Veterans

Female military member talking to troopsMilitary veterans play a crucial role in ATF’s mission to keep communities safe by serving as special agents, industry operations investigators, forensic specialists and other professional and technical positions.

Veterans are encouraged to apply for ATF’s open positions on USAjobs.gov.

View current job openings

Hiring Authorities

Veterans are eligible to apply for ATF career opportunities through veterans’ preference using several hiring authorities, including:

  • 30% Disabled Veteran: Noncompetitive appointment for veterans with a disability rating of 30% or more, or with a compensable service-connected disability of 30% or more.
  • Schedule A: Noncompetitive appointment for people with severe physical disabilities, psychiatric disabilities or intellectual disabilities.

When applying for special agent positions, veterans who exceed the maximum entry age of 37 can receive a waiver as part of their veterans’ preference eligibility.

Application Process

Veterans interested in applying for job openings using veterans’ preference must submit a copy of their Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty (DD Form 214) as part of their application package on USAjobs. If you are claiming 10-point preference, you will need to submit an Application for 10-point Veterans Preference (SF-15).

Visit the USAJobs Veterans resource page for more details on uploading these required documents. For general information on applying for federal jobs as a veteran, check out FedsHireVets.gov.

Benefits

Disabled Veteran Leave
For recently hired veterans with a service-connected disability rating of 30% or more, the Disabled Veteran Leave Entitlement provides up to 104 hours of disabled veteran leave for the purposes of undergoing medical treatment for such disability.

Military Leave
Federal employees with appointments lasting more than one year are entitled to 15 days of leave per fiscal year to perform certain types of active or inactive duty in the Reserves or National Guard.

Contact Us

For questions about applying to ATF with veteran’s preference, please email:

If you’re interested in becoming a special agent, you can call our nationwide recruiting hotline at 202-648-9100 or the ATF recruiter for your nearest field division.

Last Reviewed February 8, 2023