Contracts · Classified space
DIU puts $146.8M behind shared classified workspace for defense newcomers
Nooks won a four-year Defense Innovation Unit contract with a $146.8M ceiling under DIU’s Bridge Program. It adds classified facilities in Austin, Boston, Chicago, New York, the San Francisco Bay Area and Honolulu, joining existing sites in Arlington, Colorado Springs, El Segundo and Huntsville, and funds Facility Security Officer services for up to 100 DIU portfolio companies, including help with facility and personnel clearances.
Why it matters: winning classified work has meant building your own secure facility first. Shared space removes that wall for startups and commercial tech firms — and every company that walks through it needs already-cleared engineers on day one, in cities that have never been cleared-talent markets.
ClearanceJobs · Sep 18, 2026 ·
read →A $5M award now triggers entity vetting — and a DARPA-backed effort wants to make it faster
Any company awarded a contract worth $5 million or more now goes through entity vetting, a process once reserved for large, foreign-owned firms. That is pulling thousands of smaller and newer companies into the facility clearance process for the first time. Turbo FCL, a DARPA-backed initiative, aims to work like tax software for it — while on the personnel side, near-constant automated checks have already replaced the old five-year reinvestigation.
Why it matters: a facility clearance gates the whole contract, not one hire. Companies new to classified work will be racing the vetting clock and the staffing clock at the same time — and the people who can start while the paperwork moves are the ones already cleared.
ClearanceJobs · Sep 17, 2026 ·
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Contracts · StaffingArmy posts a 22-seat staff-aug requirement with every seat filled by Day 60
MICC–Fort Bragg's support requirement for U.S. Army Central at Shaw AFB is an SDVOSB set-aside: prime must hold a TOP SECRET facility clearance before award, personnel Secret through TS/SCI, LPTA, 12-month base with a 60-day transition — and all 22 positions staffed by Day 60.
Contracts · AIAccenture Federal wins $480M for the Army’s AI task-management system for all of DoD
A five-and-a-half-year award for the Joint Enterprise Task Management System, spanning 200,000 users across 68 defense and interagency organisations. A platform at that footprint needs cleared platform, data, IAM and DevSecOps people long before the reqs appear.
Washington Technology · Sep 11, 2026 ·
read → Gov IT · DataAccenture Federal wins $821M to build the Pentagon's ‘War Data Platform’
The integration backbone of the rebranded Advana — hundreds of data streams, IAM, and the AI tooling behind DoD decision-making. Heavy demand ahead for cleared data, platform/DevSecOps, and IAM talent.
GovConWire · Jul 2026 ·
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Health ITThe VA restarts its Oracle EHR rollout after a three-year pause
Live again in 2026 (Detroit, Saginaw, Ann Arbor, Battle Creek); ~$1B and 13 sites this year, scaling to all 170 by 2031. A long runway reopens for cleared health-IT talent.
Cyber · PayPentagon reprices elite cyber talent with ‘Cyber Mastery Incentive Pay’
From Oct. 1, C-MIP ($103M FY27) layers skill tiers and special duty pay for USCYBERCOM roles — part of Cyber Command 2.0, closing the industry pay gap. When the government reprices cyber, the whole cleared market resets.
Clearance · TimelinesInitial Top Secret runs 243 days — and adjudication is the bottleneck
Q3 FY2026: an initial industry Top Secret takes 243 days, 126 of them in adjudication; an initial Secret takes 197. Demand for initial vetting has climbed since February, so the queue is getting longer, not shorter.
ClearanceJobs · Sep 2, 2026 ·
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