You spent years staring at imagery. Full motion video. Satellite passes. UAV feeds. You called out vehicles, dug into change detection, and built target folders. Now you want a civilian paycheck for that work. The problem? Most resume advice for intel vets is written for 35F all-source analysts. 35G imagery analysts get an afterthought paragraph. The skills overlap, but the jobs you should target do not.

35G is the most undersold MOS in the Army intel branch. You hold a TS/SCI. You know ArcGIS, SOCET GXP, RemoteView, or ENVI. You read motion imagery for a living. That mix is rare on the open market. Most people with a GIS degree have never touched classified systems. Most people with a clearance have never run a real exploitation problem.

This guide walks through what 35G pays in the civilian world. It covers GS series, OPSEC-safe resume translation, and which certs actually move salary. I have not worked at NGA. I have helped enough GEOINT vets rewrite resumes to know what lands and what gets scrolled past.

What does a 35G actually do that civilians pay for?

35G is the Army's Geospatial Intelligence Imagery Analyst. The work breaks down into a few core lanes. You exploit imagery from satellites, manned aircraft, and UAVs. You write IPIRs and other intelligence products. You support targeting cells, ISR collection planning, and battle damage assessment. You build geospatial products in ArcGIS or similar tools.

Civilians do not call any of this GEOINT. They call it imagery analysis, GIS analysis, remote sensing, or geospatial analytics. Same work. Different words. The pay scale changes a lot based on which lane you target.

For a wider look at how the whole 35-series translates, the 35-series civilian careers guide covers the umbrella. The 35F sibling lives in the 35F all-source resume guide. 35G needs its own playbook. The tooling and target employers are not the same.

Can a 35G get hired at NGA?

Yes. The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency is the federal home for GEOINT work. It is a Department of Defense combat support agency and a member of the Intelligence Community. NGA hires GEOINT analysts as DoD civilians. The big sites are Springfield, Virginia and St. Louis, Missouri.

NGA posts most of its jobs on USAJOBS. Some roles also show up on the NGA careers site. You will see job titles like Geospatial Analyst, Imagery Analyst, and Geographer. Most analyst roles sit in the GG pay band under the Defense Civilian Intelligence Personnel System (DCIPS). GG grade numbers like GG-9, GG-11, GG-13 map to GS equivalents for reference. NGA pay is performance-based, not the step-based GS schedule.

Your 35G time counts as direct experience. You do not have to start over. A 35G with four to eight years of work and a TS/SCI lines up well with mid-grade roles. NGA also runs Pathways internships and recent graduate programs if you have a degree in progress.

Apply early. Federal hiring for cleared roles can run six to nine months. Start applying before you even hit terminal leave.

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Which GS series should 35G veterans target?

Most 35G vets only see one or two federal job series. There are more. I changed federal career fields six times after the Navy. Environmental Management. Supply. Logistics. Property Management. Engineering. Contracting. Each move taught me something the last one didn't. The federal system rewards people who can translate one skill into the next.

For a 35G, the strong GS targets break into three lanes.

For the deep dive on the most common one, read the GS-0132 federal resume guide. It covers the OPM qualification standards and how to write the duty statements. Also check the MOS to GS series crosswalk if you want to see how other Army intel jobs map.

What defense contractors hire cleared GEOINT analysts?

This is where most 35G vets land first. The defense contracting side pays more than federal civilian at the same grade. The trade-off is less stability and more billable-hour pressure.

The big players are Leidos, BAE Systems, Vantor (the rebranded name for Maxar Intelligence), Booz Allen Hamilton, RTX, and Lockheed Martin. Smaller shops include CACI, ManTech, Parsons, and SAIC. Vantor is worth a closer look. They own the commercial satellites that feed a lot of the unclassified imagery work, including WorldView-1 through WorldView-3, GeoEye-1, and the WorldView Legion constellation. They hire GEOINT vets for both cleared and commercial sides.

Contracting pay for a TS/SCI cleared imagery analyst in the DC, Virginia, or St. Louis areas usually lands in the cleared-market band. Salaries scale with years of experience and program complexity. For a sense of what the clearance itself adds, read how much a TS clearance is worth in salary.

The senior-level contractor track is also worth knowing about. Senior veterans with active clearance can step right into program lead roles that pay six figures.

What about commercial GIS jobs outside the cleared world?

If you are done with the cleared world, GIS has a huge open market. State Departments of Transportation hire GIS analysts for road and infrastructure mapping. Counties hire them for parcels, zoning, and emergency services. Utilities hire them for asset management. Environmental consulting firms hire them for site assessments. Real estate analytics firms, agriculture companies, and even logistics companies use GIS.

The pay is lower than the cleared track but the work is steadier and the culture is different. You will not need to live near a SCIF. You can work remote in some commercial GIS roles. ArcGIS Pro is the dominant tool, with QGIS being the open-source competitor.

One thing to know. Commercial GIS shops do not care about your clearance. They care about whether you can run a geoprocessing workflow, build a story map, and write Python in ArcGIS. Strip the cleared resume bullets out for these jobs and lead with the tools.

Should I pivot 35G into data analytics instead?

This is a real option and a lot of GEOINT vets take it. Spatial data is just data. The skills you used for change detection translate to general data analysis. SQL, Python, and Tableau are the three tools you would add.

The data analytics path widens your job market by a factor of ten. Every industry hires data analysts. The pay is comparable to commercial GIS and better than entry-level federal in many markets. Read the military intel to data analytics pivot guide for the full playbook.

How do I list classified GEOINT work on a resume?

This is the question every 35G hits. You did real work. You cannot describe most of it. The rule is simple. You can talk about your tools, your tradecraft, your role, and your unit, all at the unclassified level. You cannot name targets, locations, sources, methods, or numbers tied to a specific mission.

A safe bullet looks like this. "Produced 200+ first-phase imagery exploitation reports using SOCET GXP and ArcGIS in support of joint operations." That tells the hiring manager you can do the work, at scale, with the tools they use. It does not say where, when, or for whom.

An unsafe bullet names a country, a unit you supported, a platform, or a number tied to a specific event. Always run the resume by your security office before posting it publicly. The full ruleset is in the security clearance resume phrasing guide. The TS/SCI listing rules guide covers how to format the clearance line at the top.

What GIS certifications are worth the money?

Three certifications matter for 35G vets. The rest are noise.

The Esri certifications are the most useful. Esri runs the tooling most GIS shops use. Certifications are offered at four levels — Foundation, Associate, Professional, and Specialty — across core products (ArcGIS Pro, ArcGIS Enterprise, ArcGIS Online) and function-specific paths (Developer, Utility Network). Pick the path closest to your target job. Most exams run one hundred fifty to two hundred fifty dollars depending on level. Check esri.com/training for the current exam catalog and pricing before you register.

The GISP from GISCI is a broader credential. It needs work experience, education, and contributions to the profession. It is more recognized in state and county GIS shops. It is less critical if you target NGA or contractors.

The USGIF GEOINT Professional Certification was the credential made for this community. USGIF stands for the United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation. They voluntarily suspended the full three-tier program (CGP-G, CGP-R, CGP-D) effective February 1, 2021, citing low demand. As of 2024, the program remains suspended. The program may return. Check usgif.org for current status before pursuing it. If you already hold a CGP credential, it stays valid.

Can I get a GIS job without a degree as a 35G veteran?

Yes, but it depends on which lane you target. Commercial GIS shops weigh tools and portfolio over degrees. Show a GitHub repo with ArcGIS Pro projects, story maps, and a few Python scripts. That portfolio competes with degree holders.

NGA and most GS-0132 or GS-1370 federal jobs need a degree or significant coursework in a geospatial field. For GS-1370 specifically, OPM requires at least 30 semester hours in cartography and related sciences. GS-0150 Geography sets a similar 24-hour threshold. Read the OPM qualification standards for the exact number per series. No degree? Use your GI Bill on a fast GIS certificate or online geospatial program.

If you target defense contractors, education matters less than clearance and experience. A 35G with eight years of work and a TS/SCI without a degree still gets contractor offers.

How do I actually write the resume?

Two pages max. Federal or private sector. The 4-6 page myth is dead. OPM changed the rules. Federal resumes still need more detail than civilian, with hours per week and supervisor info. The page count is the same.

Lead with the clearance line at the top under your name. "TS/SCI with CI Poly (Active, Expires 2027)." This is what hiring managers and recruiters scan for in the six seconds they spend on each resume.

Your skills section needs tool names. ArcGIS Pro. SOCET GXP. RemoteView. ENVI. Python. SQL. Tableau. Recruiters search resumes by tool name. If your tool list is not there, you sink to the bottom of the rack.

Your work history needs translated bullets. Use the safe phrasing above. Keep numbers where you can. Volume is fine. "Produced 200 reports per month" is not classified. "Produced 200 reports per month on emergent threats in Region X" is.

BMR's resume builder handles the translation step automatically if you paste your work in. It is built by veterans who have sat on both sides of federal hiring. The free tier covers two tailored resumes and two cover letters. That is enough to apply to your top targets without paying.

What's the difference between 35F and 35G on the civilian side?

35F is all-source. They write the assessment that brings imagery, signals, human intel, and open source together. They translate well into intel analyst jobs, threat intelligence, and competitive intelligence roles. They are valued for the synthesis skill.

35G is imagery and geospatial. They are valued for the tool stack and the spatial analysis. They translate well into GIS, remote sensing, and any role that needs maps, sensors, or change detection.

The pay overlap is real but the job pools are different. A 35F looking for an analyst role at a bank doing fraud work has a path. A 35G looking for that same job needs to retool. A 35G hunting a GIS role at a utility has a path. A 35F would need to learn the spatial side first.

The clearance is the same. The hiring market is not. Pick the lane that matches your actual work, not the one that sounds better on LinkedIn.

What to do next

If you are still in the Army, start now. The federal hiring clock is long. Pull a USAJOBS account. Set up alerts for GS-0132, GS-1370, and GS-0150 in your target city. Build a base resume that does not break OPSEC. Knock out one Esri ArcGIS Pro cert before you separate.

If you are already out, do three things this week. Get your clearance status confirmed in writing. Apply to one NGA posting, one contractor posting, and one commercial GIS posting. Watch which one gets the first callback. That tells you which lane the market is paying for right now.

And get your resume in front of someone who has seen federal hiring from the inside. The translation step is what separates 35Gs who get callbacks from 35Gs who keep waiting. The clearance is the ticket. The resume is what gets read.