NOC Communications Specialist

• 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.
• Deal with Commonwealth Agency staff and IT teams with a customer-service-minded approach.
• Work closely with Commonwealth staff, vendors, service providers, and IT staff, while also being able to work independently, multitask by prioritizing and managing your own workload, and ensure prompt service and end-user issue resolution.
• Provide after-hour and weekend hours Level 1 Support.

Role Description:

• End-user Support:
  • Answer inbound phone calls concerning network issues from Commonwealth employees and LEC/Last User Contract (LUC) vendors.
  • Create and escalate Service Now trouble tickets to Engineers, tier two Commonwealth staff, and/or third-party service providers.
  • Work with NOC T2 Engineers, Commonwealth staff and contracted personnel, and/or third-party providers as needed.
  • Research and update reference publications and diagnostic aids to seek information necessary to resolve end-user issues.
  • Follow IT Service Desk and Network Operator Knowledgebase procedures and make recommendations for improvements.
  • 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 monitor the status of Commonwealth networks and attached network assets using established tools and promptly initiate appropriate actions.
  • Respond 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 monitor the Service Now ticket queue.
  • Monitor appropriate Commonwealth email accounts for any event messages and initiate action as needed.
  • Proactively identify and resolve problems.
• Communication:
  • Act 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.
  • Monitor the network hotline during coverage hours.
  • Issue network status updates using established procedures.
  • Follow quality standards and display strong customer service skills.
• Routine Tasks:
  • Assist the network engineers and technicians with outstanding tasks.
  • Update network operation and knowledgebase documentation.
  • Participate in disaster recovery.
  • Complete 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 (preferably ServiceNow).
• Preferred 2+ years previous systems administrator, help desk, and/or call center experience.

Professional Skills :