You already know the federal government hires veterans. That part is obvious — veterans preference exists, hiring authorities exist, and every agency has a veterans employment coordinator somewhere on the org chart. But knowing the government hires veterans and knowing which agencies actually do it at scale are two very different things.

I spent 1.5 years after separating from the Navy applying to federal jobs with zero callbacks. Zero. And one of the biggest mistakes I made early on was treating every agency the same — blasting the same resume to every GS-7 opening on USAJOBS like it was a numbers game. It took me a while to figure out that some agencies hire veterans at two or three times the rate of others, and that targeting those agencies with a tailored resume changed everything.

This article breaks down which federal agencies have the highest veteran hire rates, where the data comes from, and — more importantly — how to use that information to focus your job search on the places where your military experience actually carries weight.

Where the Veteran Hire-Rate Data Comes From

Before we get into specific agencies, you need to know where these numbers originate. The primary source is OPM's FedScope database — a publicly accessible tool that tracks federal workforce demographics, including veteran status, across every agency. OPM publishes this data quarterly. The Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (FEVS) adds context about employee satisfaction and retention, which matters when you are evaluating whether an agency is a good place to build a career, not just get hired.

Additionally, OPM releases an annual report to Congress on veteran employment in the federal government. The FY2024 report (the most recent available as of early 2026) shows that veterans make up roughly 31% of the total federal workforce — significantly higher than the private sector, where veteran representation hovers around 5-6% according to BLS data. That 31% is not evenly distributed. Some agencies sit at 50%+ veteran workforce composition, while others are in the low teens.

The point is: this data is real, it is publicly available, and you can use it to make smarter decisions about where to apply. If you want to see how veteran unemployment trends affect the broader picture, check out our breakdown of veteran unemployment data for 2026.

The Federal Agencies With the Highest Veteran Hire Rates

Based on OPM workforce data, these agencies consistently lead in veteran hiring — both in raw numbers and as a percentage of their total workforce. The percentages shift slightly year to year, but the leaders stay remarkably consistent.

Department of Defense (civilian workforce) — DoD is the single largest employer of veterans in the federal government. Their civilian workforce is approximately 45-50% veterans depending on the component. This includes Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps civilian positions, the Defense Logistics Agency, Defense Finance and Accounting Service, and dozens of other DoD agencies. If you held a clearance and worked in logistics, supply, maintenance, IT, or security, DoD civilian roles are the most natural landing spot.

Department of Veterans Affairs — The VA employs over 400,000 people, and veterans make up a substantial portion of that workforce. VA actively uses VRA (Veterans Recruitment Appointment) and VEOA hiring authorities, and many of their job announcements explicitly state veteran preference. Healthcare, administration, IT, logistics, and facilities management are all huge hiring categories. If you want to understand the hiring authorities that give you an edge here, read our VEOA explainer.

Department of Homeland Security — CBP, ICE, TSA, FEMA, the Coast Guard civilian side, Secret Service — DHS is a massive operation and the mission alignment with military experience is strong. Law enforcement, emergency management, cybersecurity, intelligence analysis, and logistics roles all draw heavily from the veteran talent pool. If cybersecurity interests you, our guide on cybersecurity jobs veterans can land without a degree covers how to break in. Veteran representation across DHS components ranges from 30-45%.

Department of Justice — The Bureau of Prisons, FBI, DEA, ATF, and U.S. Marshals Service all hire veterans aggressively, particularly for law enforcement and corrections roles. The FBI and DEA specifically value military intelligence, language skills, and tactical experience. DOJ overall runs around 30%+ veteran workforce composition.

Department of the Interior — This one surprises people. Interior manages national parks, wildlife refuges, public lands, and natural resources. They hire veterans for law enforcement (park rangers, special agents), wildland fire, facilities management, environmental compliance, and land management. The Bureau of Land Management and National Park Service both maintain strong veteran hiring rates.

Small agencies with high veteran percentages: The Office of Personnel Management itself, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, the Selective Service System, and the Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency all report veteran workforce percentages above 40%. These are smaller agencies with fewer openings, but when positions do open up, the veteran-friendly hiring culture is already baked in.

For a broader look at which agencies are the best fit for your specific military background, see our guide to the best federal agencies for veterans in 2026.

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Why Some Agencies Hire More Veterans Than Others

The hire-rate gap between agencies is not random. There are structural reasons why DoD civilian roles are 50% veterans and the Department of Education is in the low teens.

Mission alignment. Agencies whose missions overlap directly with military operations — defense, law enforcement, intelligence, emergency management, logistics — naturally attract more veteran applicants, and the hiring managers at those agencies are more likely to recognize military experience as directly relevant. A GS-12 Logistics Management Specialist at the Defense Logistics Agency and an E-7 in military supply chain management are practically doing the same job. The translation gap is small.

Security clearance demand. Agencies with high clearance requirements — DoD, DHS, DOJ, the intelligence community — have a built-in incentive to hire veterans who already hold active clearances. Getting someone through a fresh TS/SCI investigation takes 12-18 months and costs the agency real money. Hiring someone who already has one? That is a direct cost and time savings. This is a massive advantage many veterans undervalue.

Hiring authority usage. Some agencies use VRA, VEOA, and the 30% or More Disabled Veteran authority aggressively as part of their standard hiring process. Others technically have access to these authorities but rarely use them because their HR departments default to competitive examining. The agencies on the high-hire-rate list tend to have HR shops that are well-versed in veteran hiring authorities and actively look for qualified veteran candidates.

Workforce culture. Once an agency has a high percentage of veterans, it becomes self-reinforcing. Hiring managers who are veterans themselves understand military resumes. They know what a DD-214 is. They recognize that "supervised 12 personnel in austere environments" means something real. This cultural familiarity makes the entire application-to-hire pipeline smoother at veteran-heavy agencies.

If you are separating with a disability rating, the hiring authority landscape shifts even further in your favor — our guide on disabled veteran hiring authorities covers how Schedule A and 30%+ appointments work.

How to Target High-Hire-Rate Agencies on USAJOBS

Knowing which agencies hire the most veterans is only useful if you actually change your job search behavior based on that information. Here is how to put it into practice.

Filter by agency, not just keyword. On USAJOBS, you can filter search results by department and agency. If you have been searching "logistics specialist" and scrolling through 400 results from 30 different agencies, narrow it down. Search within DoD, VA, or DHS specifically. You will get fewer results, but the ones you see are at agencies where your military background is a known quantity.

Set up saved searches by agency. USAJOBS lets you save search criteria and get email notifications when new postings match. Set up separate saved searches for your top 3-4 target agencies. This way you are not reacting to whatever shows up in a general search — you are proactively monitoring the agencies where your odds are best.

Read the "Who May Apply" section carefully. Job announcements that say "Status Candidates and Veterans" or reference specific hiring authorities (VRA, VEOA, 30% Disabled) are telling you this position is specifically open to veteran applicants through non-competitive channels. These are the postings where your veteran status gives you a structural advantage beyond just preference points. For a full walkthrough of the USAJOBS application process, check our complete USAJOBS veterans guide.

Check agency career pages directly. Many agencies post positions on their own career portals in addition to USAJOBS. The VA, CBP, FBI, and several DoD components have dedicated career sites where you can find openings, learn about their hiring process, and in some cases apply directly. These pages often have veteran-specific hiring information that USAJOBS listings do not include.

Do not ignore smaller agencies. The big departments get all the attention, but agencies like the Government Accountability Office, the Small Business Administration, and the General Services Administration hire veterans too — and with fewer applicants per position, your resume gets more attention. A GS-11 at GSA pays the same as a GS-11 at DoD.

Your Resume Has to Match the Agency Mission

This is where many veterans lose the thread. They identify the right agencies, find the right job announcements, and then submit the same generic federal resume they use for everything. That approach sinks your resume to the bottom of the ranking in the applicant tracking system, where nobody is scrolling to find you.

Federal resumes require more detail than private sector resumes — hours per week, supervisor contact information, detailed duty descriptions — but they still need to be targeted to the specific position. A 2-page federal resume tailored to a GS-0343 Program Analyst position at DHS should read differently from one tailored to the same series at the VA, because the mission context is different.

When I was on the hiring side, the resumes that stood out were the ones where the applicant clearly understood what the agency actually does. If you are applying to a Logistics Management Specialist position at the Defense Logistics Agency, your resume should speak DLA's language — supply chain velocity, distribution operations, material readiness. The same military experience framed for a VA logistics role should emphasize healthcare supply chain, medical equipment management, and patient care support operations.

The specialized experience requirements for each position tell you exactly what language to use. Pull the key phrases from the job announcement and reflect them in your resume — not word-for-word copying, but demonstrating that your military experience directly maps to what they need.

If you are coming straight from the military with no civilian work history, that is completely fine for federal applications. Our guide on writing a federal resume with no civilian experience walks through exactly how to position military-only backgrounds for federal hiring managers.

Hiring Authorities That Give You an Edge at These Agencies

Veterans preference points (5 or 10 points added to your score) get all the attention, but the real power tools are the non-competitive hiring authorities. These let agencies hire you outside the normal competitive examining process — which means fewer applicants, faster timelines, and a more direct path to a job offer.

Veterans Recruitment Appointment (VRA) — Available to disabled veterans, recipients of campaign badges or Armed Forces Service Medals, recently separated veterans (within 3 years), and those who served during specific campaign periods. VRA lets an agency hire you directly at GS-11 or below without posting the job competitively. This is how many veterans get their foot in the door at high-hire-rate agencies.

Veterans Employment Opportunities Act (VEOA) — If you are a preference eligible or served 3+ years of active duty, VEOA lets you apply to internal merit promotion announcements that are normally restricted to current federal employees. This is a huge deal because merit promotion announcements typically have far fewer applicants than public announcements. Our detailed VEOA guide breaks down exactly how to use this authority.

30% or More Disabled Veteran Authority — If you have a VA disability rating of 30% or higher, agencies can appoint you non-competitively to any position for which you are qualified. No announcement needed. No competition. A hiring manager identifies you, verifies your qualifications, and makes the hire. The agencies on the high-hire-rate list are generally more familiar with this process and more willing to use it.

Schedule A (Severe Physical Disability/Psychiatric Disability) — Another non-competitive authority for veterans with qualifying disabilities. Less commonly used than VRA or the 30%+ authority, but still available and worth understanding if you qualify.

The agencies with the highest veteran hire rates tend to have HR teams that actually understand and use these authorities. At smaller or less veteran-heavy agencies, you may need to educate the HR specialist about what VRA or VEOA even means — which adds friction to the process.

If you are trying to figure out which OPM qualification standards apply to your military experience, that is the first step before leveraging any of these authorities. You need to be qualified for the position before any hiring authority can be used.

What About the Federal Hiring Freeze?

If you are reading this in 2026, you are probably aware that federal hiring conditions have been unpredictable. Freezes, thaws, agency reorganizations — the landscape shifts. But here is what does not change: even during restricted hiring periods, agencies still fill critical positions. And when they do have limited hiring authority, they are more likely to use expedited paths like VRA and direct hire authorities — which often benefit veterans.

The agencies on the high-hire-rate list are also the ones most likely to be designated as having "critical need" positions that are exempt from freezes. DoD, DHS, and VA in particular have mission-critical roles that get filled regardless of broader hiring restrictions. Our coverage of the federal hiring freeze impact on veterans has more detail on how to adjust your search during these periods.

The worst thing you can do during uncertain federal hiring conditions is stop applying. Positions still post. Agencies still hire. The veterans who land offers during tough periods are the ones who kept their resumes current and kept applying while everyone else sat on the sidelines waiting for "things to go back to normal."

And if the federal timeline is dragging — you applied, got referred, and then heard nothing — that is unfortunately common. Read our guide on what to do when you get ghosted after referral for specific steps to follow up without burning bridges.

Matching Your Rank to the Right GS Level

One more factor that affects your success at high-hire-rate agencies: applying at the right grade level. Many veterans either undershoot (applying at GS-5 when they qualify for GS-9) or overshoot (targeting GS-13 when their military experience maps to GS-11). Both mistakes hurt you. If you are a current GS-11 trying to reach GS-13, our GS-11 to GS-13 federal resume strategy guide covers exactly how to position your experience for the jump.

Our military rank to GS level conversion chart gives you a starting framework, but remember — GS grade is determined by specialized experience, not just rank. An E-7 with 15 years of experience in a relevant field may qualify for GS-11 or GS-12 depending on how closely their duties align with the position requirements.

At the agencies with high veteran hire rates, the HR specialists are generally better at evaluating military experience and mapping it to GS qualifications. But you still need to make their job easy. Your resume should clearly show the scope, complexity, and independence of your work at each duty station. Do not make the HR specialist guess whether your experience meets the OPM qualification standards — spell it out.

If you are targeting GS-12 specifically, our guide on landing a GS-12 after military service walks through the experience requirements and resume strategies for that grade level.

What to Do Next

Here is the action plan. Pick 3-5 agencies from the high-hire-rate list where your military experience aligns with their mission. Set up saved searches on USAJOBS filtered to those agencies. Pull up the job announcements that match your background, and tailor your federal resume to each one — matching the specialized experience language, reflecting the agency's mission, and making sure your hours per week, supervisor info, and duty descriptions are all included.

If you need help building a federal resume that is formatted correctly and tailored to specific positions, our federal resume builder walks you through the process step by step. It handles the formatting — you focus on translating your experience.

If you are still early in the transition and trying to figure out which civilian career paths match your military background, start with our military-to-civilian career crosswalk tool. It maps your MOS, rating, or AFSC to specific federal and civilian job titles with salary data.

And if you want a properly formatted federal resume template to start from, grab our 2026 OPM-compliant federal resume template.

The agencies that hire the most veterans are not hiding. The data is public. The hiring authorities are real. The question is whether your resume is good enough to get you referred — and whether you are targeting the right places to begin with.