How to Hire Veterans in Philadelphia: An Employer's Guide

Philadelphia doesn't look like a military town. There's no giant troop post at the edge of the city. So a lot of local hiring managers assume the veteran talent lives somewhere else.

That's a costly guess. The Navy has done ship engineering at the Navy Yard for over a century. A major defense supply command runs out of the city. An Air Guard wing sits in Montgomery County. And big bases ring the metro in New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland.

This guide is for hiring managers, recruiters and TA leads in the metro. That's Philadelphia, Bucks, Montgomery, Delaware and Chester counties, plus South Jersey. You'll see where local veterans come from and which skills they bring. You'll also learn how to read their resumes and how to reach them before another employer does.

Why is Philadelphia a strong place to hire veterans?

Start with the Navy Yard. The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Philadelphia Division (NSWCPD) has worked on the Navy Yard for over 100 years. Its commanding officer said so in a 2021 Navy release. The center works on the machinery that runs Navy ships.

The scale is real. A July 2026 Navy release says NSWCPD employs about 2,700 civilian engineers, scientists, technicians and support staff. Their work covers research, testing and in-service engineering for non-nuclear ship machinery. That's surface ships and submarines.

Then there's defense logistics. DLA Troop Support has its main office at Naval Support Activity Philadelphia. It opened a new headquarters building there in December 2019. Today it runs four supply chains. They cover clothing and textiles, construction and equipment, medical, and subsistence. That means uniforms, heavy equipment, medical gear and food for the military.

North of the city sits the 111th Attack Wing. It's in Horsham, on the site of the old Willow Grove naval air station. A 2020 Air Guard release says it hosts Army National Guard, Air National Guard and Army Reserve units. The base now goes by Biddle Air National Guard Base.

The ring around the metro matters too. Some people who serve at these bases already live in or near your counties:

• East in New Jersey: Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, a joint Air Force, Army and Navy base.
• South in Delaware: Dover Air Force Base.
• Southwest in Maryland: Aberdeen Proving Ground.
• West and north: the Harrisburg, Mechanicsburg and Carlisle cluster and Picatinny Arsenal in North Jersey.

Each of those has its own guide, so this one stays on the Philadelphia metro itself.

Which veteran skills concentrate in the Philadelphia area?

The local commands shape the talent. A city built on ship machinery and defense supply turns out a certain kind of veteran. These four groups show up most often.

Each one maps to a big local sector. Machinery techs fit plant maintenance, shipyards and energy and utility roles. They also fit the clean, rule-bound work of pharma and biotech manufacturing. If you build or repair ships, our guide on hiring veterans in shipbuilding goes deeper.

Supply people fit warehouses, hospital supply rooms and buying desks. Our guide to logistics and supply chain hiring lays out the role match.

Medical veterans fit the region's health systems. They often move into clinical ops, patient access and support roles. Take a Navy corpsman who ran sick call for a ship's crew. That's triage, patient intake and records work. It maps well to a clinic lead or a patient care tech job. See how hospitals recruit veterans for clinical ops. The city's colleges hire for facilities, security and admin work too. Our universities hiring guide covers that.

You can read the source jobs directly. The Navy's Machinist's Mate, Logistics Specialist and Hospital Corpsman pages show what each job does. They also show the civilian titles each one maps to.

How do you read a military resume from a Philadelphia veteran?

This is where good candidates get lost. A Navy resume can read like a code book. The terms look strange to a civilian reader. But the skill is usually right there.

Read the work behind the acronyms. Below is a made-up example in the style you'll see from a Navy engine room tech.

LPO means leading petty officer, the hands-on supervisor. PMS is the Navy's planned maintenance system. EOOW is engineering officer of the watch. That's a big trust signal for someone who would run a plant floor shift.

A search built on your posting's words can miss this person. You might search for "preventive maintenance." A strong engine room tech's resume may say "PMS." So search in both languages. Add the military terms next to your civilian ones when you screen.

Then use the interview to fill gaps. Ask what they fixed, how many people they led and what broke on their watch. Our guide on how to interview a veteran candidate has questions that pull out real detail.

Should you hire Guard and Reserve members in Philadelphia?

Yes, and many local employers miss this group. A lot of the uniformed talent near the city serves part time. They drill with units like the ones at the Horsham base. During the week, they need a civilian job.

Many bring the same job training as active duty members. They're also already settled in the area. They aren't waiting on a move or a separation date. Many can start on your timeline.

There's one thing to plan for. Guard and Reserve members leave for drill, annual training and sometimes longer duty. Federal law protects their jobs while they serve. That law is called USERRA. Read our guide to USERRA employer obligations before you make the offer.

Plan the coverage early and this is easy. Cross-train a backup for each key role. Ask for the drill schedule up front. Units usually publish drill dates ahead of time, so put them on the team calendar. Annual training often runs about two weeks, so plan for it like a long vacation. Our full Guard and Reserve hiring guide walks through the planning.

How do you reach veterans before they leave the service?

Timing decides a lot of veteran hires. People start looking months before their last day. Strong candidates often have an offer before they're out. If you wait for them to apply, you're late.

So build your channels now. Here are four that work in this metro.

Your state job center's veteran reps

Federal law funds staff in state job centers called local veterans' employment representatives (LVERs). Under 38 U.S.C. 4104, their main job includes outreach to employers in the area. That means helping you find veteran candidates.

In Pennsylvania, LVERs work through PA CareerLink offices. The state's 2026 veterans grant notice even scores offices on LVER services to veteran-friendly employers. Call the CareerLink office in your county and ask for the LVER. In South Jersey, ask your county's state job center for its veteran staff.

State veterans agencies

Both states run a veterans department. Pennsylvania has the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs (DMVA). It oversees both the state's Guard and its veterans programs. New Jersey split those jobs in January 2026. The New Jersey Department of Veterans Affairs now runs veterans programs. The Department of Military Affairs runs the Guard. Both veterans departments are good places to learn about state hiring programs and local events.

SkillBridge

SkillBridge puts a service member in your company during their last months in uniform. It gets its own section below.

A ready veteran talent pool

The fastest channel is a pool of candidates who are already looking. Their resumes are already in civilian terms. Our guide on finding cleared veteran talent helps if you do defense work near the Navy Yard.

How does SkillBridge work for a Philadelphia employer?

The DoD SkillBridge program lets a service member intern with a civilian employer. It happens near the end of their service. The military keeps paying them during the program. You get their time and see their work up close.

Any company that meets the rules can apply to become a host. Your business needs a U.S. state registration that's at least three years old. It also has to stay in good standing. If you moved states, the count starts from your first registration. Our step-by-step guide on becoming a SkillBridge host covers the application.

A SkillBridge intern isn't a hire yet. They're still on active duty. No offer is guaranteed, but the program expects most interns to get one. You can make an offer during the program. You cannot pay them during it. Employment normally starts after the separation date.

This fits Philadelphia well. The bases around the metro have active duty members nearing the end of service. SkillBridge lets you bring one into your shop before they choose where to settle. Start talks early, because the service member's command has to approve it.

What about tax credits and other incentives?

Many employers ask about the Work Opportunity Tax Credit, or WOTC. It gave a credit for hiring certain veterans. The Department of Labor's WOTC page says it was authorized until December 31, 2025.

So the credit expired at the end of 2025. It isn't available for 2026 hires unless Congress renews it. Congress has renewed it after past lapses, sometimes looking back to cover the gap. Veterans you hired in 2025 may still qualify. Our guide on filing WOTC forms explains the paperwork.

Other programs may help. Some support training costs or job training for veterans. See our guide on veteran hiring incentives beyond WOTC. Still, don't make a hire for a tax break. Hire for the skill. Treat any credit as a bonus.

What mistakes do Philadelphia employers make?

The talent is here. The approach is often what's off. These slips tend to cost local employers good veterans.

1. Thinking there's no talent here: A city with no big troop post still has veterans. The Navy Yard, the supply command, the Guard base and the bases nearby all feed this metro.
2. Screening only for exact words: Navy terms rarely match civilian job posts word for word. Search for both, or your search can miss your best fit.
3. Skipping Guard and Reserve members: They're local, trained and often ready now. A clear plan for drill weekends is usually all it takes.
4. Reading every Navy vet alike: A Navy resume may hide a buyer, a medic or a manager. Read each one for what it shows.
5. Losing them after the hire: Veterans want clear goals and a clear path. A loose first month can push them out. Use a plan like our 90-day onboarding plan.

Your job posts matter too. Write them in plain words. Name the real tools and the real tasks. A Navy tech can then see the match. And a search built on those words is more likely to find the right people.

Hiring in other cities too? Read our guides to hiring veterans in Chicago and hiring veterans in Austin.

How can BMR help you hire veterans in Philadelphia?

You don't need a full sourcing team to reach this talent. Best Military Resume is a platform built around veteran job seekers.

Over 1,000 new profiles are added to BMR every month. 77,901 resumes have been built on BMR.

The resumes are already in plain civilian words. You see the skill right away. So your team spends less time decoding and more time interviewing.

Ready to hire veterans in the Philadelphia metro? Reach out to access BMR's veteran talent pool and start meeting candidates. You can also partner with us to build a longer-term hiring pipeline.