Yep, for most PWS contracts there are base personnel requirements. That being said for research the bar is pretty high, for regular industry it's pretty low: -

Yep, for most PWS contracts there are base personnel requirements. That being said for research the bar is pretty high, for regular industry it's pretty low: - experience in the field (or agency-based past performance) - clearance (usually public trust for civil, which can be as short as 1-2 week turnaround) - citizen, US based, with data centers/software inside the US There are stringent requirements for software the higher up you go (esp to DoD & then IC) but requirements most will meet and build towards while still making $$$. You don't need to have 20 TS/SCI engineers who have IAT L2 and IL6 infra with an ATO at the agency to start with (or even know what those words/acronyms mean), but a vertical in govt will naturally enable that over time.