I think the bridge between math and programming is relatively small, so if you have the most mathematicians in the world, you probably have some pretty good programmers too.[1]

But for contractor, there are job boards for people with clearances.[2] Although you get a pay boost of at least 10-15k, I'm sure the bureaucracy is awful.

I also wouldn't assume that all the top people go to biz. Some very talented people work in gov and academia. Not everyone is guided primarily by money & scores.

[1] http://www.math.uh.edu/~tomforde/Web/Jobs.html [2] http://www.clearedconnections.com/