Cleared IT recruiting in San Antonio, Texas
San Antonio is the largest cleared market in Texas and one of the largest cyber markets in the country.
Joint Base San Antonio spreads across three primary locations and hundreds of mission partners, Sixteenth Air Force runs the Air Force's information warfare mission from Lackland, NSA Texas has operated a cryptologic center in the city since 2007, and Port San Antonio has grown a cybersecurity campus on the former Kelly Air Force Base. Requisitions here carry the polygraph line more often than anywhere else in the state.
Recruiters Workforce works San Antonio from Austin, an hour and a half up Interstate 35, and treats the two cities as one candidate pool for non-cleared work and two distinct pools for cleared work, because most TS/SCI holders in the region live within reach of Lackland.
Installations, agencies and employers that shape hiring in San Antonio
The organizations below shape San Antonio's cleared and technical market. They are named as facts about the area; none is a client of the firm.
-
Joint Base San Antonio
The Air Force is the lead agency for Joint Base San Antonio, which comprises three primary locations at Fort Sam Houston, Lackland and Randolph, plus eight other operating locations and 266 mission partners, according to the base.
-
Sixteenth Air Force, Air Forces Cyber
Headquartered at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Sixteenth Air Force is the Air Force's first information warfare numbered air force, responsible for the service's intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance mission, its cryptologic activities, operating and defending the Air Force information network, and commanding the forces assigned by U.S. Cyber Command for cyberspace operations.
-
NSA Texas
The NSA/CSS Texas Cryptologic Center in San Antonio was established in 2007, building on mission partnerships with the Department of Defense and other agencies located across the city. NSA's suitability process for applicants includes in-person security processing with a polygraph.
-
Port San Antonio
On the site of the former Kelly Air Force Base, Port San Antonio states that more than 1,000 uniformed and civilian Air Force cybersecurity experts work on its campus, and it has proposed a campus to house Sixteenth Air Force. Its Alamo Regional Security Operations Center, a 20,000-square-foot secure facility, houses the City of San Antonio's and CPS Energy's information security teams working side by side.
-
Southwest Research Institute
An independent, nonprofit research and development organization headquartered in San Antonio on more than 1,500 acres, with more than 2.4 million square feet of laboratories, test facilities, workshops and offices and more than 3,200 employees performing contract work for government and industry clients.
-
USAA
USAA's San Antonio home office is at 9800 Fredericksburg Road, on the northwest side of the city, and its technology organization is one of the largest commercial employers of software, cloud and security staff in the market.
Commuting and remote work around San Antonio
San Antonio's commutes are shaped by three TxDOT programs. The 1.4 billion dollar Loop 1604 North Expansion is turning nearly 28 miles of Loop 1604 between SH 16 and I-35 from four lanes to ten, with the segments from SH 16 to US 281 expected to be complete in 2026 and the segment to Redland Road in 2027. The 3.5 billion dollar I-35 Northeast Expansion adds raised lanes, HOV lanes and flyover ramps from North Walters Street to FM 1103, and the I-10 at Loop 1604 interchange is under construction through 2027. Interstate 410, which the federal route log measures at 49.43 miles, is the inner loop that connects Lackland, Fort Sam Houston and the northwest employers.
VIA Metropolitan Transit's Prímo service runs three high-frequency routes with transit signal priority, including Prímo 100 to the Medical Center Transit Center and Prímo 102 from the Kel-Lac Transit Center near Lackland to Brooks, and VIA broke ground on June 13, 2025 on the 10.35-mile Rapid Green Line from near the airport through downtown to Brooks, with service planned for early 2028.
Cyber and cryptologic work on the base and at NSA Texas is on site without exception. Port San Antonio's commercial tenants and USAA offer hybrid arrangements, and a requisition on the commercial side of the market should state its policy, because candidates compare the two.
Clearance levels commonly requested in San Antonio
Requisitions supporting Sixteenth Air Force, NSA Texas and the cyber units at Lackland and Port San Antonio ask for TS/SCI, and NSA's own hiring pages describe a polygraph as part of its security processing. Requisitions at Fort Sam Houston, Randolph and the medical and training commands run from Public Trust to Secret. Southwest Research Institute and the contractors around the base carry Secret and Top Secret work.
The polygraph line decides the size of the pool. A requisition that will accept a current TS/SCI holder and sponsor the polygraph draws on candidates from the whole region; one that requires the polygraph on day one draws on the smaller group who already hold it.
Specialties in demand in San Antonio
Industries hiring in San Antonio
Nearby markets
Questions about hiring in San Antonio
Which San Antonio requisitions need a polygraph?
Those supporting NSA Texas and the cryptologic and cyber units at Lackland, where the sponsoring agency's own process includes one. Requisitions at the other Joint Base San Antonio locations, at Southwest Research Institute and on the commercial side of Port San Antonio usually do not. The requisition summary should say which examination applies and whether the program will sponsor it.
Are Austin candidates willing to commute to San Antonio?
For cleared positions with a premium, some are, and Interstate 35 makes the trip possible, but the daily distance rules out most. Recruiters Workforce treats the two cities as separate pools for cleared work and works San Antonio requisitions with candidates who live within reach of the site.