Penetration Tester (Cyber Security Project Engineer)
Ardent Principles, Inc. · Chantilly, VA
$130,000–$260,000
Jun 30, 2026
Chantilly, VA
Jul 20, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A hands-on penetration testing role focused on evaluating the security of Linux, Windows, and virtual environments through adversarial tactics and system exploitation techniques. Day-to-day work includes network security assessments, analysis of network architectures, IT security architecture design and testing, and reviewing enterprise system and hypervisor configurations. Suits experienced security professionals holding an active TS/SCI clearance with Full Scope Polygraph.
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 $152,225 (middle half $125,286–$177,673). 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 (7)
An active TS/SCI with Full Scope Polygraph is an explicit hard gate — candidates without it cannot be considered.
The role is titled 'Penetration Tester (Cyber Security Project Engineer)' with no seniority level in the title, hence advertised seniority is Unspecified; however, the breadth of responsibilities (adversarial tactics, architecture design, enterprise/hypervisor review, risk methodology development) and the wide comp band ($130K–$260K) support a Senior classification.
No minimum years of overall experience are stated in the posting.
A Bachelor's degree is listed under 'Highly Desired Qualifications' (not required), so the degree requirement is set to None.
Oracle Cloud and the certifications (CEH, OSCP, GPEN) all appear under the 'Highly Desired Qualifications' section, which explicitly states these are 'not mandatory to perform the work.'
Ignored 5 non-technology phrase(s) as skills (responsibilities/concepts, not named tools): IT security architecture, network security analysis, network architecture analysis, risk management, hypervisor configuration.
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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