Cybersecurity & Software

Accelerating Growth in Cybersecurity Employment & Intellectual Property

Colorado Springs is emerging as a national leader in cybersecurity commerce, employment, and innovation, and the numbers back it up. In 2022, the Cybersecurity & Technology sector generated $4.6 billion for the local economy and is projected to grow 15% between 2022 and 2027. The sector represents a 4% share of the region’s total GDP and 1.9% of national GDP, with 5.5% growth over the past decade — credible, verified momentum, not a speculative trend line.

The city’s unique convergence of IT companies, higher education, and national defense has created a thriving environment for the cybersecurity industry to flourish, benefiting job seekers, entrepreneurs, and established companies alike. Compared to national and state averages, Colorado Springs offers lower labor costs, giving it a cost edge over cities of similar size without the tradeoffs in talent quality or quality of place that often come with cheaper markets. The city also holds a higher concentration of cybersecurity openings than larger regions like Denver, a signal of real specialization.

More than 28,000 employees support the cybersecurity sector in Colorado Springs. A significant military presence, a robust veteran community, and strong postsecondary institutions provide a verified, standardized talent pipeline built for long-term growth. Transitioning service members bring diverse skills and active security clearances, which are essential to filling high-level IT and cybersecurity roles, and a pipeline companies can count on to execute at the level national security work demands.

An Epicenter for Tech Knowledge and Capabilities

Tech-fueled talent, best-in-class electric reliability, and low seismic activity form a triad of benefits for data centers and IT businesses in Colorado Springs.

Leading the pack are in-house software development and systems engineering operations from FedEx, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and Oracle, among others, building software for e-business, inventory control, telecommunications, and aerospace and defense systems .

Before moving on to lead the National Cybersecurity Center as CEO, Cherwell’s founder helped secure $247 million in venture capital from KKR and Insight Venture Partners. In 2017, Tek Experts tripled its software development and support workforce to make Colorado Springs the hub of its U.S. operations.

In 2021, Quantum Metric became Colorado Springs’ first unicorn, raising $200 million in VC funding at a $1 billion valuation. The SaaS platform, built to help organizations launch better digital products faster, has committed to keeping its headquarters in the Pikes Peak region — a vote of confidence from a company that could have built its legacy anywhere.

Ranked a top city for data centers, Colorado Springs is home to storage sites for FedEx, Progressive Insurance, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and Walmart. Software giant SAP established two data centers here in recent years, citing efficient power, favorable climate, and a quality workforce as the deciding factors and setting a precedent for other businesses.

A unique density of defense installations, five in total, has made Colorado Springs home to one of the most sophisticated communications networks in the nation. That capacity and reliability is a meaningful edge for any tech or cyber firm that depends on state-of-the-art communications infrastructure to operate at scale.

Electric service reliability consistently checks in at 99.99% or greater, delivered by municipally owned Colorado Springs Utilities, which answers to local elected officials rather than a state Public Utilities Commission. This is a level of local accountability and predictability few markets can offer, and one more reason businesses can build here with confidence.

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Proactive and Solution-Oriented

Colorado Springs, home to more than 150 cybersecurity companies, is rapidly becoming a national leader in cybersecurity commerce, employment, and innovation.

The city’s unique convergence of IT companies, higher education, and national defense has created a thriving ecosystem for the cybersecurity industry, with benefits extending to job seekers, entrepreneurs, and established companies alike.

A primary draw for companies like L3Harris, Lockheed Martin, and Parsons is talent they can count on. Five Colorado Springs colleges, including the U.S. Air Force Academy, are certified as Centers of Academic Excellence by the National Security Agency, and work-ready programs like Secure Set Academy are producing new talent at an accelerated pace — a pipeline built to keep up with demand.

More than 3,000 professionals currently work in the Colorado Springs cybersecurity industry, with 7,000-plus open positions forecasted, signaling room to grow. To help fill those roles, the Chamber & EDC is working with federal agencies and partners to streamline and fast-track the security credentials process, removing friction for companies that need cleared talent fast.

While companies like The Aerospace Corp. and Northrop Grumman have made Colorado Springs their headquarters, R9B is a local-to-global success story. Founded in 2011, the firm leveraged its tech and military roots to become one of the top 150 cybersecurity companies in the world before R9B was acquired by Deloitte in 2021. Companies built here can scale to national significance and still exit on their own terms.

Colorado Springs is also home to the National Cybersecurity Center, which serves public and private organizations alike through training, education, and research. It’s now home to the national Space ISAC and, in support of secure online voting initiatives, has partnered with Tusk Philanthropies to pilot electronic ballot return technologies — the kind of forward-looking work that signals a market building what comes next, not just keeping pace with it.

Learn more at the Colorado Springs Cybersecurity website.

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A Destination for Diverse Talent

Supporting Colorado Springs’ ever-growing technology and cybersecurity ecosystem is one of the most educated workforces in the U.S.

In 2020, CompTIA ranked the city #15 among the best cities for IT professionals to live and work, citing a large STEM workforce and entrepreneurial infrastructure. LinkedIn independently confirmed the strength of that talent base, ranking Colorado Springs professionals #1 in its Most Confident Workforce in the Nation Index — two third-party sources, one consistent story.

Employers like Oracle, Cisco, and TEKSystems hire from a deep, diverse talent pool: locally produced graduates, departing military personnel and veterans, and professionals drawn here for opportunity and an appealing quality of life. Tech salaries in Colorado Springs come in slightly above the national average, giving companies an edge on compensation as well as availability.

Five Colorado Springs colleges, including the U.S. Air Force Academy, are certified as Centers of Academic Excellence by the National Security Agency, providing a credentialed talent source companies can build a workforce strategy around.

The University of Colorado Colorado Springs carries forward a tech legacy that began in the 1960s, when it was established by HP founder David Packard to develop computer engineers. Today, it’s Cisco’s only cybersecurity SRA partnership with a university, and the two recently announced a one-of-a-kind cybersecurity workforce development center. This market’s institutions are building infrastructure for where the industry is headed, for leaders who need talent ready when they arrive.