Pipeline operators have a hiring problem that does not look like a hiring problem. The work is steady. The pay is good. But the people who know how to run a control room, walk a right-of-way, or read a cathodic protection reading are aging out. The next crew is hard to find. And the ones you do find often need months of training before they can touch a covered task.

There is a talent pool that already fits this work. Veterans who ran shipboard engineering plants, managed bulk fuel farms, kept utilities running in the field, and worked under strict safety rules every single day. They show up on time. They follow procedure. They respect the danger in a high-pressure system. Most of them have never thought about a pipeline job, because nobody told them their background maps to it.

This guide is for the hiring manager or recruiter at a midsize pipeline operator or service contractor. You do not need a giant veteran hiring program to start. You need to know which military backgrounds fit which roles, how to read a service record without getting lost in the codes, and how to handle the Operator Qualification piece without overthinking it. I am Brad Tachi, a Navy veteran and the founder of Best Military Resume, and I have spent the last two years watching veterans land exactly these kinds of roles.

Why Do Veterans Fit Pipeline Operations and Integrity Work?

Pipeline work runs on procedure and consequence. A missed step can spill product, shut down a line, or hurt someone. That is the environment veterans trained in. They came up in a world where the checklist is the law and the operating manual is not a suggestion.

Think about what a controller does. They sit in a room, watch pressures and flows on a SCADA screen, and react when a reading goes out of range. A Navy engineer stood watch on a propulsion plant doing the same thing. Reading gauges. Logging values. Catching a problem before it became an emergency. The screen is different. The discipline is identical.

Field and integrity roles map just as well. A veteran who maintained shipboard piping or ran a fuel farm already understands corrosion, valves, pressure, and leak detection. They know what a coating failure looks like. They know why you isolate a system before you work on it. That is not a skill you teach in a week. It is a habit built over years.

There is also the safety culture. Pipeline work lives and dies by it. So does military service. Veterans do not need to be talked into wearing PPE or stopping a job that feels wrong. They have been trained to value safety over speed, and that mindset transfers straight onto your right-of-way.

One more point worth making. The unemployment rate for veterans is low, and the pool is large and tested by real work. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the 2025 veteran unemployment rate sat below the nonveteran rate. These are not people who cannot find work. They are people who have not yet been pointed at your open req.

Which Military Backgrounds Map to Pipeline Roles?

The fit is not abstract. Specific military jobs line up with specific pipeline roles. Here is how to think about the match before you ever read a resume.

Start with the control room and field operations. Veterans who ran rotating equipment, pumps, and pressure systems fit here. A Navy Engineman or Machinist's Mate spent years operating and maintaining engines, pumps, and high-pressure systems. A Gas Turbine Systems Technician ran turbine-driven plants and the controls that go with them. These people read flows, manage pressure, and respond to alarms by training.

For integrity, corrosion, and welding, look at hull and metal trades. A Navy Hull Maintenance Technician cut, welded, and repaired piping and structures, and dealt with corrosion every day at sea. That is direct overlap with pipe integrity, coating, and repair work. Combat engineers like the Army 12B Combat Engineer and the Marine 1371 Combat Engineer bring construction, heavy work, and field problem-solving.

For fuels, terminals, and product handling, the petroleum trades are a near-perfect match. An Army 92F Petroleum Supply Specialist ran bulk fuel storage, transfer, and quality control. That is terminal and product-handling work with a different label. Add CBRN specialists like the Army 74D CBRN Specialist, who are trained on hazardous materials, detection, and response. That training fits leak detection, gas monitoring, and safety roles.

One note on lane. Pipeline work overlaps with refineries and chemical plants, with broad oil and gas roles, and with electric and water utilities. If the role you are filling is plant-based rather than line-based, the same backgrounds apply but the better starting point may be one of those guides, which I link below. This guide stays focused on the line itself. The transmission and gathering systems, the terminals, and the integrity work that keeps product moving safely.

How Do You Read a Veteran's Service Record for These Roles?

A military resume can look like a wall of codes and acronyms. The screener panics, sees nothing familiar, and racks the resume low. That is the most common way good candidates get missed. The fix is to translate the work, not the job title.

Understand how an applicant tracking system works. It does not throw resumes away. It racks and stacks them against keywords. A strong veteran resume with no pipeline keywords sinks to the bottom of the list, even when the person is a perfect fit. So you have to read past the first scan and look at what the person actually did.

Look for a few signals. Did they stand a watch or run a control station? That is operations. Did they maintain pumps, valves, piping, or pressure systems? That is field and integrity. Did they hold a tag-out or lockout authority? That means they understand isolating a system before work, which is core to safe pipeline work.

Also read for scope, not just rank. A senior petty officer or NCO who supervised a crew and owned a maintenance program brings leadership you would pay extra for in the civilian market. Rank tells you how much responsibility they carried. The duties tell you what they can do on day one.

If the resume is thin on civilian keywords, that is a writing gap, not a skill gap. Many veterans are still learning to translate their work. Read the duties, ask a few questions in the screen, and you will find the fit fast.

What About Operator Qualification and Compliance?

This is where pipeline hiring managers get nervous, so let me be clear about how it actually works. The federal piece is the Operator Qualification rule, run by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, or PHMSA. It lives in 49 CFR Part 192 and Part 195. None of this should be read as legal advice. Confirm the details with your own compliance team.

The rule covers what PHMSA calls covered tasks. A covered task is work on a pipeline facility that is an operations or maintenance task, is required by the rule, and affects the operation or integrity of the line. Operators decide which of their tasks meet that test and build a qualification program around them.

So do not screen veterans out for lacking OQ. Almost no new hire from outside the industry has it. What you want is someone who can move through your qualification process fast and retain it. Veterans are built for that. They spent their service earning qualifications, standing boards, and getting signed off on systems before they were allowed to operate them. Your OQ program will feel familiar to them.

The same logic applies to other credentials. A petroleum or hull background does not come with a civilian certificate stapled to it. But the underlying skill is there, and the path to a cert is shorter for someone who already knows the work. Many use the GI Bill to cover exam and license costs after you hire them.

How Do You Find and Reach Veteran Candidates?

Knowing veterans fit is step one. Getting them into your pipeline is step two. The good news is the channels are straightforward and most of them are free or low cost.

The federal government also supports employers who hire veterans. The Department of Labor's VETS program has guidance and resources for employers building a veteran hiring effort. It is worth a read before you post your first role.

One more channel worth knowing. SkillBridge is run under the Department of Defense, and you can learn about hosting interns at the official SkillBridge site. For a midsize operator, a SkillBridge tryout is the lowest-risk way to test a veteran in a real field or control role before you commit to an offer.

How Should a Midsize Operator Start Without a Big Program?

You do not need a corporate veteran-hiring initiative to do this well. Fortune 500 energy companies run those. A midsize pipeline operator or service contractor can win without one. The play is smaller and more direct.

Pick one or two roles where the fit is obvious. A field operations tech. A corrosion or integrity tech. A terminal operator. Rewrite the posting so a veteran sees themselves in it. Then go find the candidates instead of waiting for them to find you.

Set the expectation up front that you will train and qualify the new hire on your OQ program. That is normal. It removes the fear that a veteran needs prior pipeline credentials. Pair them with a senior tech for the first few months and you build a controller or field operator who understands the why behind every step.

The retention payoff is real. Veterans who come into a role that respects their background and gives them a clear path tend to stay. In an industry losing experienced people to retirement, a hire who sticks around and grows is worth more than a quick fill who leaves in a year.

Where Do You Find These Candidates Now?

If this all makes sense and you want to act on it, the next step is access to the candidates. Best Military Resume is a platform built for the military community, and it gives employers a way to reach that talent directly.

The pool is fresh and growing. More than 1,000 new veteran profiles are added every month, and over 60,000 resumes have been built on the platform. That means new field-ops, engineering, fuels, and integrity backgrounds entering the pool all the time, not a stale list.

For a deeper look at how veteran backgrounds map across the broader sector, see our guides on hiring veterans for oil and gas roles and hiring veterans for energy and utilities roles. If your work is plant-based, the guides on chemical plants and refineries and welding and fabrication shops go deeper on those trades. For the safety side, our guide on EHS and safety manager roles is a strong companion. And if you are building a repeatable hiring motion, start with the midsize employer veteran hiring pipeline guide.

The pipeline workforce is getting older and harder to replace. Veterans give you a way to fill the gap with people who already know how to operate carefully in a high-stakes system. Point your next req at them. When you are ready to reach this talent directly, connect with Best Military Resume to access the veteran talent pool.