Virginia technical recruiting and hiring rules
Virginia holds two of the deepest cleared markets in the country.
Northern Virginia has the Central Intelligence Agency at Langley, the National Reconnaissance Office in Chantilly, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency in Springfield, Fort Belvoir's sixty-odd tenants and the headquarters of several of the largest defense contractors; Hampton Roads has Naval Station Norfolk, NATO's Allied Command Transformation, NASA Langley and Newport News Shipbuilding. Requisitions in both run from Secret to TS/SCI with polygraph.
Virginia's hiring rules changed on July 1, 2026, when a pay transparency and salary history law took effect, so requisitions written under last year's assumptions need a second look. The rules below are current at the time of writing, each with its source.
Hiring rules in Virginia 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
- Effective July 1, 2026, under Virginia Code Section 40.1-28.7:12, all job postings and hiring advertisements in Virginia must include a wage or salary range, on any platform and for internal as well as external postings, according to the Virginia Department of Labor and Industry. Earlier bills were vetoed in 2024 and 2025; the 2026 law was signed in April 2026 and applies to any employer with one or more employees, with a cure period after written notice of a posting violation.
- Salary history
- From the same date, employers are prohibited from seeking wage or salary history from a job applicant, whether on the application, in interviews, or through requests to former employers or third parties. Before July 1, 2026 Virginia had no statewide salary history ban.
- Fair-chance hiring
- Virginia Code Section 2.2-2812.1 bars state agencies from asking about arrests, charges or convictions on applications or before a staff interview, with exceptions for sensitive and law enforcement positions, and Section 15.2-1505.3 applies a parallel rule to local governments. For private employers the rule concerns sealed records: under Section 19.2-392.15 an employer may not require an applicant to disclose a sealed arrest, charge or conviction, applications that ask about criminal history must say that sealed records need not be disclosed, and a willful violation is a Class 1 misdemeanor. That section does not apply to national security clearance inquiries, which matters for every cleared requisition in the state. The former ban on asking about marijuana possession records, Section 19.2-389.3, was repealed effective July 1, 2026.
- Non-compete agreements
- Virginia Code Section 40.1-28.7:8 provides that no employer shall enter into, enforce or threaten to enforce a covenant not to compete with a low-wage employee, defined by reference to the Commonwealth's average weekly wage, which the Department of Labor and Industry currently puts at 1,507.01 dollars, and since July 1, 2025 including any employee entitled to overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Violations carry a civil penalty of 10,000 dollars per violation, employers must post the statute or an approved summary, and from July 1, 2026 licensed health care workers cannot be required to sign non-competes.
- At-will employment
- The Virginia Department of Labor and Industry states that Virginia is an employment-at-will state, meaning the employer may terminate any employee at any time, for any reason, or for no reason, subject to a few limited exceptions such as retaliation for safety complaints and federal anti-discrimination law.
- Other 2026 changes
- Effective July 1, 2026, Section 40.1-28.7:13 adds penalties for retaliation based on immigration status, and the 2026 Acts created a uniform enforcement framework for the Commonwealth's wage and hour laws, according to the Department of Labor and Industry.
Metro markets in Virginia
Each metro page names the installations, agencies and employers that shape hiring there.
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Northern Virginia, VA
The CIA at Langley, the NRO in Chantilly, NGA in Springfield, Fort Belvoir, the headquarters of the largest defense contractors and the Loudoun data center corridor.
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Hampton Roads, VA
Naval Station Norfolk and eighteen other installations, NATO's Allied Command Transformation, NASA Langley and Newport News Shipbuilding.
Industries hiring in Virginia
Specialties in demand in Virginia
Questions about hiring in Virginia
Does the sealed-record rule affect clearance questions on a Virginia application?
Section 19.2-392.15 expressly does not apply to national security clearance inquiries, so the questions a sponsor asks in the clearance process are outside it. The ordinary application still cannot demand disclosure of sealed records, and it must tell applicants that sealed records need not be disclosed.
How should a Virginia requisition handle the new range requirement for a cleared position?
State the range the labor category allows, because the posting must carry a good-faith wage or salary range from July 1, 2026. Cleared positions often carry a premium within the labor category, and the requisition summary should say whether the range shown is the contract ceiling or the employer's target.