OA/ETSO - NOC Comms Specialist

NOC Communications Specialist

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has agencies that provide 24/7 services to its citizens. The PM Network Operational Monitoring position will provide first line network technical support to employees and business partners by calling the Enterprise Network Operation Monitoring Network Service Desk outside of regular business hours. This position requires a technical individual with a customer-service-minded approach to dealing with Commonwealth Agency staff and IT teams. The individual will work closely with Commonwealth staff, vendors, service providers and IT staff, but must also be able to work independently, multitask by prioritizing and managing their own workload, and able to ensure prompt service and end-user issue resolution.

The NOC Communications Specialist provides after-hour and weekend hours Level 1 Support by performing the skills listed below.

Role Description:

End-user Support

• Answer inbound phone calls concerning network issues from Commonwealth employees, and LEC/Last User Contract, LUC, vendors.
• Creates and escalates Service Now trouble tickets to Engineers, tier two Commonwealth staff, and/or third-party service providers to ensure the quick resolution of IT/Network issues.
• Works with NOC T2 Engineers, Commonwealth staff and contracted personnel, and/or third-party providers as needed.
• Research and updates reference publications and diagnostic aids to seek information necessary to resolve end-user issues as needed.
• Follows IT Service Desk and Network Operator Knowledgebase procedures and makes recommendations when improvements are needed.
• Promptly and properly escalate high priority issues.

Monitoring & Maintenance

• Utilize network management tools, such as Solar Winds and Squared up, to monitor remote sites network and hardware.
• Actively monitors the status of Commonwealth networks and attached network assets using established tools and promptly initiates appropriate actions.
• Responds to outages and system failures using established escalation processes.
• Provide first-line investigation and diagnosis of network incidents, logging all details and prioritization of incidents.
• Escalate after hours incidents to staff for resolution.
• Promptly assign unresolved incidents to higher Tier support or LUC providers to coordinate restoration of service and obtain the necessary information for recording/tracking the outage or degradation of service.
• Coordinate with network staff and various vendors to assist with service restoration based on alarm conditions.
• Actively monitors the Service Now ticket queue.
• Monitors appropriate Commonwealth email accounts for any event messages and initiates action as needed.
• Proactively identifies and resolves problems.

Communication

• Acts as the primary network contact for Commonwealth employees and business partners outside of regular business hours.
• Perform Enterprise Incident communications using defined process and approved template.
• Monitors the network hotline during coverage hours.
• Issues network status updates using established procedures.
• Follows quality standards and displays strong customer service skills.

Routine Tasks

• Assists the network engineers and technicians with outstanding tasks.
• Updates network operation and knowledgebase documentation.
• Participates in disaster recovery.
• Completes assigned tasks.

Required Skills:

• Possesses excellent communication skills; both written and spoken.
• Ability to be clearly understood and has excellent phone etiquette.
• Ability to support end-users with varying IT skillsets.
• Ability to follow directions, especially when using established operation and knowledgebase documentation, and Commonwealth standard operating procedures.
• Ability to adapt to change.
• Detail oriented and resourceful.
• Excellent organizational skills.
• Ability to troubleshoot end-user issues and/or escalate as needed to ensure quick resolution.
• Experience with incident management, call tracking, and ticketing software.
• Preferred 2+ years previous systems administrator, help desk, and/or call center experience.