Breaking into govtech & defense
Break into defense tech — even without a clearance yet.
Every posting says “active Secret required,” so you scroll past the ones that would actually take you. Climbr is clearance-aware: set your level to none and it honestly credits the roles that say “must be able to obtain” — the ones that sponsor your first clearance — scored against your real resume.
Already cleared? Head to the deep cleared & federal page →
Common cleared & federal roles
Clearance-aware at every level — None, Confidential, Public Trust, Secret, Top Secret, TS/SCI, DoE L/Q, and DHS — with polygraph and status as separate self-attested fields. Set yours and every score reflects it.
Your clearance: None yet
Clearance-awareCyber Systems Engineer
Defense contractor · Arlington, VA (DMV)
Secret clearance · sponsored
Strong technical fit — and this role says “must be able to obtain” a Secret clearance, so it sponsors your first. Credited for you even though you don’t hold one yet.
Example preview. A no-clearance candidate is scored fairly, not zeroed out — Climbr never fabricates a clearance you don’t hold.
It credits the jobs that sponsor your first clearance
Most defense roles you scroll past say "must be able to obtain a Secret clearance" — those are the ones that sponsor your first. Climbr is clearance-aware: set your level to none and it scores those roles honestly for you instead of letting you filter yourself out. The reasoning even says so.
Federal & defense jobs others bury
Climbr pulls federal roles straight from the official USAJOBS API and defense employers’ own public job boards — alongside commercial listings — so agency, contractor, and govtech openings actually show up in your daily feed instead of being lost behind a clunky portal.
Internships & Pathways for students and new grads
One toggle narrows your feed to internships and federal Pathways roles — the legitimate on-ramps that hire students and recent grads and walk you into your first clearance. No “3 years required” walls on roles meant for people just starting out.
A free Federal Resume Checker
USAJOBS rejects strong candidates on formatting alone — month/year dates, hours per week, the two-page rule, series and grade. Our free checker runs the actual OPM/USAJOBS rules and cites every finding to its .gov source, so a formatting slip never sinks you. No signup to try it.
Scored against your real resume — career-changer-friendly
Coming from the military, the private sector, or a totally different field? Climbr scores each role against your actual background and tells you in one sentence where you genuinely fit and what’s missing — so you can target roles that are reachable now instead of guessing.
Never fabricated — because these jobs investigate you
Climbr only ever works from your real experience — no invented clearances, roles, or numbers. Defense and federal hiring runs background investigations and SF-86s; an embellished resume doesn’t just fail review, it can sink the whole application. Honest is the only thing that survives.
Tools to break in
Most of what you need to land a cleared or federal role is free.
Free Federal Resume Checker
Runs the real OPM/USAJOBS rules — the two-page limit, hours per week, MM/YYYY dates, series and grade — and cites every finding to its .gov source. No signup.
Check your federal resume — free →LinkedIn accounts that post cleared jobs
A hand-verified directory of accounts that actually post cleared, federal, and internship roles — free to browse.
See the list — free →What cleared & federal roles pay
Real pay ranges by role and city from live listings — only what employers actually disclosed, never an estimate.
Explore pay — free →DoD 8140/8570 cert checklist
IAT and IAM Level I–III, mapped to the certifications DoD has approved for each — every entry links to where it came from. A reference list, not a determination of your eligibility.
See the checklist — free →A path from no-clearance to cleared
A roadmap to the cleared role you want, with the certs (think Security+) and milestones that get you there.
Start free →Govtech résumé tailoring (KSA Mode)
Paste a federal or defense internship posting and Climbr translates your real coursework, labs, and projects into the KSA / competency language recruiters screen for — then checks it against the OPM/USAJOBS rules. It never invents experience.
Start free →Govtech interview simulator
Practice what cleared-role interviews actually ask — security-clearance behavioral screening (foreign contacts, finances), cyber hygiene, and ethics — with honest coaching. We can’t get you a clearance, only prepare you to be truthful in the process.
Start free →Breaking-into-defense questions
How do I break into defense tech without a clearance?
You don’t need a clearance to start — you need the roles that sponsor your first one. They’re worded "must be able to obtain a Secret/TS clearance," and they’re everywhere in defense IT, cyber, and engineering. Climbr is clearance-aware: set your level to none, and it credits those roles honestly in your match score instead of zeroing you out, so you stop filtering yourself out of the jobs that would actually take you.
Which jobs sponsor a security clearance?
Cleared defense contractors and federal agencies routinely sponsor clearances for roles they can’t fill with already-cleared people — common in cybersecurity, software, engineering, and analysis, and especially around the DMV (DC/Maryland/Virginia). Climbr pulls these from USAJOBS and defense employers’ own boards and flags the ones stating a clearance path. You can also browse the live roles that sponsor a clearance on our /cleared/sponsored page.
Does Climbr work with USAJOBS?
Yes. Federal listings come in through the official USAJOBS API, and the Climbr browser extension shows your match score directly on a USAJOBS posting and saves it to your tracker. You still apply through USAJOBS and Login.gov yourself — Climbr never auto-applies for you.
Are there internships or Pathways roles for students?
Yes. Climbr lets you filter your feed to internships and federal Pathways roles — the official program that hires students and recent grads into government and walks many of them into their first clearance. Pair it with the free Federal Resume Checker so your application clears the formatting rules USAJOBS enforces.
I’m transitioning out of the military — can Climbr help me translate my experience?
Climbr scores federal and defense roles against your real resume and tells you in one sentence where you genuinely fit and what a posting is missing — without inventing anything you didn’t do. If you already hold a clearance from service, set your level in your profile and it’s factored into your scores. For the deeper clearance-holder workflow, see our /cleared page.
Stop filtering yourself out
Run the free Federal Resume Checker, then create an account to get clearance-aware match scores on real federal and defense jobs — including the ones that sponsor your first clearance. No card required.
Also: the live roles that sponsor a clearance and the LinkedIn accounts that actually post cleared jobs — both free to browse.
On USAJOBS or ClearanceJobs? Add Climbr to Chrome — free for your match score right on the posting — you still apply through their own systems.