IT Operations Specialist

Position Overview

As an IT Operations Specialist, you will play a pivotal role in maintaining, monitoring, and optimizing cloud-based infrastructure and services in a mission-critical federal environment, with a strong emphasis on AWS-hosted systems. Your day-to-day responsibilities will include monitoring system performance, triaging and resolving incidents, and ensuring the seamless operation of IT services that support both internal stakeholders and external customers. You will proactively identify recurring issues, implement durable fixes and automations, and uphold high standards of security, availability, and compliance aligned to DoD and federal requirements. Regular, clear communication with customers and teammates will be essential as you provide timely updates, translate technical topics into business terms, and build trust through responsive, professional support.

Key Responsibilities

• Monitor and maintain production AWS environments, including compute, storage, networking, and platform services, to ensure availability, performance, and reliability.
• Triage, troubleshoot, and resolve incidents and service requests, escalating appropriately and driving issues through to root cause and permanent remediation.
• Implement and follow standardized incident, problem, and change management processes consistent with ITIL or similar service management frameworks.
• Apply and maintain security configurations, patches, and controls across cloud resources in accordance with Security+ concepts, DoD IAT Level 2 requirements, and applicable customer policies.
• Use AWS management and monitoring tools (such as CloudWatch, CloudTrail, and AWS Console) to analyze trends, identify risks, and recommend improvements to system stability and security.
• Develop and maintain runbooks, standard operating procedures, and knowledge base articles to support consistent operations and faster issue resolution.
• Collaborate closely with cloud engineers, cyber security teams, developers, and infrastructure staff to support deployments, resolve complex technical issues, and improve end-to-end service delivery.
• Communicate clearly with customers and stakeholders during incidents and planned maintenance, providing regular status updates and setting accurate expectations.
• Support the implementation of automation for routine operational tasks (for example, provisioning, configuration, and patching) using tools such as Terraform, Ansible, or similar, where applicable.
• Participate in on-call rotation or after-hours support, as required by the mission, to ensure 24x7 coverage for critical systems.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Information Systems, Cybersecurity, or a related field, or equivalent combination of education and relevant experience.
• Hands-on experience in IT operations or systems administration supporting cloud-based environments, preferably AWS, including monitoring, incident response, and basic configuration.
• Demonstrated troubleshooting skills across operating systems, networks, and applications, with the ability to rapidly diagnose and resolve technical issues in production environments.
• Strong customer communication skills, with experience explaining technical issues and solutions clearly to non-technical stakeholders in both written and verbal formats.
• Active IAT Level II certification (such as CompTIA Security+ or other DoD 8570-approved equivalent), or ability to obtain within the timeline required by the contract.
• Active Top Secret security clearance, with the ability to meet all customer background investigation and adjudication requirements.
• U.S. citizenship as required for access to classified federal systems and facilities.
• Ability and willingness to work on-site at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, with any additional travel as required by the customer.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience managing or supporting AWS cloud infrastructure at scale, including provisioning, monitoring, and lifecycle management of cloud resources.
• Familiarity with ITIL-based service management practices (incident, problem, and change management) and experience working within a structured ticketing environment such as ServiceNow.
• Exposure to infrastructure-as-code and automation tools (for example, Terraform, Ansible, or similar) to streamline repeatable operational tasks.
• Experience participating in or supporting incident response activities, including detection, containment, eradication, and recovery in cloud or hybrid environments.
• Knowledge of common security frameworks and best practices relevant to federal and DoD environments (such as NIST-based controls, STIGs, and continuous monitoring concepts).
• Prior experience working on federal, DoD, or large enterprise IT programs, particularly within highly regulated or classified environments.

Compensation Ranges

Compensation ranges for ASM Research positions vary depending on multiple factors; including but not limited to, location, skill set, level of education, certifications, client requirements, contract-specific affordability, government clearance and investigation level, and years of experience. The compensation displayed for this role is a general guideline based on these factors and is unique to each role. Monetary compensation is one component of ASM's overall compensation and benefits package for employees.

EEO Requirements

It is the policy of ASM that an individual's race, color, religion, sex, disability, age, sexual orientation or national origin are not and will not be considered in any personnel or management decisions. We affirm our commitment to these fundamental policies.

All recruiting, hiring, training, and promoting for all job classifications is done without regard to race, color, religion, sex, disability, or age. All decisions on employment are made to abide by the principle of equal employment.

Physical Requirements

The physical requirements described in "Knowledge, Skills and Abilities" above are representative of those which must be met by an employee to successfully perform the primary functions of this job. (For example, "light office duties' or "lifting up to 50 pounds" or "some travel" required.) Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with qualifying disabilities, who are otherwise qualified, to perform the primary functions.

Disclaimer

The preceding job description has been designed to indicate the general nature and level of work performed by employees within this classification. It is not designed to contain or be interpreted as a comprehensive inventory of all duties, responsibilities and qualifications required of employees assigned to this job.