IT Manager Salary in Virginia (2026)
The average IT Manager in Virginia earns around $185,000/year. After taxes, your estimated take-home is $127,868/year ($10,656/month).
Take-Home Pay Breakdown
| Category | Amount |
|---|---|
Annual Take-Home Pay | $127,868 |
Monthly Take-Home Pay | $10,656 |
Biweekly Take-Home Pay | $4,918 |
Hourly Take-Home Pay based on 2,080 hrs/year | $61/hr |
Federal Tax | $33,134 |
State Tax | $9,877 |
FICA Taxes | $14,122 |
Effective Tax Rate total taxes ÷ gross salary | 30.88% |
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Read the guideIT Manager Salary Ranges in Virginia
Not all IT Managers earn the same — not even close
Virginia IT Manager titles cluster densely in the DC-corridor metro (Arlington / McLean / Tysons / Reston / Herndon / Fairfax) with a smaller separate Richmond market. NoVA hires for federal cleared IT-leadership at MITRE / Booz Allen / Leidos / CACI / Northrop / Lockheed, commercial IT at Amazon HQ2 / Capital One / AWS, and an emerging fintech / cyber tier. Richmond hires for Capital One regional ops, CarMax, Markel insurance, Genworth.
Amazon HQ2 L7/L8 Engineering Manager (Arlington)
$320,000–$520,000
Crystal City / National Landing · ~25K planned jobs · Seattle-tracking comp ladder
Capital One McLean Director / VP Tech
$240,000–$420,000
~5,000-engineer applied IT org · MBR + RSU + bonus · AI Foundry research arm
Cleared IT Director (TS/SCI poly) (MITRE / Booz / Leidos / CACI)
$240,000–$400,000
Clearance + poly premium 15-30% above uncleared equivalent
AWS Herndon Senior Engineering Manager
$280,000–$450,000
AWS datacenter-alley applied AI / cloud-platform engineering management
Federal Civil Service AI/IT (DARPA / IARPA / NGA / CDAO)
$185,000–$285,000
GS-14/15 + research bonus · FERS pension + TSP retirement structure
Senior IT Manager (Mid-Career, Generalist)
$160,000–$240,000
Strong floor across NoVA + Richmond + cleared-contractor tier
Quantitative / Credit Risk IT Director (Capital One / Freddie / Fannie)
$220,000–$370,000
Capital One McLean + Freddie Mac + Fannie Mae credit-risk IT leadership
Northrop Grumman / Lockheed Senior IT Manager
$200,000–$330,000
Falls Church / Linthicum HQ · cleared autonomy / sensor / cyber IT
Richmond Tech Director (Capital One Richmond / CarMax / Markel)
$185,000–$290,000
Smaller market but cost-of-living adjusted comp competitive
CIO / VP IT (VA HQ Mid-Cap)
$260,000–$450,000
Hilton, Booz Allen Hamilton, Markel, CarMax, Genworth, Dollar Tree
Worth knowing: VA-specific layers: MITRE Corporation McLean operates as a Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC) — chartered to provide unbiased technical advice to the federal government — and runs one of the largest applied AI / ML research organizations in the country with roughly 9,000 employees. Combined with Amazon HQ2's accelerating buildout (~25,000 planned jobs at the Crystal City / National Landing campus) and Capital One McLean's ~5,000-engineer applied IT organization, Northern Virginia represents the largest non-Bay-Area concentration of senior IT-leadership comp on the East Coast. VA generally conforms to federal Section 1202 exclusion at the state level — meaningful advantage over PA / OH / NC / NJ for venture-backed startup equity gains.
VA IT Manager comp — Amazon HQ2, cleared federal AI, Capital One, VA-vs-MD residency math
5.75%
VA top state income tax (effectively flat above $17K, no local)
~25K
Amazon HQ2 planned jobs at Crystal City / National Landing buildout
$14K+
annual VA-vs-MD residency savings for $250K senior IT director
Northern Virginia's IT-leadership market reached an inflection point with Amazon's HQ2 announcement in late 2018 and the multi-year buildout of the Crystal City / National Landing campus in Arlington. ~25,000 planned jobs across AWS / Amazon Retail / Alexa AI / corporate-finance IT / advertising-AI now physically based in Arlington, with the broader DC-corridor effect of pulling tier-1 senior tech-leadership talent into the metro. L7/L8 Engineering Manager comp at Amazon HQ2 runs $320K-$520K with full Amazon + bonus + .
Capital One's McLean headquarters runs one of the largest applied IT-leadership organizations on the East Coast — credit-risk modeling, fraud detection, retail-banking personalization, marketing-attribution analytics, and a meaningful applied AI Research arm with formal published-research output. The McLean campus and the broader Capital One real-estate footprint across NoVA support roughly 5,000 engineering / IT / ML employees. Director / VP Tech comp $260K-$420K with full + + bonus.
The cleared-contractor tier is the structural differentiator. MITRE Corporation McLean (FFRDC, 9,000 employees, ~50% cleared), Booz Allen Hamilton McLean HQ, Leidos Reston HQ, CACI Reston HQ, ManTech, Northrop Grumman Falls Church / Linthicum, Lockheed Martin Bethesda HQ (technically MD, but employs significant NoVA-resident tier), General Dynamics, SAIC, Peraton — collectively run more cleared IT / AI / cyber-AI work than any single US metro outside the Bay Area. Senior IT Director with TS/SCI plus poly clearance commands a 15-30% comp premium versus uncleared equivalent.
Federal civil service IT-leadership represents a separate path. DARPA Arlington, IARPA McLean, the Pentagon's JAIC / Chief Digital and AI Office (CDAO), the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) Springfield, and the National Science Foundation Alexandria all run substantive IT / ML research / acquisition programs. GS-14/15 Senior IT Director comp is below contractor tier in cash terms but with FERS pension + retirement structure that commercial IT-leadership lacks.
Virginia's progressive state income tax has been technically progressive since 1990 but with fixed bracket thresholds that mean essentially every senior-IT-director hits the 5.75% top rate on the marginal dollar (brackets: 2% to $3K, 3% to $5K, 5% to $17K, 5.75% above $17K). Functionally a flat 5.75% above the trivially-low $17K threshold. There are no municipal income taxes anywhere in VA — Arlington, McLean, Reston, Tysons, Richmond all 0% local.
The structural senior-IT-director arbitrage is VA-vs-MD. Maryland levies 5.75% state + county piggyback rates of 2-3.2% (Montgomery 3.2% / Howard 3.2% / Prince George's 3.2%, with most counties at 2.85-3.0%). For a $250K Capital One McLean Director: NoVA caps at 5.75% all-in versus MoCo's 8.95% combined — effectively a $14K-$15K/year residency-decision delta. At $400K senior comp the NoVA-vs-MoCo spread climbs to $22K-$28K/year. Over a 10-year senior+ tenure that's $140K-$280K of after-tax difference from a residency choice with broadly equivalent commute and school options.
DC's own progressive brackets (up to 10.75% top at $1M+) make DC residency the worst tax position of the three jurisdictions for senior-IT-director commuters to NoVA / Bethesda employers. The senior-tier IT director optimal residence is almost always NoVA on tax grounds.
Virginia for IT Managers — DC-corridor depth, Richmond fintech, mild Mid-Atlantic climate
Northern Virginia is genuinely one of the most professionally dense metros in the country — federal government, defense / intelligence / cyber, big-tech (Amazon HQ2 + AWS Herndon datacenter alley), fintech (Capital One), academic-style FFRDC research (MITRE), and a deep cleared-contractor tier. The cultural feel is suburban-corporate rather than urban-tech, but senior-IT-director career-mobility density is unmatched outside Bay Area / Boston / NYC / Seattle.
Arlington (Crystal City / Rosslyn / Ballston / Clarendon) has substantively urbanized over the past decade — walkable Metro-accessible neighborhoods with real food / arts scenes that didn't exist 15 years ago. Amazon HQ2 has accelerated this. Senior+ IT directors at Amazon / Capital One / MITRE find the Arlington urban-core lifestyle compatible at $280K-$450K comp.
The McLean / Tysons / Vienna / Reston tier offers more conventional suburban senior-IT-director family life — top Fairfax County schools, McLean's old-money character, Tysons' walkable Silver Line corridor, Reston Town Center's planned-mixed-use density. This is where most senior+ IT directors with school-age families end up.
Richmond is a separate market with distinctly different culture — historic city, increasingly substantive food / arts / brewing scene, much lower cost of living, smaller but real fintech (Capital One regional ops), insurance (Markel HQ), and emerging healthcare-AI tier (VCU Health). Senior IT directors at Richmond employers live very comfortably at $200-280K.
Climate is mild Mid-Atlantic — hot humid summers, real but modest winters, abundant fall color. The Shenandoah Valley / Blue Ridge for weekend recreation, Atlantic beaches for summer. Substantively better climate than most Northern IT-leadership markets.
How VA's 5.75% flat-effective + 0% local + QSBS conformity reshape IT Manager wealth-build
VA's effectively-flat 5.75% state income tax (above $17K) is the simplest part of the stack. A $300K Senior IT Director pays roughly $17,250 in VA state; a $500K VP pays $28,750. There is no add-on or capital-gains preferential rate. Brackets are not inflation-indexed and have been frozen since 1990, so VA effectively functions as a flat 5.75% above the trivially-low $17K threshold.
There are no municipal income taxes anywhere in VA. Arlington, McLean, Reston, Tysons, Richmond, Norfolk all 0% local. The clean state-only stack is the structural advantage versus MD (5.75% state + 2-3.2% county piggyback) and DC (progressive brackets up to 10.75% top).
The VA-vs-MD residency arbitrage is the single largest senior-IT-director optimization in the DC corridor. For senior tier choosing NoVA (5.75% flat) vs MoCo (8.95% combined), the delta runs $14K-$28K/year at $250K-$500K comp. Over a 10-year senior+ tenure, that's $140K-$280K of after-tax difference from a residency choice with broadly equivalent commute and school options.
Virginia generally conforms to federal capital gains treatment, including Section 1202 exclusion at the state level under most readings. (Verify per liquidity event.) For senior+ IT directors at venture-backed startups in NoVA's emerging fintech / cyber tier or Richmond's smaller venture portfolio, this is meaningful state-level advantage versus PA / OH / NC / NJ which decline to follow federal QSBS.
() availability at major VA employers: Amazon HQ2 follows national Amazon plan — full MBR ($47,500/year above the $24,500 deferral). Capital One offers MBR. AWS Herndon follows Amazon plan. Booz Allen, Leidos, CACI, MITRE, Northrop Grumman all offer some form of after-tax — verify in-plan Roth conversion eligibility per employer (most do offer it, but plan rules vary). Federal civil service employees do not have MBR but have access to TSP + Roth TSP + FERS pension structure.
Backdoor Roth IRA $7,000/year and $4,400 single / $8,750 family standard. VA conforms to federal HSA treatment (state-deductible). VA529 (Invest529 / Prepaid Tuition Track) offers state tax deduction up to $4,000 per account / per beneficiary / per year (no statewide cap on number of accounts).
- →If working at any DC-corridor employer (Amazon HQ2 / Capital One McLean / MITRE / Booz Allen / Leidos / CACI): live in NoVA (Arlington / McLean / Falls Church / Vienna / Reston). Saves $14K-$28K/year vs Bethesda / Silver Spring / Rockville / DC residence.
- →Max at Amazon HQ2 / Capital One / cleared contractor tier offering it — $47,500/year above the $24,500 deferral. Single biggest tax-advantaged accumulation lever.
- → sell-on-vest discipline at publicly-traded employers (Amazon, Capital One, Lockheed, Northrop, Booz Allen, Leidos, CACI). Eliminates capital gains exposure entirely.
- →Backdoor Roth IRA $7K/year + $4,400 single / $8,750 family triple-tax-advantaged. VA state-deductible matching federal.
- →VA529 $4,000 per account / per beneficiary state tax deduction. Multiple beneficiary accounts stack for senior+ IT directors with multiple children — no statewide cap.
- →Cleared-contractor-tier: maintain TS/SCI + poly clearance currency. Clearance is a portable career asset that compounds across cleared-contractor job changes — NoVA cleared-IT tier has ~15-30% premium versus uncleared equivalent.
Three VA IT Manager submarkets — what each looks like
NoVA Amazon HQ2 + Capital One commercial tech, NoVA cleared / federal AI tier, and Richmond fintech are three structurally different VA IT-leadership career paths.
NoVA Amazon HQ2 + Capital One commercial tech (Arlington / McLean / Reston / Herndon)
Senior $230K-$340K · Director $280K-$450K · VP $400K-$650K+Amazon HQ2 (Crystal City / National Landing, ~25K planned jobs across AWS / Retail / Alexa AI / advertising / corporate-finance IT). Capital One McLean HQ (~5,000-engineer applied IT organization across credit risk, fraud, retail-banking personalization). AWS Herndon datacenter-alley applied AI / cloud-platform engineering. Smaller fintech / e-commerce tier across NoVA.
Amazon HQ2's continued buildout is one of the most consequential senior-IT-director hiring events in the Eastern US over the past decade. Senior comp tracks Seattle base + slightly reduced housing-allowance multiplier, with cost-of-living gap meaning net real comp is materially better than Seattle equivalent.
NoVA cleared / federal AI tier (MITRE / Booz Allen / Leidos / CACI / Northrop / federal civil service)
Cleared IT Director (TS/SCI poly) $240K-$400K · Senior research $260K-$420K · Federal GS-15 $200K-$280KMITRE Corporation McLean (FFRDC, 9,000 employees, ~50% cleared, applied AI / ML research with publication output). Booz Allen Hamilton McLean HQ. Leidos Reston HQ. CACI Reston HQ. ManTech, Northrop Grumman Falls Church / Linthicum, Lockheed Martin Bethesda HQ, General Dynamics, SAIC, Peraton. DARPA Arlington / IARPA McLean civil service research positions. NGA Springfield. Pentagon JAIC/CDAO.
TS/SCI plus polygraph reciprocity is a portable career asset — clearance premium repeats every cleared-contractor job change. Senior cleared IT-leadership tier is one of the most underrated US senior-IT-director career paths; comp plus pension-structure plus mission-meaning balance is hard to replicate elsewhere.
Richmond fintech + insurance + healthcare (Capital One Richmond / CarMax / Markel / Genworth / VCU Health)
Senior $150K-$220K · Director $200K-$310K · VP $270K-$400KCapital One regional Richmond operations (smaller than McLean HQ but real applied IT / engineering presence). CarMax HQ tech (vehicle pricing analytics, customer personalization). Markel Corporation HQ (specialty insurance analytics). Genworth Financial. VCU Health (clinical AI emerging tier). Smaller venture-backed insurtech and healthcare-AI startups.
Richmond IT-leadership comp runs roughly 10-15% below NoVA equivalent but cost of living is dramatically lower — senior IT director at $200-280K can buy houses in top-rated suburb districts (Henrico's West End, Short Pump, Glen Allen, Midlothian) that simply aren't accessible at the same comp in NoVA.
The VA IT Manager career arc — Amazon HQ2 / Capital One commercial, cleared federal AI, Richmond fintech
Year 0-3 (Senior Engineer / Tech Lead): $130K-$190K total comp at Amazon HQ2, Capital One McLean, AWS Herndon, MITRE, Booz Allen, Leidos, CACI, federal civil service. GMU / Virginia Tech / UVA / GW MS new grads cluster $145K-$200K at Amazon HQ2 / Capital One / AWS. Cleared-contractor entry-level (with clearance) can start higher via clearance premium. Federal civil service GS-12/13 starts lower in cash but with FERS pension structure.
Year 5-10 (Senior IT Manager / First-Line EM): $185K-$310K. Amazon HQ2 L6/L7 EM cluster $260K-$390K with full Amazon + bonus. Capital One McLean engineering managers $230K-$340K. Cleared MLE / IT manager with TS/SCI poly $240K-$370K. MITRE senior research engineering manager $230K-$340K with publication output. Federal GS-13/14 $160K-$220K with pension structure. RSU vesting at publicly-traded employers accelerates compounding.
Year 10-18 (Director / Senior Director): $280K-$500K. The VA-vs-MD residency arbitrage becomes financially meaningful — $14K-$25K/year of MoCo-tax avoidance compounds. Amazon HQ2 Senior EM / Principal $400K-$550K. Capital One Senior Director / VP Tech $310K-$450K. Cleared IT Director with TS/SCI poly $300K-$400K with clearance premium. MITRE Senior Director $300K-$420K. Federal GS-15 $200K-$285K with FERS continuing.
Year 18+ (CIO / VP IT / Distinguished / SES): $400K-$800K+. CIO at Amazon HQ2 / Capital One / Booz Allen / Leidos / Lockheed / Northrop / Hilton / Markel typically clears $500K-$800K. MITRE Distinguished research staff with major program impact reach high six figures. Federal Senior Executive Service (SES) caps at ~$230K cash but with FERS pension. FIRE genuinely accessible — NoVA cost of living significant but well below Bay Area / NYC.
Where Virginia IT Managers actually live
VA IT-leadership residential geography is dominated by school district quality, the VA-vs-MD-vs-DC tax math (always favors VA), and commute geometry to specific anchor employers (Amazon HQ2 Arlington, Capital One McLean, MITRE McLean, AWS Herndon, Pentagon area). The clean 0% local + 5.75% state stack means intra-VA residency is school + commute optimization rather than tax optimization.
Arlington (Rosslyn / Ballston / Clarendon / Crystal City)
Metro Orange/Silver/Blue · 0% local · Amazon HQ2 walkable · $2,200-$3,800/mo 1BR
McLean / Great Falls (Fairfax Co), VA
Top Fairfax schools · 0% local · Capital One McLean / MITRE 10-min commute · $1.2M-$3M+
Vienna / Oakton / Tysons, VA
Silver Line Metro · 0% local · top schools · McLean / Tysons / Reston commute
Reston / Herndon (Fairfax Co), VA
Silver Line Metro · 0% local · planned-mixed-use · AWS Herndon / CACI / Leidos commute
Falls Church City / Pimmit Hills, VA
Inner NoVA · 0% local · top Falls Church schools · 15-min Pentagon / Amazon HQ2
Alexandria (Old Town / Del Ray), VA
Walkable historic · 0% local · Pentagon / Amazon HQ2 commute · charming pre-war
West End / Short Pump (Henrico Co, Richmond)
Top Henrico schools · 0% local · Capital One Richmond / Markel commute · $500K-$1.2M
Museum District / Forest Hill / Westover Hills, Richmond
Walkable urban · 0% local · craftsman / pre-war housing · younger IT director
Arlington's Metro-accessible urban density (Rosslyn / Ballston / Clarendon / Crystal City) suits younger / urban-preference senior IT directors. McLean / Vienna / Tysons covers the senior+ family demographic with top Fairfax County schools. Reston / Herndon picks up the AWS / cleared-contractor tier with planned-mixed-use density.
Is this the right move?
Virginia for IT Managers — who it works for
Working in your favor
- +Amazon HQ2's continued buildout is one of the most consequential senior-IT-director hiring events in the Eastern US — ~25,000 planned jobs at competitive Seattle-tracking comp
- +Capital One McLean runs ~5,000-engineer applied IT-leadership organization with formal AI Research arm and meaningful published output
- +MITRE McLean FFRDC + cleared-contractor tier (Booz Allen / Leidos / CACI / Northrop) operate the largest non-Bay-Area cleared IT / AI research density
- +VA flat-effective 5.75% state income tax + 0% local is significantly better than MD's 5.75% + 2-3.2% county piggyback — VA-vs-MD residency saves $14K-$28K/year for senior+ IT directors
- +VA generally conforms to federal Section 1202 QSBS exclusion at state level — meaningful advantage over PA / OH / NC / NJ for venture-backed startup equity gains
- +Cost of living below NYC / Boston / SF — senior+ IT directors at $250-450K can buy houses in top Fairfax County school districts with material housing premium versus those metros
Worth knowing before you sign
- −VA's 5.75% top rate is meaningfully above NC (3.99%) / GA (5.39%) / TN (0%) for senior-IT-director comp — within Southeast peer group, only Maryland and Georgia higher
- −Outside DC corridor and Richmond, senior+ IT director optionality is genuinely thin — Norfolk / Hampton Roads / Roanoke have small markets
- −DC-corridor commute geometry is real — I-66, I-95, and the Beltway routinely worst-in-nation traffic
- −Cleared-contractor tier requires US citizenship + clearance-eligibility — narrows hiring pool versus uncleared commercial tech
- −NoVA cost of living, while below NYC / SF, is materially above Richmond / Hampton Roads — McLean / Vienna housing premiums are real
Job Market in Virginia
Virginia has active demand for IT Managers.
Growth outlook: BLS projects 17% growth 2022-2032 (much faster than average) for Computer & Information Systems Managers. 2024 BLS median $171K = top-paying tech occupation entering 2026. Top 10% earn over $239K (BLS) — and FAANG / hyperscaler engineering leadership L7-L8 total comp regularly $500K-$1M+. Sustained demand from cloud migrations, AI/ML platform builds, cybersecurity expansion, and digital-transformation engagements.
Related job titles:
Cost of Living in Virginia
Virginia has a varied cost of living by region.
💰 Monthly take-home: $10,656
🏠 Typical rent: $1,600/mo
📊 After rent: $9,056/mo
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