How to Hire Cleared Veterans Near Fort Huachuca, AZ

Fort Huachuca sits in the high desert of southeast Arizona. It is near Sierra Vista, about 15 miles from the Mexico border. It is the Army's intelligence schoolhouse. The U.S. Army Intelligence Center of Excellence trains the soldiers who run the Army's intel mission. The Network Enterprise Technology Command runs the Army's global network from the same post.

That mix does one thing for you as an employer. It builds a dense pool of cleared intel and cyber veterans in one small corner of Arizona. All-source analysts. Signals folks. Human intelligence collectors. Geospatial imagery analysts. Cryptologic linguists. Cyber and signal soldiers. Most of them held a clearance while they served.

The catch is the market is small and remote. The talent is real, but you have to know what to look for and reach it early. This guide breaks down where that talent comes from. It shows which job codes map to your roles. And it shows how to hire near Sierra Vista or fully remote.

What makes Fort Huachuca's talent pool different?

Most base towns produce a broad mix of veterans. Fort Huachuca is more focused. The post is built around intelligence and signal. So the veterans it produces skew heavily toward those fields.

The Intelligence Center of Excellence is the Army's home for military intelligence training. It runs several MI battalions and an NCO academy on post. Soldiers cycle through to learn all-source analysis, signals intelligence, human intelligence, and geospatial work. The post also hosts the Electronic Proving Ground and the Joint Interoperability Test Command. Those add electronic warfare and network testing talent to the mix.

The signal side comes from NETCOM. It runs and defends the Army's networks worldwide. That pushes out cyber, IT, and network defenders. Add it all up and you get a talent stream that is cleared and technical, not combat arms.

One caution before you go further. Sierra Vista is a real town, not just a gate. And not every veteran from the post is a spy or a coder. Read the resume for the work a person did, not just the unit they served in. A 35-series soldier still may have run a supply room, led a squad, or managed a training schedule.

Which job codes should you look for?

The Army uses number codes for jobs. They are called MOS codes. If you learn the handful that come out of Fort Huachuca, your sourcing gets a lot sharper. You can search for them by name on a resume or in a profile.

The core intel codes are the 35 series. The 35F Intelligence Analyst pulls data from many sources into reports and briefs. The 35N Signals Intelligence Analyst works signals and electronic data. The 35M Human Intelligence Collector runs interviews and source work. You will also see 35G geospatial imagery analysts and 35P cryptologic linguists.

The cyber and signal side runs on the 17 and 25 series. The 17C Cyber Operations Specialist runs offensive and defensive cyber work. The 25D Cyber Network Defender protects Army networks day to day. Both map cleanly to SOC, network defense, and security roles.

If your open role needs a second language, the cryptologic linguists here are worth a hard look. Many trained to work a target language every day. We break down that channel in our guide on how to source bilingual and linguist veterans.

Why does a clearance from this talent matter?

A big share of Fort Huachuca veterans held a security clearance while they served. Most employers underrate that. Intel and cyber work almost always needs one. The government already ran the background check and paid for it.

That check is expensive and slow to run from scratch. A candidate who has been through it recently is a real head start. Even for a role that does not need a clearance, a past one is a strong signal. It tells you the person was trusted with sensitive work and passed a deep review.

Clearances are not simple, though. Status can be active, current, or expired. It depends on when the person last held a cleared job. Do not assume. Ask the candidate for their exact status and confirm details with a facility security officer if the role needs one.

Cleared talent is scarce and it gets fought over. If you want the full picture of why, we cover it in why cleared veteran talent is scarcer than you think. You can also screen for clearance potential in a candidate who does not hold one yet. Our guide on screening veterans for clearability walks through it.

How do you read an intel resume without the jargon?

Intel and cyber resumes are packed with terms you may not know. Codes, systems, and program names. That is where a lot of employers get stuck. They skim, see nothing they recognize, and move on. That is a mistake with this talent.

The fix is simple. Translate the code into the work. A 35F did not just hold a title. That person pulled data from many sources, built daily reports, and briefed leaders. Read for the action, not the acronym.

Your applicant tracking system has the same blind spot. It ranks resumes by keyword match. If your job posting says intelligence analyst and the resume says 35F, the system may rank that person low. It does not reject them. It just sinks them down your list. So you never see one of the best fits you had.

If you learn to read a service record well, you get an edge on every cleared hire. Our guide on finding cleared veteran talent for defense roles goes deeper on the sourcing side.

How do you hire in a small, remote market like Sierra Vista?

This is where Fort Huachuca is different from a big base metro. Sierra Vista is small. The Sierra Vista-Douglas metro area has a modest labor force. Tucson is about 75 miles northwest and is the nearest larger city. So the local hiring pool is tight.

Big defense contractors already recruit here hard. Firms like Raytheon and General Dynamics run work tied to the post. They compete for the top cleared people on pay and program. As a midsize employer you may not win a straight pay fight. You win on speed, clear roles, and growth.

You have two real ways to hire this talent:

• Relocation: Some Sierra Vista veterans will move for the right role and a real career path. Make the offer clear and move fast.
• Remote-cleared: Much intel and cyber work runs remote now. You can hire a Fort Huachuca veteran who stays in Arizona and works for you from anywhere.

The remote path is the underused one. It opens this whole pool to a company that has no office anywhere near Arizona. If your work can run remote, this small market becomes a national one.

Fort Huachuca is the largest employer in the county by a wide margin. That shapes the whole area. When intel and cyber soldiers finish their time, many want to stay in the Southwest and settle down. A clear, steady role from a growing company is a strong pull for someone who is done moving every few years. Lead with stability and a path, and you can pull people the big primes overlook.

Fort Huachuca is intel-first. If your need is cyber-first, the talent map looks a little different at a place like Fort Gordon (renamed from Fort Eisenhower in 2025). That is a separate metro with its own pool. We cover it in how to hire cyber veterans in Augusta. For the broader Arizona picture, our guide on hiring veterans in Tucson covers the base region up the road.

When should you start sourcing this talent?

Earlier than you think. The strongest cleared veterans do not spend long on the job market. Big contractors line them up before they even take off the uniform. If you wait for an application, you are last in line.

Reach into the pipeline while people are still in service. Many soldiers start their job search months before they separate. That window is your best shot at a Fort Huachuca hire.

If cyber and intel are your core need, building a steady pipeline beats one-off searches. Our guide on building a cybersecurity veteran hiring pipeline lays out the system. The same play works for regions like Tampa. See how to hire cleared veterans in Tampa for another cleared-heavy market.

How can BMR help you hire cleared veterans near Fort Huachuca?

Best Military Resume is where these veterans build their resumes. That gives you a direct line to the exact talent this post produces. Intel analysts. Cyber and signal operators. Linguists. Cleared and technical.

The pool is fresh and it keeps growing. We add over 1,000 new profiles every month. More than 60,000 resumes have been built on the platform. That means you are not fishing in a stale list. You are reaching people who are active and getting ready to make their next move.

You do not have to sit near Sierra Vista to hire from it. Reach out through our hire page to get access to BMR's veteran talent pool. Tell us the roles you are filling and we will help you connect with the cleared intel and cyber veterans who fit. You can also learn about a deeper setup on our partner page.

Fort Huachuca puts a rare kind of talent into the market every year. Cleared, technical, and mission-tested. Reach it early and read it right, and you will fill roles other employers cannot.