Information Systems Technician (Submarine)

If you held the ITS rating, you ran the radio room and network of a submarine submerged for weeks at a time, with no help desk to call and no IT shop down the hall. You operated and maintained the boat's exterior communications suite: VLF and ELF buoyant-cable receivers, HF and UHF radio, and SATCOM links that only work in a narrow window when the boat is at periscope depth or has a mast raised. When that window opens, the traffic has to move fast and clean, because the boat goes back under and the link is gone.

The work was never just "IT." You handled COMSEC and crypto keying material under two-person integrity, loaded and zeroized cryptographic equipment, processed record message traffic through the broadcast, and administered the submarine LAN and tactical systems that the whole crew depended on. You did it in a sealed steel tube where a network outage or a comms failure is not a ticket, it is a mission problem. That is a level of ownership most civilian network and comms professionals never experience.

The training pipeline backs this up. After boot camp you completed roughly nine weeks of Basic Enlisted Submarine School in Groton, Connecticut, then about 25 weeks of ITS "A" school covering submarine exterior communications, network administration, cybersecurity fundamentals, and cryptographic systems. Many ITS Sailors carried a Top Secret/SCI clearance and earned IT and cyber credentials through Navy COOL along the way. In late 2023 the Navy realigned the ITS rating into specialized communications, cyber, and electronic-warfare service ratings, but the submarine comms, network, and crypto skill set you built is exactly what civilian employers in secure communications and network infrastructure are hiring for.

Civilian employers value this background because it is rare. Plenty of people can configure a switch. Very few have run SATCOM and RF links, defended a network, and accounted for cryptographic material in an environment where there is no fallback. If you are staying technical, our Navy IT Information Systems Technician and Electronics Technician pages cover adjacent paths, and you can explore the full military-to-civilian career crosswalk to see where the rating maps. For the language that makes recruiters take notice, start with breaking into tech without a degree.

After my Navy time I pivoted into tech sales, and ITS is one of the more underrated backgrounds for that move. You ran SATCOM links, secure comms, and network gear in the hardest environment there is. When you sit across from an engineering buyer for a comms or network vendor, you can talk about latency, link budgets, and crypto handling from real watches, not a slide deck. That technical credibility is what closes deals, and it opens doors at companies selling network gear, secure communications, and SATCOM services. — Brad Tachi, Navy Diver veteran & BMR founder

The submarine communications and network background opens several civilian paths, and the salary picture is solid. All figures below are BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) medians, May 2024.

Network and infrastructure roles. Network and computer systems administrators earn a median of $95,360 (BLS OEWS May 2024), and computer network architects $130,390. Your submarine LAN administration and tactical-network experience maps here directly. The honest caveat: many postings list a degree or specific certifications, so a CompTIA Network+ or a Cisco CCNA shortens the path and signals to a hiring manager that your military networking translates.

Telecommunications and RF. Telecommunications equipment installers and repairers earn a median of $63,200 (BLS OEWS May 2024). This is where your RF, antenna, and SATCOM line maintenance experience lands without much retraining. Demand is steady in coastal and metro markets and around satellite ground stations and maritime communications providers.

Cybersecurity. Information security analysts earn a median of $124,910 (BLS OEWS May 2024), and BLS projects 33% growth through 2033, far faster than average. Your COMSEC handling, security-controls implementation, and defensive-monitoring watches give you a real foundation. A Security+ certification is the common entry credential. See our guide to cybersecurity jobs veterans can land without a degree.

Field and depot technician roles. Electrical and electronics repairers of commercial and industrial equipment earn a median of $67,180 (BLS OEWS May 2024). Defense electronics firms and satellite providers hire submarine-trained technicians for radio room and antenna system work because the equipment families overlap.

Geography matters. Secure-comms and SATCOM employers cluster near coasts, satellite ground stations, and defense corridors in Virginia, Maryland, San Diego, Colorado, and the Gulf Coast. If you would rather sell the technology than maintain it, the same credibility supports a move into network and cyber operations sales roles. When you are ready to put this on paper, our military resume builder structures it for civilian hiring managers, or you can build your resume now.

Federal service is one of the strongest landing spots for an ITS, because the government runs the same secure-comms and network environments you already know, and your clearance carries real weight there. These are the General Schedule (GS) series worth targeting, with qualification context.

GS-2210 Information Technology Management. The core IT series, covering network services, systems administration, and information security specialties. Submarine LAN and tactical-network experience qualifies you, typically at the GS-7 to GS-11 entry band depending on time in rate and education. This series staffs Navy commands, DISA, and nearly every DoD component.

GS-0391 Telecommunications. A direct match for radio room and exterior-communications work. This series covers planning, installing, and operating telecommunications systems, including satellite and RF links. Your hands-on SATCOM and HF experience is the specialized experience these positions ask for.

GS-0855 Electronics Engineering and GS-0856 Electronics Technician. The 0856 series fits radio, antenna, and communications-equipment maintenance directly. The 0855 engineering series is reachable with the right degree and is worth noting if you used the GI Bill for an electronics or EE program.

GS-0080 Security Administration. Your COMSEC custodianship, two-person integrity, and crypto material accountability map to information and communications security roles. Few applicants arrive with documented crypto-handling experience, which makes this a quieter but strong target.

GS-0343 Management and Program Analyst. A path into program oversight of communications and IT efforts, useful if you supervised a radio division or managed maintenance programs at sea.

Veterans' Preference adds 5 or 10 points to your rating and can shift you ahead of non-veteran applicants. The federal resume is its own format, far longer and more detailed than a private-sector one. Our federal resume builder handles the structure, and you can read how a clearance translates in what a Top Secret clearance is worth. Army 25B Information Technology Specialists target the same GS-2210 series, so their federal path overlaps with yours.

If you are staying in submarine-adjacent or military communications work, your terminology already translates, because defense and SATCOM employers use the same language. This section is for ITS veterans targeting careers OUTSIDE of submarine communications, where a hiring manager has never heard your rating and will not decode the jargon for you.

The fix is to describe the function and the scale, not the acronym. Here are real ITS terms rewritten for a civilian recruiter, with before-and-after resume bullets.

"Stood radio watch and processed message traffic" becomes operating and monitoring mission-critical communications systems with measured throughput and uptime.

• Before: "Stood radio watch and processed broadcast message traffic on a fast-attack submarine."
• After: "Operated and monitored real-time communications systems during 12-hour watch rotations, processing time-sensitive message traffic with zero missed transmissions across a 90-day deployment."

"COMSEC custodian" becomes accountable management of controlled cryptographic and security material.

• Before: "Served as COMSEC custodian for crypto keying material."
• After: "Maintained accountability for controlled security material under strict two-person integrity, passing all audits with zero discrepancies across an 18-month tour."

"Administered the submarine LAN" becomes network administration with quantified user and uptime impact.

• Before: "Administered the shipboard LAN and tactical network."
• After: "Administered a local area network supporting 130 users and tactical systems, sustaining availability with no remote support for the duration of underway periods."

The pattern is the same every time: name the function in business terms, then attach a number. For more before-and-after examples, see 50 military terms translated to civilian language and hidden military skills civilians do not know you have. Our military resume builder applies this translation automatically.