Commercial technology recruiting
Commercial technology employers hire on skills, location and compensation, without a clearance requirement, and they are the largest pool of technical talent in the markets Recruiters Workforce covers.
The firm recruits software engineers, cloud engineers, data engineers, DevSecOps engineers, business analysts and IT support technicians for software companies, semiconductor manufacturers, enterprise technology groups and the technology teams inside large employers.
The same market supplies cleared programs. A software engineer at a semiconductor plant in Austin or a data center in Nebraska is a candidate for a defense contractor willing to sponsor an investigation, and a cleared engineer leaving federal work is a candidate for a commercial employer that needs someone who has shipped under real security constraints.
Who hires in commercial technology
The employers below describe where commercial technology work is done in the markets we cover. They are named as facts and none is a client of the firm.
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Austin and Central Texas
Samsung Austin Semiconductor has operated fabs in Austin since 1996 and is building a fab in Taylor, northeast of the city, expected to be operational by the end of 2026. Apple announced in December 2018 a one billion dollar campus in North Austin with initial capacity for 5,000 employees, stating that Austin already held its largest population of employees outside Cupertino. Applied Research Laboratories at the University of Texas at Austin is a Department of Defense university affiliated research center, and the Army's Transformation and Training Command is headquartered in Austin with offices in Round Rock.
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Dallas and San Antonio
Texas Instruments is headquartered in Dallas with more than 33,000 employees, Raytheon's North Texas sites employ more than 6,000, and USAA's home office is in San Antonio, where Southwest Research Institute performs contract research on more than 1,500 acres. Port San Antonio's cybersecurity campus and the Alamo Regional Security Operations Center sit on the former Kelly Air Force Base.
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San Diego and Los Angeles
Qualcomm lists its business address in San Diego, General Atomics is headquartered in San Diego with its aeronautical systems business in Poway, and the San Diego Military Advisory Council counts 356,519 defense-related jobs in the region. Rocket Lab lists its business address in Long Beach, and the Port of Los Angeles calls itself the busiest seaport in the Western Hemisphere.
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Omaha and Albuquerque
Union Pacific, the largest freight railroad in the United States, and Berkshire Hathaway are headquartered in Omaha, and Google's and Meta's data centers in Sarpy County are among the largest private investments in Nebraska. Intel calls New Mexico its leading advanced packaging hub, with more than 3,000 employees and a four billion dollar expansion of its Rio Rancho facilities.
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Florida and Northern Virginia
Siemens Energy's United States business is headquartered in Orlando, EA Orlando develops EA SPORTS titles, and the University of Central Florida, with more than 70,000 students, is the largest university by enrollment in the state. Amazon's HQ2 in Arlington, Virginia houses more than 8,000 employees across Prime Video, AWS and other units, and Loudoun County hosts the world's largest concentration of data centers. The Charleston Regional Development Alliance counts more than 1,900 technology companies in that region.
Clearances and access in commercial technology
Most commercial technology requisitions carry no clearance line at all. Where a commercial firm holds federal contracts, its federal business unit hires under the same rules as any contractor, with Secret or TS/SCI requirements set by the program, and candidates moving in that direction should read the clearance guide.
For cleared professionals moving the other way, commercial employers value the disciplines that federal work instills, from configuration management to incident reporting, and the submittal describes that experience in commercial terms. State hiring rules matter more here than clearances: several of the states on the markets hub require a compensation range in every job posting, and the state pages summarize each rule with its source.
Specialties we recruit for commercial technology
Markets with commercial technology hiring
Engagement models that fit
Commercial employers use contract staffing for project surges and contract-to-hire to confirm fit before a permanent offer, and direct hire for approved headcount. Retained search is used for engineering leaders and heads of security at growing technology companies. The engagement models page compares them.
Questions about commercial technology recruiting
Why would a cleared engineer take a commercial position?
Compensation, remote work and the absence of on-site classified constraints are the usual reasons. A current eligibility can be reinstated within the period the cognizant security agency allows if the engineer later returns to a cleared position, provided the investigation is still in scope or continuous vetting enrollment was in place, so a move into commercial work is not necessarily a permanent exit from cleared work.
Which state rules affect commercial technology postings the most?
Pay transparency rules. Colorado, California, Maryland, Hawaii, the District of Columbia and, from July 1, 2026, Virginia require a compensation range in job postings, and several cities in Ohio have their own ordinances, while Texas, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina have no statewide requirement. The state pages summarize each rule with its statute or agency source.