Colorado technical recruiting and hiring rules
Colorado is the center of national security space operations.
Colorado Springs has Peterson Space Force Base, which supports U.S. Space Command and Space Operations Command among 111 mission partners, Schriever Space Force Base commanding the Department of Defense's satellites, Cheyenne Mountain, Fort Carson and the Air Force Academy; Denver and Aurora have Buckley Space Force Base, the Denver Federal Center, Lockheed Martin Space in Littleton, United Launch Alliance and a cluster of satellite and ground system builders. Requisitions run from Secret to TS/SCI, and space programs dominate them.
Colorado also has the most detailed posting rules of any state on this site. The rules below are current at the time of writing, each with its source.
Hiring rules in Colorado that matter to employers
Summaries are general information current at the time of writing and are no substitute for counsel.
- Pay transparency in job postings
- The Equal Pay for Equal Work Act, Senate Bill 19-085, was signed on May 22, 2019 and took effect on January 1, 2021, requiring employers to announce job openings and the pay range for them. Amendments effective January 1, 2024 require an employer with at least one employee located and working in Colorado to include in every job posting the hourly or salary compensation or its range, a general description of benefits and other compensation, and the date the application window is anticipated to close.
- Salary history
- The Act prohibits seeking the wage rate history of a prospective employee, requiring disclosure of wage rate as a condition of employment, and relying on a prior wage rate to determine a wage rate.
- Fair-chance hiring
- The Chance to Compete Act, House Bill 19-1025, signed on May 28, 2019, bars employers from inquiring about an applicant's criminal history on an initial application. It applied to employers with 11 or more employees from September 1, 2019 and to all employers from September 1, 2021.
- Non-compete agreements
- House Bill 22-1317, effective August 10, 2022, provides that a covenant not to compete that restricts the right of any person to receive compensation for labor is void, except for highly compensated workers where the covenant protects trade secrets; the highly compensated threshold is reset each year by the Department of Labor and Employment. A customer non-solicitation covenant is allowed only for workers earning at least 60 percent of that threshold, and any covenant is enforceable only if the employer gave the worker a separate, signed written notice before acceptance of the offer or at least fourteen days before the covenant takes effect.
- At-will employment
- Colorado employment rests on the at-will default that applies across the United States, with the statutory rules on this page as the main exceptions; the firm found no Colorado agency page summarizing the doctrine, so employers should take advice on its current application.
- Age questions on applications
- The Job Application Fairness Act, Senate Bill 23-058, signed on June 2, 2023, prohibits employers from asking about a prospective employee's age, date of birth, or dates of attendance at or graduation from an educational institution on an initial employment application, with an exception for verifying a bona fide occupational qualification relating to public or occupational safety or compliance with law.
Metro markets in Colorado
Each metro page names the installations, agencies and employers that shape hiring there.
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Colorado Springs, CO
Peterson and Schriever Space Force Bases, NORAD and NORTHCOM, Cheyenne Mountain, Fort Carson, the Missile Defense Agency's integration center and the Aerospace Corporation.
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Denver and Aurora, CO
Buckley Space Force Base, the Denver Federal Center, Lockheed Martin Space in Littleton, United Launch Alliance, Northrop Grumman, Sierra Space and the Boulder laboratories.
Industries hiring in Colorado
Specialties in demand in Colorado
Questions about hiring in Colorado
What must a Colorado posting for a cleared space position contain?
The compensation or its range, a general description of benefits and other compensation, and the anticipated closing date of the application window, for any employer with at least one employee working in Colorado. The clearance requirement is stated as a requirement of the position. The requisition builder on this site asks for each of those terms.
Can a Colorado defense contractor use a non-compete with a cleared engineer?
Only where the engineer is a highly compensated worker above the annual threshold the Department of Labor and Employment sets and the covenant protects trade secrets, and only with the separate signed notice the statute requires. Most engineering positions sit below the threshold, so employers rely on confidentiality agreements and the program's own security rules instead.