Helpdesk Specialist - Mid-Level

Cognizance Technologies, LLC | Full time

Helpdesk Specialist - Mid-Level

Silver Spring, United States | Posted on 09/25/2026

Customer Intake, Triage and Queue Management

• Monitor and respond to requests received throughServiceNow queues, shared email, Microsoft Teams chat, telephone, virtualsupport sessions, and approved in-person channels.
• Gather customer contact information and relevantissue details; capture the request accurately in ServiceNow; determine impact,urgency, severity, and the appropriate support tier.
• Categorize, prioritize, assign, color-code orotherwise mark, track, and update tickets using established taxonomy,workflows, quality standards, and service procedures.
• Maintain clear ticket ownership, status,troubleshooting history, customer communications, dependencies, next actions,escalation paths, and closure documentation.
• Prioritize time-sensitive requests and providetimely acknowledgment and status updates consistent with applicableservice-level expectations.

Tier 0, Tier 1 and Tier 2 Support

• Provide Tier 0 support by directing customers toapproved training materials, knowledge articles, recordings, guides,demonstrations, FAQs, and other self-service resources.
• Provide Tier 1 support for account creation,study group registration, study and data access, initial tool access,provisioning and software-installation request intake, connectivity and logintroubleshooting, and getting-started guidance.
• Provide Tier 2 support, within approvedtool-specific boundaries, for issues not resolved at Tier 0 or Tier 1,including advanced troubleshooting, user coaching, analytical-tool guidance,and coordination with analysts or project teams.
• Use phone, email, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, screensharing, virtual sessions, and periodic desk-side or onsite assistance to guideusers and resolve issues.
• Provide general triage for FDA tools or servicesand route requests to the appropriate help desk, IT Call Center, project team,or support organization.

Escalation and Issue Coordination

• Document Tier 3 issues completely in ServiceNowand assign or route them to the responsible FDA, application, development,infrastructure, licensing, provisioning, or project support group.
• Report suspected system bugs in ServiceNow and,when required by the receiving development team, document and coordinate theissue in Jira.
• Track escalated issues, external dependencies,pause periods, customer actions, Government actions, and resolution progressthrough closure.
• Coordinate with technical SMEs and project teamswhile maintaining customer communication and avoiding unsupported scientific,regulatory, or policy determinations.
• Participate in daily analyst check-ins andweekly queue reviews to address complex requests, aging tickets, lessonslearned, roadblocks, and next steps.

Customer Enablement and Communications

• Guide users through onboarding to FDAapplications, services, training resources, and support channels.
• Provide clear, patient, accurate, andcustomer-focused assistance to reviewers with varying levels of technicalexperience.
• Prepare or distribute approved communicationsregarding outages, maintenance, service changes, new features, training, andoperational updates.
• Support customer surveys, feedback collection,Microsoft Forms, SurveyMonkey activities, and follow-up communications asassigned.
• Promote user self-sufficiency while recognizingwhen direct analyst, project-team, or technical support is required.

Knowledge Management and Operational Documentation

• Create, maintain, and update SOPs, triageworkflows, production support plans, knowledge articles, user guides,quick-reference guides, response templates, contact lists, escalationprocedures, and tool-specific support materials.
• Maintain knowledge resources in SharePoint andOneNote and participate in quarterly documentation reviews and updates.
• Capture recurring questions, proven resolutions,support gaps, and lessons learned for incorporation into self-service andanalyst resources.
• Support knowledge transfer, shadowing,cross-training, and onboarding of new analysts to preserve operationalcontinuity.
• Apply established quality-control checks socustomer-facing content is accurate, clear, accessible, and includes workinglinks.

Reporting and Continuous Improvement

• Maintain complete, consistent, and reportableServiceNow data to support operational metrics, trend analysis, SLA monitoring,and Power BI dashboards.
• Identify recurring issues, high-volume requesttypes, customer pain points, knowledge gaps, workflow inefficiencies, andopportunities for training or automation.
• Contribute dashboard inputs, operationalreports, service metrics, and customer-experience findings.
• Recommend practical improvements to tickethandling, communications, knowledge resources, routing, and user support.
• Use approved Microsoft Forms, Power Automate,Power BI, and other tools to support efficient, repeatable service delivery.
• Use FDA-approved AI-assisted capabilities onlywithin approved boundaries. Validate recommendations and generated contentbefore use; human personnel remain responsible for final classifications,communications, guidance, and decisions.

Support for New Tools and Services

• Participate in capability assessments,knowledge-transfer sessions, demonstrations, readiness reviews, andscenario-based training for new tools or services.
• Help validate intake methods, request types,ticket categories, workflows, routing rules, escalation paths, supportcontacts, customer communications, and knowledge resources.
• Monitor early support activity and providefeedback on operational gaps, unexpected request patterns, and documentationneeds.
• Assist with transition of approved capabilitiesinto steady-state Service Desk operations.

Service-Level and Severity Expectations

CATEGORY

REQUIREMENT

Severity 1

Global failure affecting multiple customers. Targetacknowledgment/response: 15 minutes; target resolution: 3 hours. Immediatelyfollow escalation and communication procedures.

Severity 2

Complete work stoppage for one customer. Targetacknowledgment/response: 1 hour; target resolution: 6 hours.

Severity 3

Single-customer problem where work can continue. Targetacknowledgment/response: 4 hours; target resolution: 2 days.

Severity 4

Service request or procedural question. Targetacknowledgment/response: 1 day; target resolution: 3 days.

When resolution depends on customer information,Government action, Tier 3 support, licensing, provisioning, system recovery,or another external dependency, document the dependency and applicable pauseperiod in ServiceNow and continue coordination through closure.

Requirements

Required Qualifications

CATEGORY

REQUIREMENT

Education

Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, ComputerScience, Information Systems, Business Information Systems, HealthInformatics, or a related discipline. An equivalent combination of educationand directly relevant experience may be considered.

Experience

Three to five years of Help Desk, Service Desk,application support, technical support, or customer support experience in anenterprise environment.

Ticket Management

Demonstrated experience with incident and request intake,triage, prioritization, documentation, escalation, tracking, customerupdates, and closure using ServiceNow or a comparable platform.

Technical Support

Experience troubleshooting software, user accounts,access, connectivity, login, application usage, and data-access issues andguiding users through remote support sessions.

Customer Service

Strong written and verbal communication, active listening,organization, follow-through, attention to detail, and ability to explaintechnical information clearly to nontechnical users.

Documentation

Experience creating or maintaining SOPs, knowledgearticles, user guides, response templates, workflows, or other operationaldocumentation.

Ability to satisfy FDA/HHS suitability, identitycredentialing, mandatory training, nondisclosure, information security,privacy, records management, and rules-of-behavior requirements applicable tothe position.

Technical Skills

• ServiceNow or an equivalent enterpriseticket-management platform.
• Microsoft 365, including Outlook, Teams,SharePoint, OneNote, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
• Virtual collaboration and remote-support tools,including Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and screen sharing.
• Knowledge repositories, ticket taxonomies,triage workflows, escalation procedures, and customer-support best practices.
• Basic reporting and data-quality skills;familiarity with Power BI, Microsoft Forms, SurveyMonkey, Power Automate, orJira is desirable.
• Ability to learn specialized scientificcomputing tools, data environments, reviewer workflows, training resources, andtool-specific support boundaries.

Preferred Qualifications

• FDA, NIH, HHS, or other Federal health agencyexperience.
• Experience supporting scientific, clinical,analytical, regulatory-review, or similarly specialized applications and usercommunities.
• Working knowledge of ITIL incident, request,escalation, knowledge, and continual-improvement practices.
• Experience supporting account provisioning,application access, study or data access, analytical tools, or regulated dataenvironments.
• Familiarity with Section 508/WCAG accessibility,Federal records management, and handling of sensitive Government information.
• Experience supporting new-service onboarding,user training, surveys, customer communications, or workflow automation.