If you hold a security clearance and want to work in cybersecurity, you won’t have a hard time finding a job opening. But for some, life is too short to sit behind a keyboard and poke electronic sticks at SQL servers. Your security clearance is a key to a weird and wonderful array of careers. Here are 5 of the most surprising jobs that require a clearance.

Protector of Mars

You joined the Navy and saw the world. Maybe you were on a submarine and saw the bottom of the world. Or you were a fighter pilot and saw the top of it. By the time your contract is up, your clearance is still aces and it’s time for a new challenge on a new world.

ClearanceJobs has you covered: NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is hiring a “Contamination Control Engineer.” Your job, in short, will be to keep Earth from invading Mars. Specifically, you will be charged with protecting spacecraft and probes from Earth germs that could end up on Mars. Celestial objects are more or less considered “pristine.” Unless NASA’s keeping something from us (which is possible: this job requires a top secret clearance), there are no creatures running around on Mars. The robots we send there, however, have hearty microbes on them. The result is Earthly contamination. This is bad because part of our exploration of the universe involves a search of extraterrestrial life. If we can’t tell the Martians from the Earthlings, results get skewed.

Parachute Trainer

How do you feel about gravity? To be really good at developing techniques for the military’s newest freefall parachutes, you need a healthy respect for gravity, but also a serious desire to fight against it. The key phrase in this job listing is “new training equipment.” You won’t so much be doing things by the book as writing the book as you go. (And as the saying goes: “If your parachute doesn’t open, you have the rest of your life to figure out what to do.”) Meanwhile, you’ll be teaching special operators how to use the parachutes—and not just in the United States. You need a passport for this job, so expect to spend time on foreign drop zones, and in the air above them.

Master Plumber

Admittedly, this one is less exciting than defending Mars from space invaders, but it’s a good example of how clearance-required jobs cut across the spectrum of employment. In the film Clerks, the central characters get into a discussion about Star Wars, and one of them expresses misgivings about the destruction of the second Death Star. When the first space station was destroyed, he argues, the only people onboard were the bad guys—Stormtroopers, Imperial officers, and so on. But when the second Death Star was destroyed, it was still under construction, which meant all sorts of people, including innocent contractors, were likely killed. “Do you think the average stormtrooper knows how to install a toilet main? All they know is killing and white uniforms.”

The same principle applies in this galaxy as well. Spies and soldiers are great at their jobs, but you’ll never see James Bond working a drain auger (unless it doubles as some sort of jet pack). The military and intelligence community need skilled tradespeople just as urgently as they need snipers—maybe even more. A security clearance and good training can open a lot of doors.

Artist

You probably know the work of Chuck Jones. He was the celebrated director of all the most famous Looney Tunes animated shorts. You might also have heard of Theodor Geisel. He wrote a series of children’s books under the name Dr. Seuss. Here’s a weird bit of trivia: the two men served together in World War II, in an animation unit that made Army training films.

The military still has need of skilled artists. Illustrators working at the Naval Surface Warfare Center are responsible for “concept renderings, illustrations, publications, logos, diagrams, displays, graphs, objects used in books, magazines pamphlets, exhibits, posters, presentations, live or video recorded speeches or conferences and other means of communicating.” The job, in essence, will be the same one that that Jones and Geisel did. It’s worth submitting a resume if only because things worked out pretty well for them in the long run.

Vatican Guard

This job posting is not for the Swiss Guard, which is comprised of the soldier-bodyguards who protect the Pope. (Don’t be confused by the colorful uniforms—these guys are equally skilled with swords and submachine guns.) But because the Vatican City State, at 110 acres, is the smallest sovereign state in the world, every security job in some way correlates with the security of the Pope. This security manager position requires a secret clearance, and involves “extensive support” to the State Department abroad.

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David Brown is a regular contributor to ClearanceJobs. His most recent book, THE MISSION (Custom House, 2021), is now available in bookstores everywhere in hardcover and paperback. He can be found online at https://www.dwb.io.