The reality is that they bill your time to the government a certain way based on your qualifications, and the contract specifies what qualifications you're expected to have. If you grow or change in some way the contract doesn't capture, they can't give you a raise without losing money (since the contract pays them the same).
So classically you have to switch to another job - within the same company, or at another, to advance.
Compounding this is the nature of classified work (which most DoD contracts are). You're in a windowless lab, and you can't really say what you do, or even, often, who you do it for. You get 0 visibility outside your immediate team.
There are exceptions and some ways to get around these realities, but you're really fighting against a system that strongly prefers things remain static.
Actually, not on the list, even though I worked in two (of the bigger) companies, and one of the ones on your list was across the street on solutions drive in McLean, VA, from where I worked :).
Also, that company would compensate you to get a master's degree.
The reality is that they bill your time to the government a certain way based on your qualifications, and the contract specifies what qualifications you're expected to have. If you grow or change in some way the contract doesn't capture, they can't give you a raise without losing money (since the contract pays them the same).
So classically you have to switch to another job - within the same company, or at another, to advance.
Compounding this is the nature of classified work (which most DoD contracts are). You're in a windowless lab, and you can't really say what you do, or even, often, who you do it for. You get 0 visibility outside your immediate team.
There are exceptions and some ways to get around these realities, but you're really fighting against a system that strongly prefers things remain static.