Network Engineer at Ardent Principles, Inc.
Chantilly, VA
$130,000–$260,000
Jun 28, 2026
Chantilly, VA
Jul 20, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A full-time, onsite network engineering role supporting a security-focused enterprise environment. Day-to-day work centers on firewall administration, network access control, VPN tunneling, and endpoint protection — including managing mobile emulation platforms. The position suits an experienced network engineer holding an active TS/SCI clearance with Full Scope Polygraph, with additional interest in Zero Trust implementation and cross-team security policy development.
Senior level · Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV · TS/SCI clearance · Full-time
Pay in the description: $130,000–$260,000
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $125,430 (middle half $98,650–$153,220). 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 Jul 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (8)
The role is titled 'Network Engineer' with no seniority level in the title; advertised seniority is Unspecified. The broad compensation range ($130K–$260K) and the security-cleared, onsite mission environment suggest a wide experience band is acceptable.
Active TS/SCI with Full Scope Polygraph is explicitly stated as required — this is a hard gate.
The role sits between network administration (15-1244) and information security analysis (15-1212); the day-to-day work described (firewall admin, NAC, VPN, endpoint protection, access controls) leans toward network/systems operations rather than pure security analysis, so 15-1244 is the primary code with 15-1212 as the runner-up.
BlueStacks (mobile emulation platform) is listed under required responsibilities alongside endpoint security, so it is treated as a hard gate despite being a niche tool.
The 'Desired Certifications' section (CCNP Security, PCNSE, ITIL v4, Microsoft MCP, CompTIA Linux) is explicitly framed as desired/not mandatory; all are captured as a single preferred skill entry with alternatives since they serve the same certification-credential purpose in this context.
No minimum years of experience are stated anywhere in the posting.
Ignored 1 non-technology phrase(s) as skills (responsibilities/concepts, not named tools): firewall administration.
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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