Canberraruns on a handful of strong industries. If you’re job-hunting or weighing a move, here’s where the opportunities (and the big-name employers) are.
Top industries & employers
Commonwealth government & policy
Departments of Treasury, Defence, Home Affairs, Foreign Affairs and Trade, Services Australia, the ATO
The Australian Public Service is the city's economy. Salaries are banded and transparent, conditions are excellent, and most substantive roles are gated behind a security clearance that requires citizenship — which is why the sequence for a migrant is usually contract or industry work first, APS later.
Defence industry & national security
BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin Australia, Thales, Northrop Grumman, ASD and the intelligence agencies
A large defence-primes cluster grew up around the Department of Defence at Russell and the Australian Signals Directorate. It pays well and it is the most clearance-locked part of the market — treat citizenship as the entry ticket, not a nice-to-have.
Higher education & research
Australian National University, University of Canberra, UNSW Canberra at ADFA, CSIRO
The ANU is consistently Australia's highest-ranked university and, crucially for a newcomer, universities do not require citizenship. Academic and professional-staff roles are the most realistic first landing for a skilled migrant in Canberra.
Professional services & consulting
Accenture, KPMG, Deloitte, EY, Nous Group, Synergy Group
A very large consulting market exists purely to sell to government. Unclassified programme, change and data work is open to non-citizens; anything touching classified material is not, and the split runs straight through most firms' Canberra practices.
Health & aged care
Canberra Health Services, Canberra Hospital, Calvary Bruce, ACT Health
The new Canberra Hospital critical services building opened in 2024 and the territory draws patients from a large slice of south-eastern NSW. Health is the other citizenship-free part of the labour market and sits on almost every skilled occupation list.
Space, cyber & deep tech
Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex (Tidbinbilla), Skykraft, Seeing Machines, Quintessence Labs, Instaclustr
Tidbinbilla is one of only three complexes in NASA's Deep Space Network worldwide, and the ANU and UNSW Canberra spin out a steady stream of space and cyber companies. Small by Sydney standards, but unusually deep for a city of half a million.
Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.