Senior Network Engineer

At Ardent, we hire people who want more than a job — they want to serve a mission that matters. Our teams support the federal government’s most critical national security and defense priorities, helping protect the nation, strengthen resilience, and advance the technologies and capabilities that keep America secure. For veterans, cleared professionals, and purpose-driven innovators, Ardent is a place to continue serving alongside a team that understands the importance of the mission and the people behind it.

We also know top talent has choices, which is why we back our mission with benefits and flexibility that stand out: competitive pay, comprehensive health coverage, flexible PTO, federal holidays off, tuition reimbursement, professional development support, wellness stipends, and a culture that values and rewards hard work, dedication, and adaptability. If you want to build something meaningful, while enjoying the kind of flexibility and support that you need to do your best work — Ardent is where your next mission begins.

Ardent is seeking a Senior Network Engineer to join our team.  

This is a on site position in Washington DC.

Position Description:

• Enterprise Network Engineering: Design, implement, operate, and optimize the Congressional Budget Office’s Cisco-based network infrastructure, including core, distribution, access, and edge environments, to ensure high availability, scalability, performance, and resilience in support of mission requirements.
• Network Security Architecture & Compliance: Implement and maintain network security controls aligned with NIST SP 800-53, NIST SP 800-207 (Zero Trust Architecture), and Cisco security best practices, including continuous monitoring, risk mitigation, and network security posture management.
• Network Access Control & Identity Integration: Engineer and enforce secure network access controls, including 802.1X port-based authentication, role-based access, and integration with enterprise identity services to support Zero Trust principles and least-privilege access models.
• Routing, Switching & Infrastructure Services: Manage and support routing, switching, and network services (e.g., VLANs, DNS, DHCP, VPNs), ensuring secure configuration, optimal performance, and alignment with organizational standards and policies.
• Perimeter & Public-Facing Security: Secure and managing public-facing network infrastructure, including firewalls, remote access solutions, and edge devices, ensuring hardened configurations, restricted access, and continuous monitoring to prevent unauthorized access and external threats.
• Network Monitoring & Security Operations Enablement: Implement and manage network monitoring, logging, and alerting capabilities, integrating with enterprise SIEM and network detection and response (NDR) tools to enhance visibility, threat detection, and incident response readiness.
• Vulnerability Management & Device Lifecycle: Establish and maintain a structured program for network device patching, firmware updates, vulnerability remediation, and lifecycle management to ensure all infrastructure components remain secure, compliant, and supported.
• Change Management & Documentation: Support formal change management processes, maintain accurate network diagrams and configuration documentation, and contribute to standard operating procedures to ensure transparency, traceability, and operational continuity.
• Advisory & Technical Leadership: Serve as a senior technical advisor to CBO stakeholders, collaborating with cybersecurity, cloud, and operations teams to resolve complex network issues, improve architecture, and support audits, assessments, and compliance initiatives.
• Customer Service & Team Collaboration: Serve as the technical adviser for complicated service desk tickets and modifications to better support network operations, while collaborating with cloud, Microsoft engineering, and cybersecurity teams.

Responsibilities and Duties:

• Implement and maintain network security controls aligned with NIST SP 800-53, including access control (AC), configuration management (CM), system and communications protection (SC), and audit and accountability (AU) control families.
• Engineer and enforce Zero Trust network architecture principles in accordance with NIST SP 800-207, including network segmentation, micro-segmentation, and continuous verification of users and devices.
• Design and implement least-privilege network access controls, ensuring role-based and identity-aware access across all network layers.
• Deploy and manage 802.1X port-based network access control to prevent unauthorized device connectivity and enforce authentication at the network edge.
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