of 568
  engineer-title rows with in_page_stats = true in
  fde-postings-2026-10-24.csv; 2 had closed) and deployment-strategist
  posting texts pulled October 28, 2026 (85 texts). Combined denominator
  651. Management titles from the October 24, 2026 snapshot are not in
  this corpus. Keyword seed matches: 366 postings.

Method
  Every match was hand-classified. Fields:

  clearance_rule (one value)
    active_required
      Must hold an active or current clearance at hire.
    eligible_or_obtain
      Must be eligible for, able to obtain, or willing to undergo a
      clearance or government vetting. Includes Active OR
      eligibility/willingness wording.
    preferred
      Clearance is preferred, nice to have, strongly preferred, or
      listed only as a plus.
    none
      No clearance rule stated.

  clearance_level
    secret / top_secret / ts_sci / ts_sci_poly / uk_sc / uk_dv /
    other_non_us / unspecified. other_non_us covers Canadian Top
    Secret, Australian, NATO, Lithuanian and similar non-US regimes
    named in quote_note.

  us_citizenship_required
    Explicit U.S. citizenship requirement (alone or tied to clearance).
    Foreign citizenship rules (for example Singapore) are noted in
    quote_note and do not set this flag.

  us_person_export_control
    U.S. Person / ITAR / EAR / export-license language that limits who
    can be hired. Employer-discretion export-license boilerplate that
    does not restrict the candidate is noise (false).

  government_work_no_rule
    Posting describes government, public-sector or defense customer
    work but states no clearance, citizenship or U.S.-person rule.
    Postings that name public sector only as one example of preferred
    regulated-industry background are counted as noise.

  noise_only
    Keyword hit with no real statement of the fields above (EEO
    citizenship-as-protected-class, military-leave benefits,
    citizen-services marketing, false-positive TS/SCI, and similar).

Counting rules
  States a rule = clearance_rule != none OR us_citizenship_required OR
  us_person_export_control.
  Silent = 651 minus postings that state a rule. government_work_no_rule
  and noise_only rows are silent on requirements.
  Palantir accounts for a large share of real clearance statements.
  Combined figures are reported with and without Palantir.

Visa guide comparison
  The visa sponsorship guide counted 46 postings under a single
  citizenship_or_export_control bucket. This guide uses a finer
  taxonomy and a broader keyword seed. The citizenship-or-export count
  here is 47 (us_citizenship_required OR us_person_export_control).
  Differences vs the visa 46: this guide counts Palantir Warp Speed
  U.S. Person Required seats and drops Reflection AI
  employer-authorization export boilerplate and the Together AI
  Singapore citizenship seat from the U.S. citizenship/export total.
  The visa guide figures are unchanged.

Certification guide comparison
  The certification guide counted 106 postings that mention a
  security clearance (seed certif / accredit / credential /
  clearance). All 106 are among this guide's 113 clearance-rule
  postings. The 7 added postings name TS/SCI with polygraph, a
  government background investigation or vetting without the word
  clearance. The certification guide figures are unchanged.

Caveats
  Keyword matching is approximate; hand review removes the noise listed
  above. Postings close; check the url before relying on a row.
  Employers that post only on LinkedIn, Indeed or other applicant
  systems are missing. Figures are what public postings said on the
  text-pull dates. Employers can change requirements. This dataset is
  not legal, immigration or clearance advice. Individuals cannot apply
  for a U.S. security clearance on their own; an authorized government
  agency or cleared contractor sponsors the investigation (see DCSA).

Related downloads
  Full postings snapshot: fde-postings-2026-10-24.csv / .json
  Certifications and clearance (coarser) index:
    fde-certifications-2026-10-24.json
  Visa sponsorship index: fde-visa-sponsorship-2026-10-24.json

Credit
  Free to reuse with credit to FDE Dispatch and a link to the page above.