What a Defense Contractor Actually Pays a Former Army 94E — and What the Clearance Is Worth on the Open Market

What a Defense Contractor Actually Pays a Former Army 94E, and What the Clearance Is Worth on the Open Market

Most Army 94Es leaving active duty know they have something valuable. They've spent years maintaining and troubleshooting SINCGARS radios, Harris AN/PRC-117 and AN/PRC-152 manpack systems, COMSEC fill devices, and the full stack of fielded C4ISR equipment that keeps tactical networks alive in the field. They also hold an active DoD Secret clearance that took months and a full background investigation to obtain.

What most 94Es don't know is the exact dollar value contractors attach to those two assets, or which job titles and hiring tiers actually match their skill level. That gap costs money. Veterans who don't understand the compensation structure apply for roles one level below where they belong, accept offers without negotiating, or take civilian IT help-desk jobs that have nothing to do with the hardware they actually know.

This article builds the salary case from the ground up: what the clearance is worth in isolation, which 94E competencies map directly to the highest-demand contractor roles, and what a realistic first-year total compensation package looks like at a tier-one defense contractor.

The Clearance Premium Is Real and It's Quantifiable

The Bureau of Labor Statistics doesn't publish a clearance-specific wage series, but the cleared industry does track this. ClearanceJobs' annual compensation survey and CACI's internal benchmarking data, both widely cited in the cleared staffing industry, consistently show that holding an active Secret clearance adds $15,000 to $25,000 annually over an uncleared candidate in the same functional role. For Top Secret/SCI, the premium is higher, but Secret is the relevant baseline for most 94E leavers.

That premium exists because clearances are expensive to sponsor and slow to obtain. The current national backlog means a contractor hiring an uncleared engineer and sponsoring them from scratch waits 12 to 18 months before that person can sit on a classified program. An active-duty 94E walking in with a current, adjudicated Secret eliminates that cost and that wait entirely. Contractors price that directly into offers.

The critical caveat: clearances are not a permanent asset. An inactive clearance begins to lose adjudicative currency after 24 months and formally lapses for reinvestigation purposes after two years for Secret (five years for TS). If you separate and spend 30 months in an uncleared role before pursuing defense work, you're not starting over entirely, but you are looking at a new NACLC investigation and a reinvestigation timeline that can run six to twelve months. The clearance premium belongs to veterans who convert it quickly, not to anyone who once held one.

What 94E Skills Actually Map To in the Contractor World

The 94E MOS is frequently misread by civilian recruiters who conflate it with 25U (Signal Support Systems Specialist) or 25B (IT Specialist). The distinction matters operationally and commercially. 25U soldiers configure and operate communications networks. 25Bs work on Army information systems at the software and network layer. 94Es repair the physical hardware: radio frequency systems, encryption devices, power amplifiers, antenna systems, and the test equipment used to diagnose them. That's a bench-technician and field-maintenance competency, and it maps to a specific family of contractor job titles that pay well and are chronically understaffed.

The systems you've worked on have direct contractor analogs:

  • **SINCGARS (AN/VRC-90 series):** Still in the force in large numbers. L3Harris, which manufactures the platform, maintains a standing need for Field Service Representatives who can support depot-level maintenance and unit-level training.
  • **Harris AN/PRC-117G, AN/PRC-152A:** Wideband and narrowband tactical radios widely used across Army, Marine Corps, and SOCOM. Harris' parent company, L3Harris, and integrators like SAIC and Engility (now SAIC) post FSR roles specifically listing these systems.
  • **COMSEC fill devices (KYK-13, AN/CYZ-10, SKL):** Experience with Communications Security equipment is a distinct qualification. Roles touching COMSEC infrastructure often require not just a Secret clearance but COMSEC custodian familiarity, which 94Es have by default.
  • **C4ISR integration systems:** Roles at Raytheon Intelligence and Space, Northrop Grumman Mission Systems, and Leidos reference "C4ISR maintenance technician" or "communications systems technician" for exactly this hardware profile.

When you're reading job postings, look for titles that include: Field Service Representative (FSR), Communications Systems Technician, C4ISR Maintenance Technician, RF Systems Technician, and Electronic Systems Technician. Those are the roles built for 94E experience. "Network Administrator" and "Systems Administrator" are not, regardless of what a recruiter tells you.

The Salary Bands, Tier by Tier

Here's what the market actually pays across experience levels, based on contractor salary data from defense-sector job postings, Glassdoor employer-reported ranges, and ClearanceJobs compensation surveys. These are total base salary ranges for cleared, technically qualified candidates. Location matters; northern Virginia, Huntsville AL, and San Diego will track toward the top of each band. Rural OCONUS or CONUS installation-support roles may track lower.

**Junior FSR or Communications Systems Technician (0-3 years post-service experience, E-5 to E-6 separation):** $68,000 to $82,000 base. This is the entry point for someone with a four-year active duty contract and solid 94E competency. The floor here already reflects the clearance premium; an uncleared electronics technician at the same experience level typically earns $50,000 to $62,000.

**Mid-Level C4ISR Maintenance Technician or Senior FSR (4-8 years equivalent experience, E-6 to E-7 separation or 2-3 years post-service contractor experience):** $85,000 to $100,000 base. At this level, contractors expect you to work with minimal supervision, interface directly with military unit customers, write technical reports, and potentially supervise junior technicians on a maintenance team.

**Senior Communications Systems Technician or Lead FSR (8+ years equivalent experience, senior NCO separation, or demonstrated OCONUS/deployed contract experience):** $100,000 to $125,000 base. Some senior FSR roles supporting special operations or critical C4ISR programs exceed this range. Senior roles at primes like Raytheon or Northrop Grumman also carry meaningful benefits packages and equity or profit-sharing components that add $10,000 to $20,000 in total compensation value.

Travel matters here. FSR roles frequently include a travel differential or per diem structure that can add $15,000 to $30,000 annually in non-taxable allowances for roles requiring extended site work or OCONUS deployment. That's real compensation that won't appear in the base salary line.

Translating Your Leave-and-Earnings Statement Into a Negotiation Tool

One of the most consistent errors veterans make in salary negotiation is quoting their base military pay when a recruiter asks about compensation history. A Staff Sergeant (E-6) with over six years separating in 2024 earns roughly $38,000 in base pay, which sounds low against a $90,000 contractor offer. But that number excludes Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH), Basic Allowance for Subsistence (BAS), tax-exempt status on allowances in certain assignments, healthcare with no premium, and the pension accrual value of time in service.

The actual all-in compensation value for that same E-6 in a CONUS duty station with dependents is closer to $75,000 to $85,000 in equivalent civilian compensation, once you price in the healthcare premium difference ($7,000 to $15,000 annually for comparable civilian coverage), the BAH and BAS allowances, and the retirement contribution equivalent.

When a recruiter asks what you were making, walk them through the DFAS Leave-and-Earnings Statement in full. "My base was $38,000, but my total compensation package including housing allowance, subsistence, and tax-advantaged benefits was equivalent to approximately $80,000 in civilian terms" is a legitimate and defensible answer. It also anchors the negotiation correctly, so you're not accepting a $72,000 offer thinking it's a raise when it's effectively a pay cut.

The Service Contract Act Wrinkle

Not all cleared defense contractor jobs are priced equally, and the reason is often the Service Contract Act. The SCA is federal labor law that sets minimum wage determinations for contractors performing services on government contracts. If a role is SCA-covered, meaning it sits on a specific government task order and is classified under an SCA wage determination, the contractor is bound by that wage floor rather than market rates.

In practice, this means a field technician role at a small cleared integrator supporting an Army installation in a lower-cost-of-living area might pay $58,000 under an SCA wage determination even though the equivalent role at a prime contractor corporate headquarters pays $82,000. Both postings might use identical job titles.

You can check whether a role is sitting on an active task order by searching USASpending.gov for the contractor's awards. Search the company name, filter by the relevant agency (Army, DLA, DISA), and look at active contracts in the relevant performance period. If the position description mentions a specific installation, program office, or contract vehicle number, it's almost certainly SCA-covered. That's not necessarily a reason to decline; SCA wages are floors, and good employers pay above them. But it's context you need before you negotiate.

Large Primes vs. Cleared Integrators: Not the Same Offer

Raytheon, L3Harris, SAIC, Northrop Grumman, Leidos, and Booz Allen Hamilton are not equivalent employers, and neither is every cleared integrator that posts on ClearanceJobs. The large primes offer better total compensation packages, more structured career progression, tuition assistance (relevant if you're pursuing an associate's or bachelor's in electronics technology), and more robust internal mobility. The tradeoff is that hiring moves slowly, clearance verification takes time even for already-cleared candidates, and the roles are often narrowly scoped.

Smaller cleared integrators, companies with 200 to 1,000 employees that hold a handful of government contracts, move faster and sometimes pay competitive base salaries on specific programs. The risk is program dependency: if the contract doesn't renew, the role disappears. Ask during interviews which contract vehicle the role sits on and what the recompete timeline looks like. A role funded through 2027 under a five-year IDIQ is more stable than one on a one-year task order.

For a first defense contractor role, a mid-size integrator with a good contract history can be a faster on-ramp than a prime. Once you have 18 to 24 months of contractor experience on your resume alongside your 94E background, you're a more competitive candidate for the primes and the compensation ceiling moves up.

The First-Year Package, Assembled

To make this concrete: a 94E separating as an E-6 with six years of service, active Secret clearance, and SINCGARS and AN/PRC-117 experience should realistically target a mid-level FSR or C4ISR technician role in the $85,000 to $95,000 base range. Add employer-covered healthcare (price this at $8,000 to $12,000 in equivalent value), a 401(k) match at 4 to 6 percent of salary, and any applicable travel differential, and the total first-year compensation value sits between $100,000 and $115,000.

That's not a ceiling; it's an entry point. Senior FSR roles with OCONUS support requirements or cleared program work in C4ISR sustainment regularly pay $115,000 to $130,000 in total compensation within three years for someone who performs.

The 94E community undersells itself because the MOS title, "Radio and Communications Security Repairer," sounds narrow. In the contractor world, the systems on your maintenance records are exactly what program managers need to keep fielded equipment running. The clearance makes you hireable on day one. The hardware experience makes you useful on day two. Price accordingly.

---

See which cleared defense employers are actively hiring veterans with your communications background, from L3Harris FSR roles to C4ISR technician positions at major primes and integrators. Explore open roles on Redeployable.

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What a Defense Contractor Actually Pays a Former Army 94E, and What the Clearance Is Worth on the Open Market

Most Army 94Es leaving active duty know they have something valuable. They've spent years maintaining and troubleshooting SINCGARS radios, Harris AN/PRC-117 and AN/PRC-152 manpack systems, COMSEC fill devices, and the full stack of fielded C4ISR equipment that keeps tactical networks alive in the field. They also hold an active DoD Secret clearance that took months and a full background investigation to obtain.

What most 94Es don't know is the exact dollar value contractors attach to those two assets, or which job titles and hiring tiers actually match their skill level. That gap costs money. Veterans who don't understand the compensation structure apply for roles one level below where they belong, accept offers without negotiating, or take civilian IT help-desk jobs that have nothing to do with the hardware they actually know.

This article builds the salary case from the ground up: what the clearance is worth in isolation, which 94E competencies map directly to the highest-demand contractor roles, and what a realistic first-year total compensation package looks like at a tier-one defense contractor.

The Clearance Premium Is Real and It's Quantifiable

The Bureau of Labor Statistics doesn't publish a clearance-specific wage series, but the cleared industry does track this. ClearanceJobs' annual compensation survey and CACI's internal benchmarking data, both widely cited in the cleared staffing industry, consistently show that holding an active Secret clearance adds $15,000 to $25,000 annually over an uncleared candidate in the same functional role. For Top Secret/SCI, the premium is higher, but Secret is the relevant baseline for most 94E leavers.

That premium exists because clearances are expensive to sponsor and slow to obtain. The current national backlog means a contractor hiring an uncleared engineer and sponsoring them from scratch waits 12 to 18 months before that person can sit on a classified program. An active-duty 94E walking in with a current, adjudicated Secret eliminates that cost and that wait entirely. Contractors price that directly into offers.

The critical caveat: clearances are not a permanent asset. An inactive clearance begins to lose adjudicative currency after 24 months and formally lapses for reinvestigation purposes after two years for Secret (five years for TS). If you separate and spend 30 months in an uncleared role before pursuing defense work, you're not starting over entirely, but you are looking at a new NACLC investigation and a reinvestigation timeline that can run six to twelve months. The clearance premium belongs to veterans who convert it quickly, not to anyone who once held one.

What 94E Skills Actually Map To in the Contractor World

The 94E MOS is frequently misread by civilian recruiters who conflate it with 25U (Signal Support Systems Specialist) or 25B (IT Specialist). The distinction matters operationally and commercially. 25U soldiers configure and operate communications networks. 25Bs work on Army information systems at the software and network layer. 94Es repair the physical hardware: radio frequency systems, encryption devices, power amplifiers, antenna systems, and the test equipment used to diagnose them. That's a bench-technician and field-maintenance competency, and it maps to a specific family of contractor job titles that pay well and are chronically understaffed.

The systems you've worked on have direct contractor analogs:

  • **SINCGARS (AN/VRC-90 series):** Still in the force in large numbers. L3Harris, which manufactures the platform, maintains a standing need for Field Service Representatives who can support depot-level maintenance and unit-level training.
  • **Harris AN/PRC-117G, AN/PRC-152A:** Wideband and narrowband tactical radios widely used across Army, Marine Corps, and SOCOM. Harris' parent company, L3Harris, and integrators like SAIC and Engility (now SAIC) post FSR roles specifically listing these systems.
  • **COMSEC fill devices (KYK-13, AN/CYZ-10, SKL):** Experience with Communications Security equipment is a distinct qualification. Roles touching COMSEC infrastructure often require not just a Secret clearance but COMSEC custodian familiarity, which 94Es have by default.
  • **C4ISR integration systems:** Roles at Raytheon Intelligence and Space, Northrop Grumman Mission Systems, and Leidos reference "C4ISR maintenance technician" or "communications systems technician" for exactly this hardware profile.

When you're reading job postings, look for titles that include: Field Service Representative (FSR), Communications Systems Technician, C4ISR Maintenance Technician, RF Systems Technician, and Electronic Systems Technician. Those are the roles built for 94E experience. "Network Administrator" and "Systems Administrator" are not, regardless of what a recruiter tells you.

The Salary Bands, Tier by Tier

Here's what the market actually pays across experience levels, based on contractor salary data from defense-sector job postings, Glassdoor employer-reported ranges, and ClearanceJobs compensation surveys. These are total base salary ranges for cleared, technically qualified candidates. Location matters; northern Virginia, Huntsville AL, and San Diego will track toward the top of each band. Rural OCONUS or CONUS installation-support roles may track lower.

**Junior FSR or Communications Systems Technician (0-3 years post-service experience, E-5 to E-6 separation):** $68,000 to $82,000 base. This is the entry point for someone with a four-year active duty contract and solid 94E competency. The floor here already reflects the clearance premium; an uncleared electronics technician at the same experience level typically earns $50,000 to $62,000.

**Mid-Level C4ISR Maintenance Technician or Senior FSR (4-8 years equivalent experience, E-6 to E-7 separation or 2-3 years post-service contractor experience):** $85,000 to $100,000 base. At this level, contractors expect you to work with minimal supervision, interface directly with military unit customers, write technical reports, and potentially supervise junior technicians on a maintenance team.

**Senior Communications Systems Technician or Lead FSR (8+ years equivalent experience, senior NCO separation, or demonstrated OCONUS/deployed contract experience):** $100,000 to $125,000 base. Some senior FSR roles supporting special operations or critical C4ISR programs exceed this range. Senior roles at primes like Raytheon or Northrop Grumman also carry meaningful benefits packages and equity or profit-sharing components that add $10,000 to $20,000 in total compensation value.

Travel matters here. FSR roles frequently include a travel differential or per diem structure that can add $15,000 to $30,000 annually in non-taxable allowances for roles requiring extended site work or OCONUS deployment. That's real compensation that won't appear in the base salary line.

Translating Your Leave-and-Earnings Statement Into a Negotiation Tool

One of the most consistent errors veterans make in salary negotiation is quoting their base military pay when a recruiter asks about compensation history. A Staff Sergeant (E-6) with over six years separating in 2024 earns roughly $38,000 in base pay, which sounds low against a $90,000 contractor offer. But that number excludes Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH), Basic Allowance for Subsistence (BAS), tax-exempt status on allowances in certain assignments, healthcare with no premium, and the pension accrual value of time in service.

The actual all-in compensation value for that same E-6 in a CONUS duty station with dependents is closer to $75,000 to $85,000 in equivalent civilian compensation, once you price in the healthcare premium difference ($7,000 to $15,000 annually for comparable civilian coverage), the BAH and BAS allowances, and the retirement contribution equivalent.

When a recruiter asks what you were making, walk them through the DFAS Leave-and-Earnings Statement in full. "My base was $38,000, but my total compensation package including housing allowance, subsistence, and tax-advantaged benefits was equivalent to approximately $80,000 in civilian terms" is a legitimate and defensible answer. It also anchors the negotiation correctly, so you're not accepting a $72,000 offer thinking it's a raise when it's effectively a pay cut.

The Service Contract Act Wrinkle

Not all cleared defense contractor jobs are priced equally, and the reason is often the Service Contract Act. The SCA is federal labor law that sets minimum wage determinations for contractors performing services on government contracts. If a role is SCA-covered, meaning it sits on a specific government task order and is classified under an SCA wage determination, the contractor is bound by that wage floor rather than market rates.

In practice, this means a field technician role at a small cleared integrator supporting an Army installation in a lower-cost-of-living area might pay $58,000 under an SCA wage determination even though the equivalent role at a prime contractor corporate headquarters pays $82,000. Both postings might use identical job titles.

You can check whether a role is sitting on an active task order by searching USASpending.gov for the contractor's awards. Search the company name, filter by the relevant agency (Army, DLA, DISA), and look at active contracts in the relevant performance period. If the position description mentions a specific installation, program office, or contract vehicle number, it's almost certainly SCA-covered. That's not necessarily a reason to decline; SCA wages are floors, and good employers pay above them. But it's context you need before you negotiate.

Large Primes vs. Cleared Integrators: Not the Same Offer

Raytheon, L3Harris, SAIC, Northrop Grumman, Leidos, and Booz Allen Hamilton are not equivalent employers, and neither is every cleared integrator that posts on ClearanceJobs. The large primes offer better total compensation packages, more structured career progression, tuition assistance (relevant if you're pursuing an associate's or bachelor's in electronics technology), and more robust internal mobility. The tradeoff is that hiring moves slowly, clearance verification takes time even for already-cleared candidates, and the roles are often narrowly scoped.

Smaller cleared integrators, companies with 200 to 1,000 employees that hold a handful of government contracts, move faster and sometimes pay competitive base salaries on specific programs. The risk is program dependency: if the contract doesn't renew, the role disappears. Ask during interviews which contract vehicle the role sits on and what the recompete timeline looks like. A role funded through 2027 under a five-year IDIQ is more stable than one on a one-year task order.

For a first defense contractor role, a mid-size integrator with a good contract history can be a faster on-ramp than a prime. Once you have 18 to 24 months of contractor experience on your resume alongside your 94E background, you're a more competitive candidate for the primes and the compensation ceiling moves up.

The First-Year Package, Assembled

To make this concrete: a 94E separating as an E-6 with six years of service, active Secret clearance, and SINCGARS and AN/PRC-117 experience should realistically target a mid-level FSR or C4ISR technician role in the $85,000 to $95,000 base range. Add employer-covered healthcare (price this at $8,000 to $12,000 in equivalent value), a 401(k) match at 4 to 6 percent of salary, and any applicable travel differential, and the total first-year compensation value sits between $100,000 and $115,000.

That's not a ceiling; it's an entry point. Senior FSR roles with OCONUS support requirements or cleared program work in C4ISR sustainment regularly pay $115,000 to $130,000 in total compensation within three years for someone who performs.

The 94E community undersells itself because the MOS title, "Radio and Communications Security Repairer," sounds narrow. In the contractor world, the systems on your maintenance records are exactly what program managers need to keep fielded equipment running. The clearance makes you hireable on day one. The hardware experience makes you useful on day two. Price accordingly.

---

See which cleared defense employers are actively hiring veterans with your communications background, from L3Harris FSR roles to C4ISR technician positions at major primes and integrators. Explore open roles on Redeployable.

Share this post

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