01 — MethodologyHow to read these numbersWage figures on this page come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program — the May 2025 reference period, released 15 May 2026 — pulled from the national, metropolitan and national-industry files. The occupations used are 11-9021 Construction Managers, 47-1011 First-Line Supervisors of Construction Trades and Extraction Workers, and 47-4011 Construction and Building Inspectors, which are the closest public proxies for project manager, superintendent and quality-control manager roles.Clearance-market compensation comes from ClearanceJobs’ Security Clearance Compensation Report, both the 2026 edition published March 2026 (covering 2025 pay) and the 2025 edition, distributed by DHI Group. Vetting timelines come from the Security, Suitability and Credentialing Performance Accountability Council’s Trusted Workforce 2.0 Quarterly Progress Report for FY2026-Q3, published on performance.gov, with the FY25-Q4 / FY26-Q1 edition used for historical comparison.Certification and site-access requirements are drawn from the governing documents themselves: UFGS Section 01 45 00 and the USACE/NAVFAC Construction Quality Management for Contractors (CQM-C) program, USACE EM 385-1-1, ODNI Intelligence Community Directive 705 for SCIF construction, NISPOM at 32 CFR Part 117, and the ITAR definition of a U.S. person at 22 CFR 120.62. Figures are rounded, shown as ranges where sources disagree, and were retrieved in August 2026.What these figures are — and are notThese are public-data wage benchmarks, not placement records. No federal statistical agency publishes construction pay broken out by security clearance level, so the bands below are constructed: BLS OEWS percentile bands for the relevant occupation and metro, then adjusted using the published clearance and polygraph premium evidence from ClearanceJobs and the BLS federal-branch industry cut. That construction is stated openly on every card so you can rebuild it yourself. What these numbers are NOT: they are not offer data, not bid rates, not loaded labour costs, and not iRecruit placement or client data. OEWS measures straight-time gross pay and excludes overtime, per diem, site premiums, completion bonuses and the retention packages that are common on multi-year cleared programs — all of which move real cleared construction offers above the published percentile. Treat them as a floor for negotiation, not a ceiling.02 — At a glanceThe benchmarks at a glanceThe whole guide in one screen. Each row jumps to the full section.01Baseline construction manager payBLS OEWS May 2025: median $114,990, 75th percentile $151,640, 90th percentile $189,440 across 380,360 jobsBLS02The federal and cleared premiumFederal Executive Branch CM median $144,040 (+25% on national); nonresidential building construction $126,690 (+10%)Premium03Cleared-market compensationClearanceJobs 2026: average total comp $126,125, up ~6% in 2025; poly holders average $149,875Cleared04Clearance processing timeFastest 90%: 60 days high-risk and 40 days moderate-risk investigation in FY26-Q3; FY26 targets 60 and 20 daysTimeline05The CQM-C gateUSACE/NAVFAC QC managers and alternates must hold CQM-C: a two-day course, certificate valid 5 yearsCQM-CAnchor figures for 2026: a $114,990 national median for construction managers, a $144,040 median inside the Federal Executive Branch, a Washington-metro median of $129,650 running to $207,160 at the 90th percentile, cleared-market average total compensation of $126,125, and background investigations that still take 40 to 60 days for the fastest 90% of cases before anyone sets foot on a closed site.
03 — Benchmarks2026 pay bands: cleared construction leadership by role and clearanceNo public dataset reports construction wages by clearance level, so each band below is built in the open: a BLS OEWS percentile range for the relevant occupation and market, then read against the published federal-branch and polygraph premium evidence. The number is the band; the note says exactly where it came from.$115K–$152KConstruction PM, uncleared baselineBLS OEWS May 2025 for SOC 11-9021: national median $114,990 to 75th percentile $151,640, across 380,360 jobs. This is the reference point every clearance premium below is measured against.$127K–$160KConstruction PM, Secret-cleared federal workMapped to the BLS nonresidential building construction cut (NAICS 2362): median $126,690, 75th percentile $160,330 — roughly 10% above the all-industry median, the low end of the clearance premium range.$144K–$172KConstruction PM, Top Secret / federal programBLS OEWS Federal Executive Branch cut for 11-9021: median $144,040, mean $147,450, 90th percentile $171,750 — about 25% above the national median. Note this cell covers just 70 direct federal civil-service jobs, not cleared contractor staff, so treat it as a directional proxy rather than a market rate.$162K–$207KConstruction PM, TS/SCI or SCIF-heavy workBLS OEWS Washington-Arlington-Alexandria metro, 11-9021: 75th percentile $162,410 to 90th percentile $207,160. ClearanceJobs 2026 reports poly holders averaging $149,875 in total comp, nearly $30,000 above non-poly peers.$80K–$128KCleared superintendent (BLS proxy)BLS OEWS May 2025 for SOC 47-1011: national median $79,920, 90th percentile $128,260; in the Washington metro, median $83,540 and 90th percentile $129,260. Superintendents on cleared jobs cluster in the upper half of that spread.$75K–$114KQC manager, CQM-C certified (BLS proxy)BLS OEWS May 2025 for SOC 47-4011: national median $74,690, 90th percentile $114,200; Washington metro median $80,150, 90th percentile $116,510. CQM-C is a contract prerequisite, so certified QC managers sit toward the top.Sources: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 reference period, released 15 May 2026 (national, metropolitan and national-industry files, SOC 11-9021, 47-1011, 47-4011); ClearanceJobs Security Clearance Compensation Report 2026 via ClearanceJobs and DHI Group; UFGS Section 01 45 00 and the USACE/NAVFAC CQM-C program (retrieved Aug 2026).Why these bands are percentile mappings, not clearance surveysBLS does not ask about clearances and ClearanceJobs does not break its survey out by construction trade, so anyone quoting a precise “TS/SCI superintendent salary” is extrapolating. What the public data does support is the shape: the same occupation pays about 10% more inside nonresidential building construction, about 25% more inside the Federal Executive Branch, and about 13% more in the Washington metro ($129,650 against $114,990). Stack those and a 10–25% clearance-related premium is well within what BLS itself shows — which is why the commonly quoted “10 to 20%” rule of thumb holds up better than most recruiting folklore. 04 — Cost driversWhat actually drives the premiumThe premium is not paid for the clearance certificate. It is paid for schedule certainty, a legally restricted labour pool and a stack of certifications that take months to assemble. Six drivers, each with the public evidence behind it.+10% to +25%Federal and cleared contract workBLS OEWS May 2025: construction managers median $126,690 in nonresidential building construction and $144,040 in the Federal Executive Branch, against $114,990 nationally.~+$30KPolygraph on top of the clearanceClearanceJobs’ 2026 report puts Lifestyle or Full Scope poly holders at $149,875 average total compensation, described as nearly $30,000 above cleared professionals without a poly.40–60 daysInvestigation lead time creates scarcityTrusted Workforce 2.0 QPR, FY26-Q3: fastest 90% of moderate-risk investigations took 40 days and high-risk 60 days. An already-cleared candidate is a schedule asset, and priced like one.2 daysReciprocity rewards the already-clearedThe FY26-Q3 QPR reports DCSA averaging two days to accept a previously vetted individual under Transfer of Trust within the Department of War — still the sharpest reason cleared candidates command a premium over clearable ones.5-year certCQM-C and the certification stackUFGS Section 01 45 00.00 10 (Army) and 01 45 00.00 20 (Navy) require QC managers and alternates on USACE and NAVFAC work to hold CQM-C: a two-day Construction Quality Management for Contractors course, certificate valid five years, layered on EM 385-1-1 safety duties.+13%Location: ITAR rules and cleared metrosITAR limits controlled data to U.S. persons per 22 CFR 120.62, and ICD 705 governs SCIF work. BLS puts the Washington-metro CM median at $129,650 against $114,990 nationally.Read together, the drivers explain why two identically qualified construction managers can sit $40,000 apart. One can start Monday on a closed site; the other cannot start until an investigation that takes 40 to 60 days for the fastest 90% of cases has run its course. On a programme with liquidated damages, that gap is worth more than the salary difference. 05 — VariationMarket by market: where cleared construction pay actually landsClearance premiums do not float free of local wage levels. The BLS metro medians below are all-industry figures for construction managers — the cleared work sits above them, but the base level explains why the same clearance is worth a very different number in Huntsville than in Northern Virginia.DC metro (NoVA, Suburban Maryland)$129,650 – $207,160BLS OEWS: median to 90th percentile for 11-9021, on 6,630 jobs. ClearanceJobs 2026 puts Virginia at $138,748 and Maryland at $139,303 in cleared total comp.Huntsville, AL (Redstone Arsenal)$96,030 – $157,270BLS OEWS median $96,030 and 90th percentile $157,270 on only 770 construction manager jobs — a thin market where the cleared premium bites hardest.San Antonio, TX (JBSA, 16th Air Force)$98,450 – $157,450BLS OEWS median $98,450, 75th percentile $125,710, 90th percentile $157,450 across 4,680 jobs — deep commercial bench, shallow cleared bench.Colorado Springs, CO (Space Force)$112,390 – $171,040BLS OEWS median $112,390 and 90th percentile $171,040 on 1,210 jobs; ClearanceJobs 2026 reports Colorado cleared total comp averaging $138,256.Norfolk / Hampton Roads, VA (NAVFAC)$105,240 – $161,840BLS OEWS median $105,240, 75th percentile $145,010, 90th percentile $161,840 — a NAVFAC-heavy market where CQM-C is effectively table stakes.The spread between markets is larger than the clearance premium itself: a Washington-metro median of $129,650 sits 35% above Huntsville’s $96,030 for the same BLS occupation. Employers relocating cleared leadership into thin markets like Huntsville or Colorado Springs are effectively bidding against a national number, not a local one — which is why relocation and retention packages, not base pay alone, decide these offers. 06 — TrendClearance timelines are the real constraintThe Trusted Workforce 2.0 Quarterly Progress Report for FY2026-Q3 shows background investigation timeliness for the fastest 90% of cases at 60 days for high-risk cases, which include Top Secret, and 40 days for moderate-risk cases, which include Secret — down from 109 and 59 days in FY26-Q1. FY26 targets were tightened from 80 to 60 days for high risk and 40 to 20 days for moderate risk. DCSA’s pending investigative inventory, however, has climbed from a low of about 98,000 in January 2026 to over 152,000 in FY26-Q3, driven by continuous-vetting issue resolution and a surge in agency requests — the leading indicator that timelines may slip again.End to end is the number that hits a schedule, and it is materially worse than the investigation phase alone. Government data for FY2025-Q4 puts end-to-end processing at about 220 days for high-risk positions against a 75-day target and 109 days for moderate-risk against a 40-day target, with roughly three-quarters of the high-risk total sitting in the investigation itself. Investigation-stage times have improved sharply since, to 60 days for high risk and 40 days for moderate risk by FY2026-Q3. Treat the end-to-end figures directionally: the PAC notes this data is manually collected, lags a quarter behind the report, and will be replaced by a 100%-of-cases measure later in FY2026.Two mechanisms take pressure off. Preliminary determinations let roughly 80% of vetted workers onboard before final adjudication — the FY26-Q3 QPR reports 30 agencies now able to report this data, up from two in FY2024, with preliminary determination volumes at record highs. And reciprocity remains fast: the QPR reports DCSA averaging two days to accept a previously vetted individual under Transfer of Trust. For a contractor staffing a cleared jobsite, that is the whole argument for hiring someone who already holds the clearance. 07 — WorkforceThe workforce angle: who can actually badge onto these sitesThe eligible pool is narrowed three times over. First by trade competence: BLS counts 380,360 construction managers nationally, but only a fraction have delivered federal work. Second by certification — UFGS Section 01 45 00 requires a CQM-C certified QC manager and alternate on USACE and NAVFAC contracts, EM 385-1-1 adds site safety and health officer duties, and both take weeks to arrange. Third by law and clearance: ITAR limits controlled technical data to U.S. persons under 22 CFR 120.62, NISPOM at 32 CFR Part 117 governs contractor security programmes, and ICD 705 governs SCIF construction security. In thin markets the arithmetic is brutal: Huntsville shows 770 construction manager jobs in total and 190 building inspector jobs, before any clearance filter is applied.That is why iRecruit is building its candidate network in cleared and ITAR-controlled construction ahead of demand rather than after an award lands — mapping project managers, superintendents and quality managers by clearance status and eligibility, CQM-C and EM 385-1-1 currency, and the federal programme types they have actually delivered, so a contractor entering a MILCON or NAVFAC market is not starting from zero against a 40-to-60-day investigation clock. We screen and shortlist against those criteria; every figure on this page is public market data, not our own placement record.For the hiring side of this market, see the Aerospace & Defense Manufacturing practice. 08 — FAQFrequently asked questions How much does a cleared construction project manager make in 2026?+Public data brackets it. BLS OEWS put the national construction manager median at $114,990 for May 2025, rising to $144,040 inside the Federal Executive Branch and $129,650 in the Washington metro, where the 90th percentile reaches $207,160. Cleared federal PM roles realistically sit in the $130,000–$180,000 range depending on market and programme.How much does a security clearance add to construction pay?+The commonly quoted 10–20% premium is consistent with the public evidence. BLS shows the same occupation paying about 10% more in nonresidential building construction and about 25% more in the Federal Executive Branch, and ClearanceJobs’ 2026 report puts polygraph holders at $149,875 — nearly $30,000 above cleared peers without a poly.How long does it take to get a Secret or Top Secret clearance?+The Trusted Workforce 2.0 Quarterly Progress Report for FY2026-Q3 reports the fastest 90% of moderate-risk (Secret) investigations at 40 days and high-risk (Top Secret) at 60 days, down from 59 and 109 days in FY26-Q1. End to end, including initiation and adjudication, government data still runs far longer — roughly 109 days moderate risk and 220 days high risk in FY2025-Q4 — against PAC targets of 40 and 75 days.Is CQM-C certification required on federal construction projects?+Yes, in practice. UFGS Section 01 45 00 requires the contractor’s quality control manager and alternate on USACE and NAVFAC projects to hold the Construction Quality Management for Contractors certificate — a two-day course, valid five years, and accepted for both Army and Navy work.Do all construction workers on an ITAR site need a clearance?+No. A clearance and ITAR eligibility are different things: ITAR restricts access to controlled technical data to U.S. persons as defined at 22 CFR 120.62, which is a citizenship and immigration-status test, not a clearance. Clearances are required where the work touches classified information or classified spaces — SCIF construction under ICD 705 being the common case in construction. Cleared construction talentWe’re building a cleared construction network ahead of demand. Cleared and clearable PMs, superintendents and CQM-C quality managers — screened and mapped before your next USACE or NAVFAC award lands.Scope a search →Candidates — register with us →
