Senior Application Support Engineer

Senior Application Support Engineer Location: Stafford, VA Everforth ECS is seeking a highly capable and experienced Application Support Engineer to join our team. In this role, you will provide proficient and effective Help Desk operations support for a custom software application, including incident handling, ticket queue management, application troubleshooting, maintenance of application environments, and documentation implementation. This role requires excellent problem‑solving skills, multitasking ability, technical expertise, detail orientation, and exceptional communication. The Application Support Engineer directly supports the Application Support Manager to apply advanced analytic methodologies for optimized processes, resolution of complex issues, monitoring and reporting to ensure timely and high‑quality responses, adherence to SLAs and performance metrics, and leadership, vision, and mentorship to junior staff. Responsibilities Provide quality customer service and IT‑related support to application users in a dynamic and fast‑paced environment. Lead complex incident investigation and root cause analysis across custom application workflows, Windows services, integrations, and underlying databases; drive durable fixes, not just workarounds. Leverage the incident management system to document support requests and solutions as well as to monitor and manage support queues for quick resolution and proper escalation of incidents when necessary. Translate functional requirements into reproducible test cases; validate patches, configuration changes, and hotfixes in lower environments to de‑risk releases and prevent regressions. Perform SQL‑driven diagnostics and data verification, including understanding schemas and relationships, crafting moderate‑to‑advanced queries, and reconciling data against requirements and logs. Configure and validate front‑end application settings (feature flags, permissions, tenant/client parameters) to align behavior with business rules and security policies under change control. Analyze logs, traces, and telemetry to identify performance bottlenecks, resource contention, and performance issues; collaborate with engineering and DBAs on query tuning, indexing, and schema impacts. Validate front‑end application configurations and back‑end service parameters; confirm behavior against functional requirements and security policies across environments under change control. Monitor application health and reliability; establish proactive checks, automation, and observability improvements to reduce repeat incidents and shorten MTTR and improve performance metrics. Partner across Agile teams (product owners, BAs, developers, QA, DBAs, security, and network) to refine user stories, acceptance criteria, non‑functional requirements, and release readiness. Author and maintain high‑quality knowledge artifacts (runbooks, RCAs, SOPs, KB articles, implementation notes) that elevate team proficiency and onboarding speed. Mentor and coach peers and junior analysts on analytical troubleshooting, documentation standards, communication practices, and escalation hygiene. Provide hands‑on training and IT guidance to empower users through troubleshooting processes within application environments. Communicate clearly with stakeholders and end users on incident status, workarounds, resolution plans, and post‑incident actions, ensuring traceable follow‑through. Develop and present instructional materials, both in‑person and virtually, to application users and program stakeholders, detailing ticket trends, reported issues, and mitigation strategies. Uphold data protection, access control, auditability, and records‑handling practices appropriate to law enforcement/criminal justice systems across support and migration activities. Support issue escalation and maintain total ticket ownership for complex incidents and defects requiring external support; triage, reproduce, and isolate faults across code paths, configurations, integrations, network boundaries, and database layers, driving permanent resolution over workaround reliance. Oversee major incident response for high‑severity outages, establishing technical bridges, driving action plans, stakeholder communications, and post‑incident reviews with measurable improvements. Required Skills Active Top‑Secret Clearance. Onsite support Monday‑Friday, except Federal holidays. Ability to travel 5‑10% of the time, both within the U.S. and internationally. Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Information Systems, Information Technology, Computer Engineering, or a closely related field; advanced degrees welcome for candidates with specialized focus in databases, systems, or security. 6+ years in application/production support, systems analysis, or similar roles with demonstrated ownership of complex incidents and successful root cause resolution. Deep understanding of complex application workflows and Windows‑based applications/services, including client/server interactions and environment configurations and Windows updates (WSUS). Strong SQL skills for diagnostics and verification, with the ability to interpret schemas, write complex queries, and collaborate with DBAs on performance and integrity. Working knowledge of networking fundamentals (TCP/IP, DNS, DHCP, VPN) and firewall concepts (ports/rules/ACLs) sufficient to isolate connectivity and access issues. Proven experience with incident management, problem analysis, documentation rigor, and metrics‑based improvements (e.g., MTTR reduction, repeat‑incident prevention). Excellent written and verbal communication; effective stakeholder management in mission‑focused environments. Experience working within Agile teams and tooling, participating in stand‑ups, planning, reviews, and retrospectives. Desired Skills Scripting/automation (PowerShell, Python) for diagnostics, log parsing, synthetic checks, and post‑release validation. ITIL Foundation or demonstrated practice of incident, problem, and change with corrective and preventive actions. Experience with enterprise antivirus configuration and tuning to avoid interference with application processes, and to maintain performance and data integrity. Experience implementing and verifying backup/restore configurations for application data and logs, including scheduled backups, appropriate exclusions, and periodic restore testing in UAT. Networking fundamentals applied to application support: TCP/UDP, IP addressing/subnetting, routing basics, DNS, DHCP, VPN, TLS, and proxy behavior; ability to trace requests end‑to‑end and isolate network‑related application issues. Firewall rule comprehension and coordination: understanding ports/protocols, source/destination scoping, least‑privilege allowlists, change control for rule updates, and validating connectivity after policy changes; familiarity with application‑aware/next‑gen firewall concepts and common exception workflows. Hands‑on support for integrations/APIs and secure data exchanges among justice/law enforcement systems; awareness of auditability and evidentiary record considerations. Relevant certifications (CompTIA Security+, Network+, Microsoft/DB vendor certs) and familiarity with observability/monitoring tools. Equal Employment Opportunity ECS Federal LLC is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate or allow discrimination on the basis of any characteristic protected by law. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to disability, status as a protected veteran or any other status protected by applicable federal, state, or local jurisdiction law. #J-18808-Ljbffr ECS Limited