VAWhere Technology Meets Purpose: Your Career Awaits

The Department of Veterans Affairs offers strong starting salaries, steady growth opportunities, and employment incentives like recruitment and relocation bonuses and retention allowances. Regular performance-based increases are also available, as are incentive awards like special contribution awards, quality step increases, and superior performance awards.

Special Salary Rates

Beginning in July 2023, IT professionals at VA in General Schedule (GS) positions GS-5 to GS-15 across 2210, 1550, and 0854 occupational series receive a locality-specific higher rate of basic pay.

The Special Salary Rate (SSR) helps VA build and sustain a workforce that can carry out our mission of providing Veterans and their families with the world-class benefits and services they have earned.

Check out the special salary rate tables.

We know your personal time is important. That’s why employees start out with eleven paid holidays each year: New Year’s Day, Dr. Martin Luther King Day, President’s Day, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day. You’ll also earn annual leave for vacations, rest and relaxation, and personal business or emergencies. Federal employees earn annual leave at a rate — 4, 6, or 8 hours per pay period — which is based on the number of years they have served as a Federal employee. Hours are earned each biweekly pay period, and a maximum of 240 hours may be carried over from one leave year to the next.

As a federal employee, you’ll also earn sick leave that may be used for your or a family member’s medical, dental, or optical exams or treatment. Regardless of your length of service, you’ll earn 13 days of sick leave each year.

Receiving Service Credit or Earning Annual (Vacation) Leave

VA may offer newly-appointed Federal employees credit for their job-related non-federal experience or active-duty service member. This credited service can determine the rate at which they earn annual leave. Such credit must be requested and approved before the appointment date and is not guaranteed.

As a VA employee, you’ll have access to comprehensive federal health insurance plans that may pay up to 75 percent of health premiums. You can also contribute to a Flexible Spending Account to take care of any medical expenses. No medical exam is required to enroll, and there is no waiting period. Coverage may be carried into retirement. Eligible employees can sign up to participate in the Federal Long-Term Care Insurance Program (FLTCIP). This program provides long-term care insurance to help pay the costs of care when employees need help with activities performed every day or when employees have a severe cognitive impairment.  There are no government contributions to this program.

You may enroll in the government-wide Federal Employees Group Life Insurance (FEGLI) Program as a federal employee. FEGLI provides a variety of coverage and benefit amounts. Coverage is automatic for most employees unless the coverage is waived.

The Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) consists of three components: Social Security benefits, a basic annuity plan, and the tax-deferred Thrift Savings Plan (TSP). Employees pay full Social Security taxes and a small contribution to the basic annuity plan. As your employer, we automatically make 1 percent of your salary contribution to your TSP. You may also elect to contribute a percentage of your salary to the plan, and we will match your contributions up to a total of 5 percent of your salary.

The Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) is a retirement savings plan for civilian employees of the U.S. Federal Government. The purpose of the TSP is to provide retirement income. The TSP offers Federal civilian employees the same savings and tax benefits that many private corporations offer their employees under 401-K plans. The TSP is a defined contribution plan.

We’re committed to creating fulfilling career pathways for current and future employees that allow our staff to focus on leading our strategic vision rather than spending excessive time on task management. Through our Talent Management System and Leadership Development Framework, you can cultivate the skills you need to excel in your field.

VA will often pay for full- or part-time college studies. If you have student loans, you may be eligible to apply for the Student Loan Repayment Program and, if approved, receive up to $40,000 per year and $100,000 total toward your loans in return for a one-year service agreement.

The Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP) and Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP) provides eligible displaced VA competitive service employees with selection priority over other candidates for competitive service vacancies. To be well-qualified, applicants must possess experience that exceeds the minimum qualifications of the position including all selective factors if applicable and must be proficient in most of the requirements of the job.