Security clearance guide
Security clearance levels explained: Secret, Top Secret, and TS/SCI
The U.S. classification system has three levels: Confidential, Secret, and Top Secret. TS/SCI is common hiring shorthand, but SCI is controlled access—not a fourth classification level above Top Secret.
Reviewed July 13, 2026. Definitions are grounded in current U.S. government sources; Colorado job counts update from approved direct-employer listings.
The short answer
A clearance is an eligibility determination. Access still depends on the position, the information's classification, authorization, and a need to know. Read a job posting for three separate signals: the required level, whether it must already be active or may be obtainable, and whether SCI or a polygraph is also named.
Current Colorado jobs by requirement
These counts describe the site's current eligible direct-employer inventory, not every cleared position in Colorado. Obtainable timing can appear within any of the three rows.
Secret342
Employer postings that explicitly require Secret eligibility, with active-required or obtainable timing shown separately.
View current Secret jobs →Top Secret247
Roles whose source explicitly requires Top Secret rather than a broad or inferred clearance keyword.
View current Top Secret jobs →TS/SCI461
The common job-posting shorthand for Top Secret eligibility together with an SCI access requirement.
View current TS/SCI jobs →518 current listings explicitly say the required clearance may be obtainable. See those entry paths →
The three classification levels
Executive Order 13526 defines classification levels by the damage that unauthorized disclosure could reasonably cause to national security. Those labels describe information. In hiring, the same words are used to state the eligibility and access a position requires.
Confidential
Information whose unauthorized disclosure could cause damage to national security. Cleared Colorado does not create a Confidential job hub because its publication policy begins at Secret.
Secret
Information whose unauthorized disclosure could cause serious damage to national security. This is the lowest requirement included in the site's public job inventory.
Top Secret
Information whose unauthorized disclosure could cause exceptionally grave damage to national security. Top Secret is the highest of the three classification levels.
Where TS/SCI fits in the level comparison
TS means Top Secret. SCI means Sensitive Compartmented Information—classified intelligence placed within formal access-control systems. A posting that says TS/SCI is usually communicating both Top Secret eligibility and a position-specific need for SCI access.
Department of State policy illustrates the distinction: personnel requesting SCI access must first have a final Top Secret clearance, and SCI access is then approved only when their current duties require it. That is why “TS” and “TS/SCI” should not be treated as interchangeable job filters.
Top Secret
SCI access
Clearance does not equal automatic access
Eligibility alone does not authorize someone to view every document at that level. Access also follows the person's official duties, authorization, and need to know. A job seeker should therefore match the exact wording in the employer posting instead of assuming that a higher current clearance satisfies every specialized-access requirement.
The same separation matters for polygraphs. Cleared Colorado records a CI or full-scope polygraph only when the employer names it, and shows it independently from the clearance requirement. A polygraph label is not another classification level.
Compare CI and full-scope polygraph requirements →See the Department of State need-to-know rule ↗Public Trust and background checks are not clearance levels
Federal work can require identity credentials, suitability or fitness decisions, a national-security determination, or a security clearance depending on the position. OPM explicitly notes that not every federal employee has a security clearance. Public Trust language therefore should not be presented as Secret-equivalent or as a step in the Confidential–Secret–Top Secret hierarchy.
This distinction is part of Cleared Colorado's publication rule: Public Trust-only jobs are excluded, while eligible jobs must explicitly name Secret, Top Secret, or TS/SCI and state whether that requirement is active or obtainable.
Compare Public Trust, suitability, forms, and security clearances →Read OPM's official explanation ↗How to read clearance wording in a job posting
Level
Timing
Additional access
Source confirmation
USAJOBS uses separate filters for Secret, Top Secret, and Sensitive Compartmented Information, which is useful confirmation that applicants should search them as distinct requirements. Review the official USAJOBS guidance ↗
Turn the right requirement into a live search
Browse the exact clearance hub, then narrow by named Colorado workplace. If the right combination is not open today, create an accountless alert for newly eligible direct-employer listings.