Senior Service Desk Officer / Systems Operations Center Administrator

Location: Reston, VA
Work Location: On-site – Northern Virginia
Clearance Required: Active TS/SCI with CI Polygraph
Certification Requirement: DoD 8570 IAT Level II compliant by date of security indoctrination

Position Overview

We are seeking an experienced Service Desk Officer / Systems Operations Center Administrator to support a mission-critical IT environment in Reston, Virginia.

This position serves as a key operational interface between end users, network and systems infrastructure, and senior technical teams. The Service Desk Officer is responsible for monitoring enterprise network and server environments, assessing and troubleshooting technical incidents, coordinating escalations, and ensuring customer issues and operational events are appropriately documented and driven toward resolution.

This is not simply a traditional Help Desk position. The role requires an individual who can operate effectively within a secure technical environment, exercise sound judgment during troubleshooting and incident response, and communicate confidently with both customers and senior technical personnel.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide front-line technical and operational support within a secure Systems Operations Center environment supporting mission-critical IT infrastructure.
• Monitor enterprise network, server, application, and supporting infrastructure for operational events, outages, and performance issues.
• Perform initial technical assessment, troubleshooting, and incident isolation across LAN/WAN environments, systems, applications, and telecommunications infrastructure.
• Analyze technical issues using deployed monitoring tools, system documentation, knowledge bases, established procedures, and prior technical experience.
• Determine appropriate resolution paths and coordinate escalation of complex incidents to network engineers, systems administrators, and other senior technical teams.
• Maintain ownership and visibility of incidents throughout the escalation and resolution process.
• Serve as a technical liaison between customers/end users and engineering or infrastructure teams.
• Execute and coordinate operational service requests, including network-port activation, system-account administration, software-license management, and other infrastructure-related requests.
• Utilize enterprise IT management and ticketing platforms to document incidents, actions, escalations, and resolutions.
• Identify recurring issues and contribute to improvements in troubleshooting procedures, documentation, knowledge management, and operational processes.
• Maintain a high level of responsiveness, professionalism, and customer service within a mission-focused environment.
• Work independently when necessary while collaborating closely with network, systems, security, and engineering personnel.

Required Qualifications

• Active TS/SCI with CI Polygraph clearance.
• Demonstrated professional experience supporting enterprise IT, network, systems, or operations-center environments.
• Strong technical troubleshooting and analytical problem-solving skills.
• Working knowledge of enterprise networking, systems, applications, and IT infrastructure.
• Excellent verbal communication skills, including the ability to communicate technical issues clearly with customers and senior technical personnel.
• Strong written communication and technical documentation skills.
• Ability to assess technical issues, establish priorities, and determine when escalation to specialized engineering resources is required.
• Ability to operate effectively both independently and as part of a multidisciplinary technical team.
• Ability and willingness to work on-site in Reston, Virginia.
• Must be DoD 8570 IAT Level II compliant by the date of security indoctrination, including any required Computing Environment (CE) certification.

Education requirements may be considered in combination with relevant professional and mission experience.

Desired Qualifications

Experience with one or more of the following is highly desirable:

• Enterprise LAN/WAN and networking technologies
• Network operations or Systems Operations Center environments
• Microsoft Windows administration
• Linux administration
• Network and server monitoring
• SolarWinds or comparable enterprise monitoring and IT management platforms
• ServiceNow or comparable enterprise ITSM/ticketing platforms
• Ethernet, CAT5, fiber, and other network infrastructure
• Incident management and technical escalation processes
• Account administration and access-management workflows
• Supporting highly available or mission-critical IT environments

Ideal Candidate

The ideal candidate is an experienced IT professional who is comfortable operating in a highly secure, mission-focused environment and understands that effective operations support requires more than simply processing tickets.

This individual should be capable of independently assessing technical issues, performing meaningful troubleshooting, recognizing potential infrastructure impacts, communicating effectively with customers and engineers, and ensuring incidents are appropriately managed through resolution.

The successful candidate will combine technical depth, operational awareness, strong communication skills, and sound judgment with the professionalism required to support a sensitive customer mission.