Cleared IT recruiting in Northern Virginia
Northern Virginia is the deepest cleared market in the country.
The Central Intelligence Agency, the National Reconnaissance Office and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency are headquartered in Langley, Chantilly and Springfield, Fort Belvoir hosts the Defense Intelligence Agency and more than sixty other units, and the corporate headquarters of Northrop Grumman, RTX, SAIC, CACI and ManTech sit in Falls Church, Arlington, Reston and Herndon. Amazon's HQ2 in Arlington and the data centers of Loudoun County supply the commercial side. Requisitions here carry TS/SCI with polygraph more often than in any other market.
The market is defined by the polygraph and the commute. Recruiters Workforce works Northern Virginia requisitions with the agency's own stated requirements and the candidate's home county in hand, because a candidate in Ashburn will not take a daily drive to Springfield.
Installations, agencies and employers that shape hiring in Northern Virginia
The organizations below shape the Northern Virginia market. They are named as facts about the area; none is a client of the firm.
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The Central Intelligence Agency
CIA headquarters in Langley has been home to the agency's personnel since 1961 and was renamed the George Bush Center for Intelligence in 1999. The agency states that all applicants must go through a comprehensive security clearance process, that polygraph interviews are mandatory with no exceptions, and that applicants must be United States citizens, including dual citizens.
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The National Reconnaissance Office
Headquartered in Chantilly, the NRO designs, builds, launches and maintains the nation's intelligence satellites and describes itself as a hybrid organization of about 3,000 personnel from the intelligence community, the armed services and Department of Defense civilians. It states that applicants must complete and pass a counterintelligence polygraph examination for all positions.
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The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
NGA's eastern headquarters is in Springfield. The agency states that applicants must be able to obtain a Top Secret clearance with SCI access, that successful completion of a counterintelligence-scope polygraph examination is a condition of employment for all positions, and that it requires United States citizenship, a minimum age of 18 and a pre-employment urinalysis.
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Fort Belvoir
The garrison lists the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Defense Logistics Agency, NGA, the Army Intelligence and Security Command, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, the Missile Defense Agency and Army Cyber Command among more than sixty units and tenants on the post, which was established as Camp Humphreys in 1917 on the Potomac next to Mount Vernon. DIA requires TS/SCI, a counterintelligence-scope polygraph and a drug test of its applicants.
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Defense contractor headquarters
Northrop Grumman's corporate headquarters is at 2980 Fairview Park Drive in Falls Church, RTX is headquartered in Arlington, SAIC is headquartered in Reston with about 23,000 employees, CACI issues its news from Reston, and ManTech's headquarters is at 2251 Corporate Park Drive in Herndon. The Fairfax County Economic Development Authority states that four of the top five defense contractors are based in the region. The Office of Naval Research is headquartered on North Randolph Street in Arlington, and Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall joins Fort Myer, Henderson Hall and Fort McNair.
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Amazon HQ2 and the Loudoun data centers
Amazon's HQ2 at Metropolitan Park in Arlington has more than 8,000 employees across units including Prime Video, AWS and public policy, and Loudoun County describes itself as the home of the world's largest concentration of data centers.
Commuting and remote work around Northern Virginia
The Express Lanes on Interstates 495, 95 and 395 are tolled dynamically and paid with E-ZPass, and VDOT's Transform 66 program converted I-66 between the Capital Beltway and Gainesville into a corridor with express lanes, a shared-use path and new park-and-ride lots, with express lanes inside the Beltway operating between I-495 and Rosslyn during weekday peak periods. The federal route log records I-66 at 74.77 miles in Virginia and the Virginia section of the Beltway at 15.36 miles serving Springfield, Annandale, McLean and Vienna.
Metrorail's six lines, Red, Orange, Silver, Blue, Yellow and Green, serve the National Capital Region under WMATA, with the Orange and Silver lines running west through Arlington and Fairfax County. Even so, the agency campuses in Langley, Chantilly and Springfield are driven to, and the county a candidate lives in decides which of them is a realistic commute.
Work at the agencies and in their contractors' SCIFs is on site without exception. Unclassified program work, corporate functions and the commercial employers offer hybrid arrangements, and a requisition should say which part of the work is which, because Northern Virginia candidates ask.
Clearance levels commonly requested in Northern Virginia
The agencies publish their requirements: mandatory polygraph at the CIA, a counterintelligence polygraph for all NRO positions, TS/SCI plus a counterintelligence-scope polygraph at NGA, and TS/SCI plus a counterintelligence-scope polygraph and a drug test at DIA. Contractor requisitions supporting those agencies mirror them. Requisitions at Fort Belvoir's other tenants and at the contractors' corporate campuses run from Secret to TS/SCI without a polygraph.
The Intelligence Community's careers site puts the clearance process at nine to twelve months on average, and Virginia's sealed-record law expressly does not apply to national security clearance inquiries. Requisitions in this market are written for current holders far more often than for sponsorship.
Specialties in demand in Northern Virginia
Industries hiring in Northern Virginia
Nearby markets
Questions about hiring in Northern Virginia
How far will a Northern Virginia candidate commute?
Less far than the map suggests. Candidates in Loudoun and western Fairfax reach Chantilly, Herndon and Reston; candidates in Alexandria and southern Fairfax reach Springfield and Fort Belvoir; Arlington candidates reach the Pentagon corridor and Langley. Recruiters Workforce records the home county and the acceptable sites before submittal, and a requisition that names its site is sourced accordingly.
Which polygraph does a Northern Virginia requisition mean?
The one the sponsoring agency requires. The NRO, NGA and DIA state a counterintelligence-scope examination on their hiring pages, and the CIA states that a polygraph interview is mandatory. A requisition that says full scope means the sponsor requires the broader examination, and the requisition summary should say whether the program will sponsor it for a candidate who holds only the counterintelligence examination.