Moving to San Antonio

Military & defence

Joint Base San Antonio — Lackland, Fort Sam Houston and Randolph — plus 16th Air Force (Air Forces Cyber), Brooke Army Medical Center

The largest employer in the region by a wide margin. Lackland runs basic training for the entire US Air Force and Space Force enlisted intake; Fort Sam Houston is the military's medical training hub. Most direct roles need US citizenship and often a clearance, so treat this as context for the local economy rather than a job market you can enter on arrival.

Health care & biomedical research

UT Health San Antonio, Methodist Healthcare, Baptist Health System, University Health, Texas Biomedical Research Institute, Southwest Research Institute

The South Texas Medical Center is a dedicated medical district on the north-west side with tens of thousands of jobs. Southwest Research Institute is a large independent contract R&D organisation, and Texas Biomed operates one of the very few privately held maximum-containment laboratories in the country.

Financial services & insurance

USAA, Frost Bank, Victory Capital, Security Service Federal Credit Union

USAA — which serves military members and their families — runs one of the largest single corporate campuses in the United States here and is the biggest private employer in the city. Frost is one of the last large independent Texas banks. It is a genuine finance cluster, and unusually, one built around a single customer base.

Energy

Valero Energy, Sunoco/NuStar, CPS Energy, EOG and Eagle Ford operators

Valero is a Fortune 500 refiner headquartered here, and the Eagle Ford shale south and west of the city put a layer of oilfield services and midstream work into the local economy. CPS Energy is municipally owned — the largest US municipal utility supplying both gas and electricity — which is why energy politics here are city-council politics.

Cybersecurity & IT

16th Air Force, NSA Texas, Rackspace Technology, IPSecure, Denim Group legacy, a broad managed-services layer

San Antonio's cyber sector grew directly out of the military presence and is one of the largest concentrations outside Washington. The commercial side — managed services, cloud, security operations — is far more open to non-citizens than the government-facing side, which mostly is not.

Manufacturing, food & tourism

Toyota Motor Manufacturing Texas, H-E-B, Whataburger, iHeartMedia, Bill Miller Bar-B-Q, the River Walk hospitality economy

Toyota builds full-size pickups on the south side with a supplier park attached. H-E-B and Whataburger are both headquartered here and are cultural institutions as much as employers. Tourism around the River Walk and the missions is a very large low-wage employment base — worth understanding if you are assessing the local wage floor.

Landmark · South of downtown along the river

Four Spanish colonial missions south of the Alamo, all still active parishes, inscribed together with the Alamo as Texas's only UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2015.

Local tip: Do it by bike on the Mission Reach — the river was re-engineered into an eight-mile linear park connecting them, and riding it is far better than driving between car parks. Mission San José on a Sunday morning for the mariachi mass.

Food · North of downtown on the Museum Reach

A nineteenth-century brewery complex turned into the city's best food district — a weekend farmers' market, the Culinary Institute of America's Texas campus, and restaurants that draw people from across the region.

Local tip: Saturday morning market first, then walk the Museum Reach stretch of the River Walk back into town — it is the quiet, art-lined half that tourists never reach.

Neighborhood · Immediately south of downtown

The city's first designated historic district — nineteenth-century German merchant mansions on wide streets — running into Southtown's galleries, bars and the Blue Star complex.

Local tip: First Friday in Southtown is the long-running art walk and is a genuinely good way to meet people in your first month. Walk down to Mission Reach from here rather than driving.

Landmark · Downtown, east side

The site of the 1968 World's Fair, being progressively rebuilt into city parks, with the 229-metre tower still standing over it.

Local tip: Yanaguana Garden in Hemisfair is one of the best free playgrounds in the city and is where downtown families actually go. Skip the tower's restaurant and use the observation deck, or neither.

Culture · West of downtown

The largest Mexican market in the United States, with El Mercado's stalls and a bakery-restaurant that has not closed its doors since 1941.

Local tip: It is touristy and also entirely real — the pan dulce counter at Mi Tierra at two in the morning is a San Antonio institution. Go for the bakery and the Día de los Muertos season, not the souvenir stalls.

Nightlife · West and south San Antonio

San Antonio is the home of conjunto — accordion-and-bajo-sexto music born on the Texas-Mexico border — and the West Side is where it is still played live rather than curated.

Local tip: The Tejano Conjunto Festival in spring is the concentrated version, but the neighbourhood halls and icehouses run year-round. An icehouse is an open-air neighbourhood bar; it is the most San Antonio place to spend a Thursday evening.