Cleared IT recruiting in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas
Dallas-Fort Worth is an aerospace manufacturing and engineering market first and a cleared market second.
The F-35 is assembled at Air Force Plant 4 in west Fort Worth, Bell builds rotorcraft from its Fort Worth headquarters, Raytheon's North Texas sites build radars and electro-optics, L3Harris modifies special mission aircraft in Greenville, and Texas Instruments anchors a semiconductor industry in Dallas. Requisitions here ask for Secret more often than for TS/SCI, and for engineering degrees more often than for certifications.
The metroplex is large enough that a requisition must name the side: Fort Worth and the western suburbs for the aircraft plants, Richardson, Plano and McKinney for radars and semiconductors, and Greenville, an hour east of Dallas, for aircraft modification.
Installations, agencies and employers that shape hiring in Dallas-Fort Worth
The organizations below shape the Dallas-Fort Worth market. They are named as facts about the area; none is a client of the firm.
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Lockheed Martin Aeronautics and Air Force Plant 4
Air Force Plant 4 began operations in west Fort Worth on April 18, 1942, produced 2,743 B-24 bombers and 3,630 F-16s, and is the center of the F-35 program. Lockheed Martin reported in January 2026 that its 19,000 Fort Worth employees delivered a record 191 fighter jets in 2025.
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Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth
The former Carswell Air Force Base, home to the 301st Fighter Wing, the only Air Force Reserve fighter unit in Texas, which received its first F-35A and became the first Air Force Reserve Command unit to own, maintain and operate the aircraft, under a plan for 26 F-35s.
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Bell
Bell Textron, a subsidiary of Textron, is headquartered at 3255 Bell Flight Boulevard in Fort Worth, where its executive leadership, engineering groups for commercial and military programs, test laboratories and quality groups are based.
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Raytheon in North Texas
Raytheon's North Texas location reports more than 6,000 employees working on electro-optics, radars and high-energy lasers, aerospace research and development, software, manufacturing and rapid prototyping, and assembly, integration and test. The company opened a 178,000-square-foot Advanced Integration and Manufacturing Center in McKinney in September 2021 and announced a 400,000-square-foot factory, laboratory and office building on the same campus.
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L3Harris in Greenville
L3Harris's Greenville facilities cover more than 3.7 million square feet for manufacturing, multi-sensor and anechoic testing, aircraft painting and flight-line shelters, with a multi-sensor test range in FAA-approved airspace, and provide end-to-end design, development, integration and testing of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft.
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Texas Instruments
A semiconductor company founded in 1930 and headquartered in Dallas, with more than 33,000 employees, whose engineering and manufacturing organizations draw the same embedded and RF talent the defense programs compete for.
Commuting and remote work around Dallas-Fort Worth
The DART rail system, one of the longest light rail systems in the United States at 93 miles, runs four lines through downtown Dallas to 66 stations in nine cities, including Richardson, Plano, Carrollton, Irving and DFW Airport, and the Trinity Railway Express joins the downtowns of Dallas and Fort Worth. TxDOT reports more than 100 miles of TEXpress managed lanes on eight North Texas roadways, including I-35E, SH 183, I-30, I-635 and the North Tarrant Express on Loop 820, and its Texas Clear Lanes projects include I-635 LBJ East and the I-30 Canyon in Dallas.
The Dallas North Tollway runs 33 miles from downtown Dallas to Prosper through Addison, Plano and Frisco, and the North Texas Tollway Authority also operates the Sam Rayburn Tollway, the President George Bush Turnpike and the Chisholm Trail Parkway. A candidate in Plano will not take a daily commute to west Fort Worth, and a requisition should be sourced on its own side of the metroplex.
Aircraft and radar programs are on site by nature, and their engineering work is largely inside controlled facilities. The semiconductor and software employers in Dallas and Richardson offer hybrid work, and requisitions on that side should state their policy.
Clearance levels commonly requested in Dallas-Fort Worth
Aircraft and radar programs ask for Secret for most engineering and manufacturing engineering positions and Top Secret for program offices and special programs. TS/SCI requisitions are uncommon here, and the polygraph line rarely appears. Export control rules add a citizenship requirement to many engineering positions regardless of clearance, and the requisition should state it.
Because the programs are large and permanent, employers here sponsor investigations more readily than in intelligence markets, and a strong non-cleared engineer can often start on unclassified work while a Secret investigation runs.
Specialties in demand in Dallas-Fort Worth
Industries hiring in Dallas-Fort Worth
Nearby markets
Questions about hiring in Dallas-Fort Worth
Do Dallas-Fort Worth aerospace requisitions require United States citizenship?
Most do, because the programs are subject to export control rules that the program office applies, in addition to any clearance requirement. The requisition summary should state the rule so that only eligible candidates are screened.
Which side of the metroplex should a requisition be sourced from?
The side the site is on. Fort Worth and its western suburbs supply the aircraft plants and the reserve base; Richardson, Plano and McKinney supply the radar and semiconductor employers; Greenville is sourced from Rockwall, Rowlett and the communities east of Dallas. Recruiters Workforce records where a candidate lives and how far they will commute before submittal.