1,500+ Social Services & Counseling Jobs in Washington, DC

Observed local wage anchors vary by sub-role: BLS puts social workers in the metro at a $61,330 median, with a $48,840 to $78,520 interquartile range, while healthcare social workers are at $71,430 median and mental health and substance abuse social workers at $77,600 median. Directional posting data is a bit higher, with local advertised pay centered on about $65k to $80k and a broader 25th-75th band of about $53k to $105k; nationally, new openings in the field averaged about $72,725 in offered salary in July 2026, based on a large posting sample.

Full July 2026 market report

Advertised pay

Across the 1,145 openings that disclose pay, the advertised range midpoint runs $75,000 at the 25th percentile, $91,500 at the median and $106,080 at the 75th. These are advertised ranges, not earned pay.

Active openings as of September 10, 2026

Senior roles | Entry level | Remote | Posted this week

Live from the Callings.ai index of over 13 million postings, refreshed hourly and re-checked here nightly. Roles that close are dropped at the next refresh.

Showing 30 of 250+ openings.

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What our analysts see this month

Balanced market | next 3-6 months

This is a workable market, but not an easy one. The Washington metro showed more than 450 relevant postings across more than 200 companies over the last 90 days, and hiring is spread across a fragmented employer base rather than one dominant system. At the same time, the metro's education and health services base was 491 thousand jobs in June 2026 and down -0.5267% year over year, while metro unemployment was 4.1% in June 2026, so this is more of a replacement-and-specialization market than a broad hiring surge.

Best positioned: Licensed or license-eligible candidates with hospital, school-linked, or senior-living social-work experience—especially case management, crisis intervention, documentation, and care-coordination depth—have the best odds right now.

Main caution: Many job seekers picture this as a nonprofit-first, flexible-work market, but local demand is concentrated in healthcare-linked settings and about 75% of postings are on-site.

From the July 2026 market report

Who is hiring here

Counted across all 1,507 openings in this market. 10 of the employers below are hiring for more than one role right now.

1. MedStar Health: 47 open roles
2. Transformations Care Network: 45 open roles
3. Ally Behavior: 36 open roles
4. Preferra Insurance: 35 open roles
5. Inova Health System, Inc.: 34 open roles
6. LifeBridge Health Inc: 27 open roles
7. Johns Hopkins Medicine: 25 open roles
8. LifeStance Health Inc.: 25 open roles
9. MHALA: 22 open roles
10. Uhs: 22 open roles

Where the openings are

• Washington: 196
• Baltimore: 192
• Silver Spring: 64
• Alexandria: 62
• Fairfax: 60
• Rockville: 55
• Arlington: 48
• Columbia: 44

Work arrangement

on-site 1,158 (79%), hybrid 195 (13%), remote 109 (7%)

Where the demand is

Real demand is concentrated much more in healthcare-linked settings than many job seekers expect. In the local posting sample, about 50% of roles sat in healthcare, another about 15% in hospitals and health care, and about 15% in education, while only about 5% sat in social services as a standalone industry. That pushes opportunity toward hospital social work, care coordination, discharge planning, school-linked services, and family-support work rather than purely community-program jobs. The employer base is broad. We observed more than 450 postings across more than 200 companies over the last 90 days, and the sample is fragmented rather than concentrated in one dominant institution. Named active employers include Headway, Luminis Health, Counseling Center of Maryland, Shelter House, Kaiser Permanente International, Connections Health Solutions, MedStar Health, and Johns Hopkins Medicine. Fresh public postings also show metro demand in Maryland suburbs, including a Licensed Social Worker opening at Collington. This is also a working-level, location-bound market: about 35% of openings are entry level and about 65% mid level, while about 75% are on-site. If you are only targeting remote nonprofit roles, you are filtering out most of the market.

• Healthcare-linked direct service (high): This is the biggest target zone locally. About 50% of postings are in healthcare and another about 15% in hospitals and health care, with common skill asks including case management, discharge planning, care coordination, and patient assessment.
• School and family services (moderate): Education accounts for about 15% of the local posting mix, and the metro has been a major employment hub for child, family, and school social workers.
• Senior living and suburban human services (moderate): Regional demand is not limited to downtown employers. Public local listings include a Licensed Social Worker opening at Collington in Prince George's County.
• Pure nonprofit and community-program roles (limited): These exist, but they are a smaller slice than many job seekers expect because only about 5% of the local posting mix sits in social services as a standalone industry.

Where to focus: Prioritize hospital, health-network, school-linked, and senior-living roles first, then widen to smaller nonprofit employers once your resume clearly shows case management, documentation, and crisis depth.

Roles worth searching next

• Patient advocate / care transitions coordinator: These roles use the same local demand base as many social-work openings because the metro leans heavily toward healthcare and values patient advocacy, discharge planning, and care coordination.
• Behavioral-health or senior-living intake coordinator: This path keeps you near the same employer set while shifting toward admissions, intake, scheduling, and documentation-heavy work.
• Legal aid intake specialist / newcomer services coordinator: Community-facing legal support is nearby in this metro, including bilingual newcomer-services hiring at Catholic Charities Archdiocese of Washington.
• Social and human service assistant: It is a lower-barrier bridge for people who already have client-service, referral, or documentation experience but do not yet meet licensure expectations.

What postings ask for

• LCSW / LICSW / LMSW / LCSW-C (premium | immediate): These are the most frequently named licenses in local postings, and they open the better-paid and more specialized tracks in the metro. Who: Master's-trained social workers and experienced practitioners who can satisfy supervised-hour requirements.
• Case management (table_stakes | immediate): Case management is the most-requested hard skill in the local posting sample, appearing in about 50% of postings. Who: Entry-level candidates, career switchers with client-service backgrounds, and mid-career applicants who need sharper resume positioning.
• Crisis intervention (differentiator | immediate): Crisis intervention appears in about 25% of local postings and is also highlighted by outside social-work labor analyses as a priority employer need. Who: Hospital, school, youth, behavioral-health, and family-services candidates.
• Documentation and EHR workflow (table_stakes | immediate): Documentation shows up in about 20% of local postings, and EHR fluency is repeatedly cited as a core employer expectation in the field. Who: Anyone targeting hospital, outpatient, or senior-care settings.
• Discharge planning and care coordination (differentiator | immediate): These skills map directly to the healthcare-heavy local mix and appear explicitly in the metro posting sample. Who: Mid-career clinicians, hospital social workers, and candidates moving from medical admin or patient-services roles.
• Telehealth competency and HIPAA compliance (differentiator | near-term): Remote service delivery remains important in social work, and telehealth competency with HIPAA-safe practice is identified as an essential skill. Who: Counseling-adjacent, outpatient, and hybrid-service candidates.

Questions about this market

What do Social Services, Counseling & Community roles pay in Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV?

Observed local wage anchors vary by sub-role: BLS puts social workers in the metro at a $61,330 median, with a $48,840 to $78,520 interquartile range, while healthcare social workers are at $71,430 median and mental health and substance abuse social workers at $77,600 median. Directional posting data is a bit higher, with local advertised pay centered on about $65k to $80k and a broader 25th-75th band of about $53k to $105k; nationally, new openings in the field averaged about $72,725 in offered salary in July 2026, based on a large posting sample. This is solid nominal pay for direct-service work, but it is not automatically high by DC standards because the metro cost-of-living index was 134.5, roughly 34.5% above the national baseline.

Where is demand for Social Services, Counseling & Community roles in Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV concentrated?

Real demand is concentrated much more in healthcare-linked settings than many job seekers expect. In the local posting sample, about 50% of roles sat in healthcare, another about 15% in hospitals and health care, and about 15% in education, while only about 5% sat in social services as a standalone industry. That pushes opportunity toward hospital social work, care coordination, discharge planning, school-linked services, and family-support work rather than purely community-program jobs. The employer base is broad. We observed more than 450 postings across more than 200 companies over the last 90 days, and the sample is fragmented rather than concentrated in one dominant institution. Named active employers include Headway, Luminis Health, Counseling Center of Maryland, Shelter House, Kaiser Permanente International, Connections Health Solutions, MedStar Health, and Johns Hopkins Medicine. Fresh public postings also show metro demand in Maryland suburbs, including a Licensed Social Worker opening at Collington. This is also a working-level, location-bound market: about 35% of openings are entry level and about 65% mid level, while about 75% are on-site. If you are only targeting remote nonprofit roles, you are filtering out most of the market.

Which employers are hiring the most Social Services, Counseling & Community talent in Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV?

Recent postings show the most activity from Headway (20 postings), Luminis Health, Inc. (10 postings), Counseling Center of Maryland (10 postings), Shelter House, Inc. (10 postings), Kaiser Permanente International (10 postings). See the full market report for the complete employer landscape.

Can Social Services, Counseling & Community roles in Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV be done remotely?

Of recent postings, 10% are remote and 15% hybrid, with 75% on-site. Use the Remote filter above to see only remote openings.

How current are these listings?

Openings come from the Callings.ai live index of over 13 million jobs, refreshed hourly. This page searches postings from the last 30 days; run the search yourself to filter by anything else in plain language.

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