Watch Officer Lead

Job Description

Job Description

Company Description

Founded in 1989 and headquartered in Reston, Virginia, SOSi is a private defense and government solutions business specializing in advanced technology systems and mission support. Its capabilities include data science, software development, network engineering, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR), and logistics.

⚡This is where real-time decisions drive real-world impact . ⚡

SOSi is seeking a Watch Officer Lead at Camp H.M. Smith to lead mission-focused watch operations and maintain a clear operational picture across complex enterprise networks. The ideal candidate combines senior-level network engineering or network security experience with watch-floor leadership, incident coordination, operational reporting, and the ability to translate technical issues into clear mission impact for technical teams and senior leaders.

The Watch Officer Lead serves as the senior operational lead for the Watch and as the primary operational focal point for the network and enterprise-service situational awareness. The position maintains continuity across Network Operations, Systems Operations, Engineering, Information Assurance, Enterprise Service Desk, DCO/SOC, service owners, and other mission stakeholders without replacing the technical execution responsibilities of those organizations.

At SOSi, we tackle complex technical challenges head-on—because Challenge Accepted isn’t just a motto, it’s how we operate.

Essential Job Duties

• Lead day-to-day Watch operations and provide operational direction, mentoring, and oversight to Watch Officers across shifts.
• Serve as the primary operational focal point for significant network outages, degradations, service disruptions, priority incidents, planned activities, and other mission-impacting events.
• Maintain broad situational awareness across the network, system, enterprise-service, cybersecurity, and infrastructure activities without assuming the execution responsibilities of supporting technical organizations.
• Monitor network health and availability using SolarWinds and other network-management or operational-monitoring platforms, with particular attention to major outages, service degradation, infrastructure dependencies, and mission impact.
• Evaluate technical information received from Network Operations, Systems Operations, Engineering, Information Assurance, Enterprise Service Desk, service owners, and other technical teams; identify information gaps; and obtain what is needed for operational reporting and escalation.
• Coordinate significant incidents across Operations, Network Engineering, Network Operations, Systems Operations, Information Assurance, Enterprise Service Desk, DCO/SOC, TNCC, and other mission partners.
• Ensure significant issues have an identified technical owner, authoritative ticket or JIRA record, current status, mission-impact assessment, next action, and appropriate escalation.
• Track high-priority JIRA, service-management, and engineering tickets while relying on the responsible technical team as the authoritative source for troubleshooting and remediation actions.
• Lead Watch shift turnover and maintain continuity of open incidents, outages, tickets, scheduled activities, reporting requirements, leadership requests, risks, and outstanding actions between shifts.
• Develop concise operational BLUFs explaining what happened, the affected mission or service, operational impact, responsible organization, actions underway, current status, and expected next steps.
• Support TNCC and J6 reporting requirements, including significant-event reporting, C4IR reporting, operational dashboards, SIGACT inputs, Watch roll-ups, leadership briefs, and other recurring or event-driven reporting.
• Support the effective use of MAVEN/MSS as an operational reporting and decision-support environment by helping define reporting requirements, maintain data quality, improve workflows and visualizations, and coordinate with engineering or data personnel to automate reporting where practical.
• Develop and refine Watch SOPs, battle drills, escalation thresholds, reporting standards, turnover procedures, ticket workflows, communication templates, and operational checklists.
• Train Watch Officers to understand the responsibilities of Network Operations, Engineering, Information Assurance, Enterprise Service Desk, DCO/SOC, TNCC, and other supporting organizations so they can rapidly determine ownership and coordinate the appropriate response.
• Identify recurring operational problems, reporting gaps, tool limitations, and process weaknesses and recommend improvements that increase Watch effectiveness and reduce manual workload.
• Support exercises, contingency operations, elevated mission conditions, and other periods requiring expanded Watch coverage or reporting.

Minimum Requirements

• An active in scope TS/SCI security clearance.
• Compliant with DoD 8140 DCWF 451 Intermediate, Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Cybersecurity, Data Science, Information Systems, or Software Engineering //OR// one of the following certifications: Cloud+, GICSP, GSEC, Security+, or SSCP.
• Minimum 7+ years of experience in a Watch Officer, Lead Watch Officer, NOC, enterprise operations, service desk, systems operations, network operations, or mission operations environment.
• Significant professional experience in network engineering, network security engineering, enterprise network operations, NOC operations, or a closely related discipline.
• Demonstrated experience leading personnel, shifts, watch-floor operations, incident coordination, or major technical events.
• Strong understanding of TCP/IP networking, routing and switching, WAN technologies, network availability, VPNs, firewalls, DNS, enterprise services, network dependencies, and troubleshooting methodologies.
• Experience using enterprise network-monitoring platforms such as SolarWinds or equivalent technologies.
• Experience working with ticketing, incident-management, or engineering workflow platforms such as JIRA, ServiceNow, or equivalent systems.
• Ability to evaluate complex technical information and rapidly translate it into operational impact and concise leadership-level reporting.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Demonstrated ability to coordinate technical teams across organizational boundaries without requiring direct supervisory authority.
• Ability to maintain accuracy, composure, and disciplined communications during major outages and mission-impacting events.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting Department of Defense, Combatant Command, Joint, Service, or theater-level network operations. 
• Experience supporting USINDOPACOM, TNCC, coalition networks, or comparable multi-enclave environments.
• CCNA, CCNP Enterprise, CISSP, Security+, CySA+, or comparable networking or cybersecurity certifications.
• Experience with MPE architectures and dependencies across multiple enclaves or mission networks.
• Experience developing or maintaining operational dashboards and executive-level reporting.
• Familiarity with MAVEN Smart System (MSS), data visualization, data integration, analytics, or similar decision-support platforms.
• Working knowledge of SQL, APIs, scripting, KQL, Power BI, Grafana, Elastic, or similar technologies used to automate or improve operational reporting.
• Experience developing SOPs, CONOPS, battle drills, incident-management processes, escalation matrices, or watch-floor procedures.
• Experience briefing senior military, civilian, or contractor leadership.

Work Environment

• On-site work in a secure mission environment at Camp H.M. Smith, Hawaii.
• Working conditions are normal for an office environment.
• Mission operations supporting a 24/5 baseline with potential evening, overnight, weekend, exercise, contingency, and surge coverage based on contract and mission requirements.
• Fast paced, deadline-oriented environment.
• Work may require extended periods in an operations or watch-floor environment during significant events and exercises.

Working at SOSi

All interested individuals will receive consideration and will not be discriminated against for any reason.