Senior Principal Help Desk Tier 3

Job ID: 2600317

Location: SAN DIEGO, CA, US

Date Posted: 2026-01-13

Category: Information Technology

Subcategory: IT Sys Integration

Schedule: Full-time

Shift: Day Job

Travel: Yes, 10 % of the Time

Minimum Clearance Required: TS/SCI

Clearance Level Must Be Able to Obtain: TS/SCI with Poly

Potential for Remote Work: No

Description

SAIC is seeking a Sr. Principal Help Desk Tier3 Technician responsible for the most complex and critical technical issues supporting the Joint Fires Network program. Responsibilities include identifying/resolving complex issues within the system, collaborating directly with internal developers to fix bugs/issues, and developing standard operations procedures for training Tier 1 & 2 support team and end user customers. This position is onsite in San Diego, CA.

Essential Functions/Job Duties

• Work directly with customers in a technical role
• Responsible for asset installation/configuration, operation and maintenance of systems hardware, software and related infrastructure.
• Configure and manage operating systems (Windows and Linux), applications (commercial and government), networks (IPs, subnets, etc.), and network equipment (switches)
• Configure and manage DOD and IC standard distributed authentication services
• Serve as the final point of internal escalation for all technical support issues, performing in-depth analysis of complex hardware, software, server, and network-related problems.
• Develop, document, and maintain comprehensive knowledge base articles, standard operating procedures (SOPs), and technical guides for Tier 1 and Tier 2 teams to use in resolving common issues and adhere to government policies.
• Participate in or lead IT projects, including system upgrades, new software deployments, and infrastructure migrations.
• Perform regular file archival and purge, as necessary.
• Create, change and delete user accounts per request.
• Repair and recover from hardware or software failures for multiple sites.
• Establishes, documents, and monitor the government's cyber security program implementation plan.
• Develop and maintain scripts (e.g., using Bash, Python, or Perl) to automate routine tasks, streamline processes, and improve the efficiency of the support team.
• Work with internal development teams, to report and resolve bugs, request feature enhancements, and address product-related issues on Linux platforms
• Contribute technical content and tutorials to product documentation
• Familiarity with distributed systems like Hadoop, HBase/Accumulo, Spark and Kafka
• Experience with Puppet, Ansible, Terraform, Bash, Powershell, and Python tools
• A strong understanding of security concepts, best practices and how to apply them, such as Secure Shell, public key encryption, access credentials, certificates, TLS, and data encryption to include Department of Defense and Intelligence Community security policies/processes

Leadership Skills

• Highly motivated
• Excellent interpersonal skills
• Ability to dynamically prioritize tasks
• Organized with attention to detail and accuracy

Essential Physical Tasks

• CONOCONUS travel less than 10% of the time
• Ability to use a personal computer, keyboard and mouse on a consistent basis.

Written Communications

• Operates standard computer-based business tools (including but not limited to Microsoft Word and Excel) effectively with a high degree of competency
• Ability to capture essential procedural instructions for tasks in a manner repeatable by others

Verbal Communications

• Demonstrates excellent clear and concise verbal communication skills.
• Active communicator - giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate.

Qualifications

TYPICAL EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE: Bachelors and fourteen (14) years or more of related experience; Masters and twelve (12) years or more of related experience; PhD or JD and nine (9) years or more of related experience.

Certifications: IAT Level 1 (CompTIA Security + and OS/Computing Environment certification)

• U.S. Citizenship and an active TS/SCI clearance with the ability to obtain a TS/SCI CI Poly.
• 5+ years of direct experience with implementation and understanding of Engineering principles in a professional environment.
• A minimum of 5-7 years of progressive IT support experience, with at least 2-3 years in a Tier 2 or a similar role with a strong focus on Linux environments.
• Experience maintaining, configuring, operating and troubleshooting complex electronic computer interface systems and network equipment
• Past experience administering server-side technology and networked computing systems.
• Familiarity with DNS / DHCP / Kickstart / LDAP / Kubernetes / Red Hat 7&8 / Windows 10 / ACAS / Rancher / Grafana / Cloud Security Gateway
• Maintain and create system documentation.
• Ability to surge hours worked through events.
• Able to create simple scripts (i.e. Powershell or Bash).
• Ability to automate installation, configuration, and provisioning using Infrastructure as Code tools like Terraform, Ansible, Puppet, and Chef.
• Ability to configure and manage operating systems (Windows and Linux), applications (commercial and government), networks (IPs, subnets, etc.), and network equipment (switches).
• Ability to configure and manage DOD and IC standard distributed authentication services.
• Knowledge of Joint IO Range, Defense Research and Engineering Network, and other similar environments beneficial.

Target salary range: $160,001 - $200,000. The estimate displayed represents the typical salary range for this position based on experience and other factors.

Employers have access to artificial intelligence language tools (“AI”) that help generate and enhance job descriptions and AI may have been used to create this description. The position description has been reviewed for accuracy and Dice believes it to correctly reflect the job opportunity.

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• Dice Id: 10111346
• Position Id: 2600317
• Posted 1 hour ago