System Specialist

System Specialist

Simplesense builds, deploys, and sustains the Installation Resilience Platform that enables mission operators to rapidly adapt and respond. The Platform protects critical infrastructure from cyber attack while unlocking previously siloed information to monitor, diagnose, and improve response times to incidents. Our adversaries rapidly adopt the latest technology: we help defense users respond in kind.

Simplesense is a non-traditional defense contractor and prime on the Air Force's Installation Resilience Operations Command and Control (IROC) program, which is now expanding to five additional Air Force, Space Force, and Army installations from the one prototype installation, Tyndall Air Force Base.

Our team combines over 100 years of direct mission experience solving hard problems with 50 years technical expertise deploying DevSecOps, cybersecurity, and cloud infrastructure, giving us a deep appreciation for our customers' mission and end users' priorities. We build for scale, architecting and prioritizing technical work for long term sustainability.

About the Role

As a System Specialist, you will play a critical role in serving as the primary diagnostic engine for our Network Operations Center (NOC), ensuring our infrastructure remains resilient and mission-ready. You will leverage your technical depth to independently navigate complex faults across interconnected network, OS, and identity layers, and partner closely with your Technical Support teammates to proactively identify cross-domain anomalies and implement scalable, documented solutions.

Work Model: We prioritize candidates in the Denver, CO, San Antonio, TX, and Brooklyn, NY area, but are open to remote talent.

• Locals: 2 days/week onsite.
• Remote: Quarterly travel for team meetings.

What Success Looks Like

• 30 Days: Fully integrate into the NOC workflow, demonstrating the ability to independently triage and resolve complex, cross-domain alerts without relying heavily on Senior escalations.
• 60 Days: Seamlessly navigate the DataDog/Splunk ecosystems to write custom queries, using raw log data to isolate root causes when standard dashboards don't tell the full story.
• 90 Days: Identify a high-volume, repetitive support issue and take the initiative to permanently reduce that toil (e.g., writing a diagnostic script, fixing a documentation gap, or submitting a detailed bug report to Engineering teams).

What You'll Do

• Autonomous Troubleshooting: Serve as the independent, front-line diagnostic expert. Diagnose and resolve complex network connectivity and identity access issues where the symptom may appear in one domain, but the root cause lives in another.
• Environmental Triage & Escalation: Act as the diagnostic shield for Engineering. When an issue exceeds the frontline scope, gather the exact telemetry, logs, and failure domain context required to execute a clean, actionable handoff to the capability teams.
• Runbook Execution & Maintenance: Safely execute automated scripts and remediation playbooks to resolve known issues. If a runbook is outdated or missing a step, proactively update the documentation for the rest of the team.
• Advanced Observability: Actively monitor network health using DataDog and Splunk. Go beyond the dashboards by writing custom queries and correlating raw logs to track down undocumented anomalies.
• CLI Operations: Use Linux command line and Windows PowerShell to verify system configurations, check local network states, restart stalled services, and safely execute pre-written remediation scripts without needing a full UI.
• Identity Management: Provision, troubleshoot, and manage user access issues across Active Directory (AD) and Okta, verifying sync statuses and group policy enforcement.
• Toil Reduction: Actively look for ways to eliminate manual work. When you solve a novel problem, immediately document the fix, write a basic script, or propose process improvements.
• High-Stakes Execution: Maintain composure during mission-critical outages, providing clear, concise diagnostic updates to stakeholders while systematically working the problem.

What You Bring

Required Qualifications:

• Experience: 5+ years of hands-on experience in a NOC, IT Operations, or hybrid Systems Support role, demonstrating a high degree of technical autonomy.
• Cross-Domain Instincts: A "System of Systems" mindset with the ability to troubleshoot across multiple IT layers (Windows/Linux OS, Cisco routing/switching, and Identity/Access).
• Observability Tools: Proven experience viewing, querying, and extracting actionable data from enterprise monitoring stacks like Splunk and DataDog.
• Networking & Linux: Strong practical experience navigating Cisco switch configurations via CLI, paired with comfort in a Linux command-line environment (e.g., SSH, grep, parsing daemons).
• Identity Systems: Demonstrated experience troubleshooting access and sync issues in Active Directory and Okta.
• Must be a U.S. Citizen and able to obtain a DoD NIPR network account and Common Access Card (CAC)
• Must have, or be able to obtain, a Secret Clearance.

Preferred Qualifications:

• CompTIA Security+, CCNA, or intermediate Linux certifications.
• Experience supporting OT/ICS environments or working within DoD/Air Force spaces.
• Basic scripting abilities (Bash, PowerShell, Python) used specifically for automating operational tasks.

Our Culture

At Simplesense, we value high-trust autonomy. We look for people who can navigate ambiguity and are driven by the mission.

• Safety & Innovation: You embed security and reliability practices into daily work to drive continuous improvement and mitigate risk.
• People & Communication: You invite vigorous debate and offer "kindly blunt" feedback, always maintaining empathy and assuming noble intent.
• Integrity & Ethics: You build trust by honoring commitments, acting ethically, and resolving conflict through direct, honest communication.
• Strategic Problem Solving: You focus on high-priority issues to create documented, and scalable solutions—avoiding shortcuts.
• Agility: You move quickly to fix small problems, learn from the past, and pivot transparently when the mission requires it.

Compensation and Benefits

• Pay Range: $85k-$115k per year Compensation is determined based on experience, skill level, and location.

Competitive Benefits

• Equity
• Medical, Life, Short-Term Disability, and AD&D insurance
• Medical travel coverage
• Dental coverage
• Vision coverage
• 401k matching

Our Typical Hiring Process

1. Find Your Fit: Your journey starts here. Explore and apply to our open positions to find the right role for your skills.
2. Initial Chat: A brief call with our recruiting team to learn about your background and answer your initial questions about Simplesense.
3. Values & Vision: A conversation with a hiring manager to discuss how your aspirations align with our mission and goals of the team.
4. Show Your Skills: Complete a technical assessment that reflects the work you'd be doing.
5. Team Interview: Interview with the team to discuss your experience and see if we're a great match.
6. Final Handshake: A final conversation to ensure we've answered all your questions before making a decision.
7. Welcome to Simplesense!

Simplesense is an equal opportunity employer committed to a policy of merit-based employment. All employment decisions—including recruitment, hiring, promotion, compensation, benefits, training, and termination—are made based on individual qualifications, performance, and business needs. We strictly prohibit discrimination or harassment of any kind on the basis of protected characteristics as recognized by federal, state, or local law. As a U.S. government contractor, Simplesense complies with all applicable equal employment opportunity laws