Mission-Driven Network Engineer — Onsite in DC

Ardent; Washington (Washington County); On-site; USD 110,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive pay

Comprehensive health coverage

Flexible PTO

Tuition reimbursement

Wellness stipends

Job summary

Ardent is seeking a Network Engineer for an onsite role in Washington DC. You will support the Congressional Budget Office’s Cisco-based network infrastructure, ensuring reliability, performance, and security in alignment with NIST controls and Zero Trust principles.

The role emphasizes configuring routing, switching, VPNs, and network services, while maintaining documentation and participating in incident response and continuous improvement.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in IT, CS, Engineering or equivalent.
• 5+ years supporting enterprise networks.
• Hands-on Cisco networking experience.
• Familiarity with NIST frameworks RMF/NIST 800-53.
• Experience with network security controls.

Responsibilities

• Support Cisco-based network infrastructure for core, distribution, access, and edge networks.
• Implement and enforce Zero Trust Architecture per NIST 800-207.
• Configure routing, switching, VLANs, DNS, DHCP, VPNs.
• Monitor network performance and incidents; assist in remediation.
• Maintain documentation and SOPs; change control processes.
• Collaborate with security, cloud, and Microsoft engineering teams.

Skills

Cisco networking

Zero Trust Architecture

RMF knowledge

Network monitoring

Incident response

Documentation

Troubleshooting

Access control 802.1X

Network design principles

SIEM integration

Education

Bachelor’s degree in IT/CS/Engineering

Tools

Cisco routers

Cisco switches

Firewalls

SIEM platforms

Network monitoring tools

VPNs

Job description

Ardent is seeking a Network Engineer for an onsite role in Washington DC. You will support the Congressional Budget Office’s Cisco-based network infrastructure, ensuring reliability, performance, and security in alignment with NIST controls and Zero Trust principles.

The role emphasizes configuring routing, switching, VPNs, and network services, while maintaining documentation and participating in incident response and continuous improvement.