Ernesto Ramon Mercado biography: 13 things about Arlington, Virginia engineer

Who is Ernesto Ramon Mercado?

Ernesto Ramon Mercado is an American engineer from Arlington, Virginia, United States. He is an accused serial rapist.

Through deoxyribonucleic acid testing and other investigative tools, Mercado was linked to five sexual assaults that took place in Washington, D.C., USA between 2008 to 2012. He is an alumnus of Montgomery College in Rockville, Maryland, USA and the University of Maryland in College Park, Maryland.

As an experienced engineering professional, Mercado has diverse industry experience in cyber security, internet infrastructure and financial services. He is skilled in Puppet, Git, Linux system administration, domain name system, test management, system integration, cyber security endpoint administration and test automation.

Aside from Arlington, Mercado has lived in other parts of Virginia including Alexandria. Here are 13 more things about him:

1. In 1992, he studied engineering science at Montgomery College. From 1992 to 1995, he studied electrical engineering at the University of Maryland.
2. From January 1996 to October 1997, he worked at AlliedSignal in Greenbelt, Maryland as a performance analyst and a software test engineer.
3. From October 1997 to July 1998, he worked at Vector Research in Arlington as a senior quality assurance (QA) engineer.
4. From December 1998 to December 2000, he was a software QA engineer at AOL in Dulles, Virginia.
5. From December 2000 to March 2007, he was a QA engineer at VERISIGN in Sterling, Virginia.
6. Between 2002 and 2007, he lived in College Park. From March 2007 to June 2007, he was a test lead at L-3 National Security Solutions in Reston, Virginia.
7. From June 2007 to July 2017, he was a QA engineer at VERISIGN in Reston. He allegedly sexually assaulted five different women in Washington, D.C. on June 26, 2008, on July 10, 2009, on February 28, 2010, on August 29, 2010 and on August 31, 2012.
8. From July 2017 to June 2018, he was a systems administration manager at Neustar in the U.S. From July 2018 to September 2019, he was a QA software engineering manager at FireEye in Reston.
9. From February 2018 to November 2021, he was an Arlington Soccer Association volunteer coach.
10. From December 2019 to April 2021, he was a user acceptance testing (UAT) and test integration lead contractor at Fannie Mae in Herndon, Virginia and a QA and general manager at Focus2020 in Arlington.
11. From May 2021 to November 2021, he was a security engineer at SECUNETICS in Reston.
12. In March 2022, he joined Booz Allen Hamilton in McLean, Virginia as a lead technologist. From September 2022 to June 2024, he was an Arlington Soccer Association volunteer coach again.
13. In January 2024, he turned 54. On October 1, 2024, he was arrested by the U.S. Marshals near his home in Arlington. On October 2, 2024, he appeared in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia in Northwest, Washington, D.C. He was charged with three counts of first-degree sexual abuse with aggravating circumstances and five counts of second-degree sexual abuse with aggravating circumstances. On October 10, 2024, he will attend a preliminary hearing.