Northern Virginia has spent decades building its reputation as a hub for government contracting, defense, intelligence and cleared work. And despite plenty of conversation about where national security work is expanding beyond the Beltway, the DMV isn’t exactly giving up its place on the map.
For cleared job seekers, one indication of that continued growth is pretty simple: companies are hiring.
Systems Planning & Analysis (SPA), headquartered in Alexandria, VA, currently has more than 500 positions posted, with hiring needs spanning systems engineering, modeling and simulation, intelligence support, cybersecurity, operations, acquisition and program management support. Space and missile systems analysis has also emerged as a particular area of focus.
And for the ClearanceJobs audience, there’s another important detail: about 95% of SPA’s workforce holds a security clearance.
“We have over 500 jobs currently posted,” Chris Tousley, head of talent acquisition at SPA, told ClearanceJobs. While some are tied to proposal needs, he said many are funded positions available to fill immediately.
That makes SPA’s growth worth watching, but it also points to something bigger happening across Northern Virginia. SPA isn’t alone. Northern Virginia has seen a string of defense and national security companies announce new investments and hiring in 2026. GRVTY announced plans for a new Tysons headquarters and 200 new jobs, Blue Sky Innovators is adding 175 jobs in Reston, space technology company Umbra is adding more than 100 jobs with a new Reston facility, and Innovative Defense Technologies announced a 210-job expansion at its Arlington headquarters. The activity builds on an already massive defense footprint: Fairfax County companies alone received $41.3 billion in federal contracts in FY 2024, and four of the nation’s five largest defense contractors have operations in the county. For cleared professionals, the numbers reinforce that Northern Virginia isn’t simply maintaining its role in the national security ecosystem. Companies are still investing, expanding and hiring here.
1,200 New Jobs Coming to Virginia
SPA has been in the region for more than five decades, growing from its Alexandria roots into a company with roughly 3,000 employees globally. It now has locations across the DC region, including Alexandria, Arlington, Washington, D.C., Merrifield and Lorton.
The next stage of that growth includes a commitment to create 1,200 new jobs in Virginia over five years, according to Tousley. He pointed to rising customer demand, investment from Arlington Capital Partners and partnerships with economic development organizations in Alexandria, Fairfax and across Virginia as factors supporting that expansion.
While SPA’s broader growth plans extend beyond Virginia, Tousley expects a significant portion of the company’s hiring to continue happening in the Commonwealth and particularly in the DMV.
For job seekers, that means Northern Virginia remains a market to watch, particularly for technical talent with active clearances.
SPA is hiring across clearance levels from Secret through TS/SCI with full-scope polygraph, with demand for technical talent including machine learning, analytical skills, modeling and simulation.
Cleared Work Still Comes With a Location
Of course, cleared hiring in Northern Virginia comes with the question candidates increasingly ask: How much of the work can actually be done remotely?
The answer depends heavily on the mission.
Tousley said SPA’s default approach has become hybrid since the pandemic, unless the customer requires employees to be on site five days a week. Some employees may be able to perform classified work in the office and complete unclassified portions of their jobs remotely.
But as clearance requirements rise, flexibility generally falls.
“The higher the clearance level,” Tousley said, the more likely the employee will need to work on site. That’s particularly true for SCI and polygraph positions requiring access to secure facilities.
It’s an important reality for cleared candidates weighing where to build their careers. Remote work has changed the broader workforce, but national security missions still depend on physical infrastructure, secure facilities and proximity to government customers. That’s one reason regions like Northern Virginia continue to hold an outsized role in the cleared employment market.
No Clearance Yet? SPA Is Looking for Interns
SPA’s hiring plans aren’t limited to experienced cleared professionals.
The company is aiming to bring on approximately 100 interns next summer, and Tousley said SPA can sponsor interns through the clearance process. That creates an entry point for younger professionals who don’t yet have the credential that can otherwise feel like a catch-22 for breaking into cleared work.
And whether you’re an intern, transitioning service member or seasoned cleared professional, Tousley’s resume advice is straightforward: write your resume for the job you want, not simply the job you already have.
That includes being thoughtful about AI. SPA recruiters are seeing more resumes that appear heavily generated by AI, including multiple candidates submitting nearly identical templates. Tousley isn’t opposed to candidates using generative AI, but said the human element still needs to be there. Candidates need to review what AI produces, make sure it accurately represents their experience and clearly identify the skills they actually want to use in their next position.
That’s increasingly important as recruiters themselves use technology to search talent pools for specific skills.
For Northern Virginia’s cleared workforce, the larger takeaway may be that the region isn’t standing still. National security work is evolving into areas like machine learning, space and missile systems, cybersecurity, modeling and simulation, but much of that work still needs cleared professionals close to the mission.
And with hundreds of positions currently open and 1,200 new Virginia jobs planned over the next five years, SPA is one company putting real hiring numbers behind that growth.
