Throughline

Technology

Computer Network Architect in the United States

132 postings read · sampled 2026-09-01 · source ats

What employers actually ask for

Credentials named in the 132 postings we read, ranked by how many mentioned each one.

What it costs

Exam and application fees plus typical self-study hours. Almost nobody needs every credential on this list — start with the top line.

Most-asked-for, on its own
$700CCNP · ~300 hrs
asked for in 36 of 132 postings — 27%
If you earned all 4 of them
$3,799
fees checked 2026-08
1750 hrs
1750 hours — over a year at 10 hrs/wk

Not in the total: Bachelor's Degree — cost varies by institution; Secret Security Clearance — sponsored by an employer, not purchasable; TS/SCI — sponsored by an employer, not purchasable.

Lower signal for this role

Credentials that barely appeared in this sample. That is not a claim they are worthless — plenty are valuable for a different job, a different city, or a promotion later. It is a claim that employers here mostly did not ask.

What the official taxonomy says

O*NET surveys people already doing this job. That describes who got hired over a long window, not what employers are asking for now — where it disagrees with the counts above, the counts are the more current answer.

Education reported by people doing this job
55%reported bachelor’s degree
  • Bachelor’s degree55%
  • Associate’s degree or other 2-year degree15%
  • Post-secondary certificate15%

Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed. Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.

O*NET 15-1241.00 · pulled 2026-09-01 · percentages are of surveyed workers, each rounded separately, so they need not total 100

What it pays

BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. A different survey from the postings above, so the two do not share a sample.

$79,900
10th percentile
$134,050
median
$202,680
90th percentile

Every credential above costs $3,799 — about 7 days' pay at the median.

Who was hiring

Employers with at least one matching posting in this sample.

SpaceX · Cloudflare · Ask IT Consulting · vTech Solution · Artech Information System · C3EL · 360 IT Professionals · Stem Xpert · OpenAI · Rocket Lab · Collabera · IonQ · System Canada Technologies · USM · Zoox · Deegit Inc · Roblox · Saronic · Anduril Industries · Astranis · Atlas Energy Solutions · Blink Health · Bosch · Braze · City of New York · Coinbase · Convene · Databricks · Datadog · Elastic · Etched · Freenome · Gusto · Intuitive Surgical · Peloton · SBT Global · Skydio · Sonsoft Inc · Twilio · Wealthfront · Zenput

Next

  • Roast and Resolve — Now aim your résumé at this target. Free roast, paid rewrite.
  • Synap — Two-minute daily lessons to drill the skills underneath the credential.