I mean... Both can work... History is simply repeating.
Space Jockey race creates engineers, and also the perfect orgamism (xenomorph) as a bioweapon to terminate engineers when they become too big for their boots... (and fail) - 'Aliens: Colonial Marines' shows a nice hologram triggered in the LV426 derelict showing the ship fighting a flying saucer.. Very much like the saucer piloted by engineers who seeds Earth..
engineers, smaller in size than the Jockeys, mimic their creators in technology and wear biosuits that are tributes (jockey helmets etc).. create humankind in their image, and like the Jockeys created the XENO, the engineers create neomorph as a bioweapon to wipe us out when they realise we are the same as them and same fate awaits them as did their creators, then start again, creating the humanoids we see inhabiting the planet in 'Covenant'...
humankind, smaller in size than engineers, creates replicants in our own image... Realising the threat to ourselves from superior strength and abilities, we create replicant blade runners as bioweapons to wipe them out, and start again, creating androids in our own image...
Androids themselves will later create autons in their own image (robots created by robots - as referenced in 'Alien Resurrection' who are also persecuted and have to burn their modems to avoid detection), but in this particular case, David, an android with a god complex who wants to create, choses not to recreate in his own image.. He wants to recreate perfection: a Xenomorph. He hasn't quite gotten there yet.. But the circle is almost complete ;-)
In this way, the Derelict on LV426 can indeed be ancient. Engineers can simply be using found Jockey technology, in the same we we find their installation on LV-233 and David operates it.