A Colorado Springs aerospace and defense company is setting up shop in Reston, with plans to invest $1.8 million and create at least 78 new jobs at a facility the company says will anchor its growing East Coast presence. Auria is leasing an 18,501-square-foot space at 2000 Edmund Halley Drive, Suite 600, putting the new headquarters within reach of the Reston Metro station.
The investment and job figures come from Virginia Business, which reports that Auria plans to create 78 jobs and spend $1.8 million on the project. The new headquarters will include a center where Auria and nearby customers and partners can develop, test, demonstrate and integrate advanced command, control and mission capabilities, according to the outlet. The $1.8 million figure was separately confirmed by ClearanceJobs, which described the Reston project as Auria's first East Coast headquarters.
Auria CEO Damian DiPippa told WTOP News that the company needed an East Coast headquarters in a high-tech area, and that Reston was a perfect location. He said he's drawn to Northern Virginia's dynamic technology community as well as its access to mass transit for employees. Per WTOP, the new headquarters will provide access to decision makers from Capitol Hill to the Pentagon.
Governor Touts New Jobs Amid Reports of Early 2027 Timeline
Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger announced Auria's new East Coast headquarters, saying her administration looks forward to a longstanding partnership with the company as it expands and creates dozens of jobs, per WTOP's report. On the timing, sources diverge: WTOP reported the company is planning to open its East Coast headquarters in Fairfax County early in 2027, while the same Virginia Business report cited above states Auria expects the Reston facility to become operational by mid-2027.
Auria is already a presence in Virginia. The station's report notes the company has a development facility in Warrenton that builds products for commercial and military space clients, and Virginia Business adds that Auria is headquartered in Colorado Springs with additional offices in Warrenton, Huntsville, Alabama, and Tampa, Florida. DiPippa said Northern Virginia is rapidly becoming Auria's largest employment footprint, per the same account from Virginia Business.
The companies' employee counts also diverge slightly between outlets. WTOP reported that Auria employs around 500 people, while Virginia Business put the figure at about 510 employees nationwide. The expected Reston jobs will include roles in space systems engineering, product and business development, and corporate infrastructure support, according to Virginia Business, and WTOP reports that DiPippa is hiring experts in software development, artificial intelligence enablement, orbital operations, radio frequency communications, and digital ground infrastructure.
A Mid-Sized Disruptor Born From a 2024 Merger
Auria was formed in 2024 when Enlightenment Capital merged Colorado aerospace and defense company Boecore with three companies it had previously acquired, according to Virginia Business. DiPippa described the company to WTOP as a technology disruptor coming in as a mid-sized, agile company, one that is bidding on a lot of work now and into 2027.
Part of a Booming Northern Virginia Aerospace Cluster
Auria's move lands amid a broader buildout of the region's space and defense industry. More than 125 aerospace and defense companies now operate in Northern Virginia, according to Virginia Business, which attributes the sector's growth partly to proximity to federal agencies and, further east, NASA's Langley Research Center and Wallops Island flight facility.
Other companies have made similar moves recently. Scout Space plans to invest more than $1 million to expand its Fairfax County operations and create 31 new jobs, adding 2,650 square feet of office space at a new manufacturing facility in Merrifield beyond its existing Reston location, according to the Virginia Economic Development Partnership. That company develops sensor systems, autonomy software and data platforms for space operations, per the same release.
Iridium moved in March to a new Tysons office where 164 employees now work, and Blue Origin has established a growing Northern Virginia footprint that includes an office in Reston, both according to Virginia Business's reporting on the region's aerospace boom. Elsewhere in the state, L3Harris Technologies is planning a $1.27 billion expansion of its manufacturing site in Orange County, expected to create 350 jobs over five years and more than double the site's current 256,000 square feet of manufacturing space, according to Defense News. A much earlier example of Reston's pull for headquarters relocations came from Macedon Technologies, which announced a $1.65 million expansion of its Reston headquarters that was expected to create 147 jobs after Virginia beat out Texas for the project, according to a VEDP announcement.
