Virginia McVea is a lawyer who qualified as a solicitor in Northern Ireland (NI) in 1993 specialising in European Law, Human Rights and Litigation in private practice. An expert in the duty of the state to protect life, she is an advanced advocate in the jurisdiction, a former Committee member for the Law Society of NI and a trainer for the Institute of Professional Legal Studies.

Virginia McVea has developed and delivered decision-making training schemes to senior emergency service teams in the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and Health and Social Care Trusts. A legal adviser to the health and social care regulatory body she developed new inspection methodologies and new investigative methodologies taken up by the international ombudsman institute. Virginia has worked in the public, private and voluntary sectors in the UK and was a Trustee for the UK Stroke Association. Virginia was the first female Chief Electoral Officer for Northern Ireland from 2017 to 2023, the largest electoral single jurisdiction in the UK. 

In April 2023, Virginia McVea was appointed Chief Executive of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA), bringing her extensive public service experience to oversee the organisation's work across the United Kingdom. 

The MCA is an Executive Agency of the Department for Transport with responsibility for ensuring safety at sea and working on issues vital to the future of a thriving UK maritime sector. The MCA puts people, customers, and the planet at the heart of everything they do, responding to marine incidents, helping those in distress, setting appropriate standards and regulations, and promoting and enhancing seafarer well-being. 

As the Chief Executive of the MCA, Virginia McVea has restructured the MCA with a focus on customer, innovation and risk. A new MCA strategy with a focus on critical national capability, innovation and decarbonisation and climate change implications for emergency and rescue as some headlines.