RedstoneArsenalJobs.com — Defense Career Intelligence
Huntsville Defense Salary Benchmarks · H1 2026
Defense Career Intelligence Report
Huntsville Defense Salary Benchmarks · H1 2026
Median cleared defense pay in the Huntsville corridor, sourced from 1,000 live active job listings across 15+ Huntsville defense contractors. Updated 10/16/2026.
Listings analyzed
1,000
With disclosed salary
29%
Contractors covered
15+
Role categories
20
Salary by Clearance Level
| Clearance | Open positions | Median min | Median max | Median midpoint |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TS/SCI | 29 | $154K | $278K | $216K |
| Top Secret | 26 | $62K | $121K | $92K |
| Secret | 370 | $78K | $126K | $101K |
| Public Trust | 36 | $77K | $121K | $99K |
| No Clearance | 539 | $52K | $94K | $71K |
Salary by Role Category
Job titles are classified into role categories by keyword matching. Sorted by number of active openings.
| Role | Openings | Median min | Median max | Midpoint |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Other | 281 | $42K | $83K | $67K |
| Engineer (general) | 236 | $61K | $172K | $113K |
| Software Engineer / Developer | 83 | $108K | $175K | $151K |
| Data / Business Analyst | 76 | $66K | $121K | $92K |
| Specialist / Coordinator | 68 | $90K | $121K | $107K |
| Test / QA | 43 | $51K | $93K | $72K |
| Technician / Operator | 41 | $40K | $63K | $54K |
| Principal / Architect | 41 | $143K | $230K | $200K |
| Systems Engineer | 40 | $110K | $195K | $151K |
| Program / Project Manager | 26 | $116K | $210K | $163K |
| Cybersecurity Engineer | 18 | $62K | $121K | $92K |
| Director / VP | 13 | — | — | — |
| Data Scientist / ML Engineer | 8 | $115K | $145K | $130K |
| DevOps / Cloud Engineer | 6 | $108K | $195K | $151K |
| Logistics / Supply Chain | 5 | $111K | $158K | $135K |
| Contracts / Acquisition | 4 | — | — | — |
| Finance / Accounting | 4 | $90K | $133K | $111K |
| Network / Sysadmin | 3 | — | — | — |
| Sales / Business Development | 2 | $36K | $45K | $40K |
| Recruiting / HR | 2 | $148K | $197K | $173K |
Top-Paying Role Categories
Role categories with median midpoint salary, minimum 3 listings to qualify.
| Role | Median midpoint | Openings |
|---|---|---|
| Principal / Architect | $200K | 41 |
| Program / Project Manager | $163K | 26 |
| Software Engineer / Developer | $151K | 83 |
| Systems Engineer | $151K | 40 |
| DevOps / Cloud Engineer | $151K | 6 |
| Logistics / Supply Chain | $135K | 5 |
| Data Scientist / ML Engineer | $130K | 8 |
| Engineer (general) | $113K | 236 |
| Finance / Accounting | $111K | 4 |
| Specialist / Coordinator | $107K | 68 |
Top Hiring Contractors
Ranked by number of currently-active job listings on the RedstoneArsenalJobs.com marketplace.
| Contractor | Open listings | Median midpoint salary |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Leidos | 555 | $122K |
| 2. SAIC | 97 | — |
| 3. United States Army Installation Management Command | 87 | $45K |
| 4. CFD Research | 77 | — |
| 5. USAJOBS | 27 | $113K |
| 6. QuantiTech (Astrion) | 19 | — |
| 7. Radiance Technologies | 17 | — |
| 8. Federal Aviation Administration | 13 | $112K |
| 9. Internal Revenue Service | 12 | $152K |
| 10. Intuitive Research and Technology | 11 | — |
| 11. Boeing | 10 | $153K |
| 12. Deputy Assistant Secretary for Information and Technology | 8 | $103K |
| 13. Air Force Civilian Career Training | 7 | $92K |
| 14. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers | 6 | $107K |
| 15. Warfighting Acquisition University | 5 | $46K |
On-Site vs Hybrid vs Remote
| Work model | Open listings | Median midpoint |
|---|---|---|
| On-site | 942 | $84K |
| Hybrid | 55 | $127K |
| Remote | 3 | $153K |
Methodology & Caveats
Source data: Every active, non-expired job listing in the RedstoneArsenalJobs.com marketplace as of 10/16/2026. 1,000 listings analyzed; 292 (29%) included a salary range.
Salary calculations: All salary figures are medians, not means, to reduce sensitivity to executive outliers. Midpoint is the midpoint between min and max for each individual listing, then medianed across listings.
Role categories: Job titles are classified by keyword matching. A "Systems Engineer" requisition lands in the Systems Engineer bucket; "Principal Systems Engineer" lands in Principal / Architect. Multi-keyword titles are matched against the most-specific pattern first.
What this report does not include: bonuses, equity, sign-on payments, security clearance premiums on top of base, contractor billing rates, or roles where the employer elected not to disclose a range. Federal civilian GS-scale roles included where the listing surfaced a salary band; many federal listings show "Salary commensurate with experience" and were excluded from medians.
Sample-size warnings: Role categories with fewer than 10 listings should be interpreted as directional, not precise. Categories under 3 listings are excluded from the "Top-Paying Roles" table by design.
Geographic scope: Listings in the marketplace are filtered for the Huntsville defense corridor, with primary workplaces at Redstone Arsenal, Cummings Research Park, Memorial Parkway, and adjacent Madison / Limestone / Morgan County employment hubs.
Use of this report: Citation as "RedstoneArsenalJobs.com Huntsville Defense Salary Benchmarks H1 2026" is welcome. Raw data spreadsheet available on request via support@redstonearsenaljobs.com.