Software Developer/Systems Software at Ardent Principles, Inc.
Chantilly, VA
$130,000–$260,000
Aug 16, 2026
Chantilly, VA
Aug 18, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A full-stack/data engineering role supporting a cleared intelligence community sponsor in Chantilly, VA, requiring an active TS/SCI with Full Scope Polygraph. The engineer will design and operate large-scale ETL pipelines, graph databases, geospatial indexes, and cloud-native microservices architectures, while also contributing front-end React work and MLOps pipelines. The breadth of the stack — spanning NoSQL, graph traversal, probabilistic modeling, and DevSecOps — suits a highly experienced generalist engineer comfortable in classified environments.
Senior level · Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV · TS/SCI clearance · Full-time
Pay in the description: $130,000–$260,000
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How this req sits in the market our data
Rare in this occupation — lead with these, and say what you built with them.
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $158,337 (middle half $126,441–$180,105). This posting is about at that midpoint.
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Aug 18, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (10)
An active TS/SCI with Full Scope Polygraph is an explicit hard gate — candidates without it cannot be considered.
The posting's salary range ($130,000–$260,000/year) is unusually wide, likely reflecting a broad band across multiple seniority sub-levels or labor categories within the cleared contractor context.
The role title is 'Software Developer/Systems Software' with no seniority modifier; however, the depth and breadth of required skills (graph databases at tens-of-billions-of-edges scale, probabilistic graphical models, MLOps, geospatial indexing, DevSecOps) strongly indicate a senior-level practitioner.
Several skills listed under 'Key Responsibilities' read as operational duties rather than named tools (e.g., probabilistic graphical models, Bayesian inference, Monte Carlo simulation) but are stated as required demonstrated experience and have been retained as concrete technical competencies.
The 'Highly Desired Qualifications' section is explicitly labeled as 'not mandatory,' so all skills appearing only there (EMR, AWS ECS/Fargate, Protocol Buffers, Parquet, ITSM, certifications) are marked preferred.
The posting contains a likely typo: 'loud-native architectures' is interpreted as 'cloud-native architectures.' Similarly, 'data raphing tool' is interpreted as 'data graphing tool.'
Certifications (AWS Solutions Architect, AWS ML, Agile, Azure, Security+, GSEC, CCNA) appear only under 'Highly Desired Qualifications' and are therefore preferred, not required.
The alt SOC 15-1243 (Database Architects) is noted because a substantial portion of the role centers on designing and operating large-scale graph and NoSQL database systems, though the full-stack software development framing makes 15-1252 the primary classification.
Ignored 2 non-technology phrase(s) as skills (responsibilities/concepts, not named tools): API design, Probabilistic modeling.
Requires a TS/SCI clearance — the cleared population is a small fraction of this occupation, so the real candidate pool is materially smaller than the estimate below, which does not model clearance.
Read the full posting
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