Tucsonruns 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
Missiles & defence
Raytheon (RTX), Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, AMARG, General Dynamics, Applied Signal
Raytheon's Tucson plant is the city's largest private employer at roughly 13,000 people and builds most of the US missile inventory. Davis-Monthan adds thousands more and hosts AMARG, the aircraft boneyard. Many roles require US citizenship and a security clearance — worth knowing before you apply.
Optics & photonics
University of Arizona Wyant College of Optical Sciences, Coherent, Edmund Optics, Photon Engineering, Arizona Optical Systems
Tucson calls itself Optics Valley and it is not marketing: the Wyant College anchors a cluster of well over a hundred optics firms, and the Richard F. Caris Mirror Lab under the university's football stadium casts the world's largest telescope mirrors.
Universities & astronomy
University of Arizona, Steward Observatory, Kitt Peak National Observatory, Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, NOIRLab
The university runs the state's flagship research campus and southern Arizona's dark skies made Tucson a world centre for astronomy — which is also why the city and county have strict outdoor lighting codes that visibly change how the place looks at night.
Healthcare & diagnostics
Banner – University Medical Center Tucson, TMC HealthCare, Carondelet, Roche Tissue Diagnostics (Ventana), Northwest Healthcare
Banner's University Medical Center is the region's academic referral hospital and Roche's tissue diagnostics business grew out of Ventana Medical Systems in Oro Valley — an unusually large life-sciences employer for a metro this size.
Mining & heavy equipment
Caterpillar Surface Mining & Technology, Freeport-McMoRan Sierrita and Mission mines, ASARCO, Hexagon Mining
Caterpillar moved the headquarters of its surface mining and technology division to downtown Tucson, next to a copper district that has been worked for more than a century. Mining engineering at the university feeds it directly.
Aerospace & cross-border logistics
Bombardier, Ascent Aviation Services, World View, Paragon Space Development, Nogales produce importers
Tucson International and Pinal Airpark host large aircraft maintenance operations, and the Mariposa port of entry at Nogales an hour south handles a very large share of the winter fruit and vegetables eaten in North America — a logistics economy invisible from the city itself.
Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.