The Root Cause Engineer (RCA), Mid performs structured root cause analysis for recurring, chronic, or high-impact incidents to identify underlying technical, process, or architectural issues affecting mission-critical federal IT services. This role collects and correlates evidence across logs, traces, metrics, configuration data, and incident records to distinguish underlying causes from symptoms and reconstruct incident timelines. The engineer collaborates with Incident Response, Problem Management, SRE, and engineering teams to document RCA outcomes and define actionable corrective and preventive measures that improve service reliability and reduce recurrence.
Key Responsibilities - Apply common RCA methodologies (such as 5 Whys, fishbone diagrams, fault tree analysis, and component failure impact analysis) and select appropriate techniques based on incident complexity and impact.
- Gather and analyze monitoring data, logs, traces, configuration records, service topology maps, and incident timelines, to distinguish contributing factors from true root causes.
- Facilitate cross-functional RCA sessions with operations, engineering, cybersecurity, and business teams to drive focused discussion, managing differing viewpoints, and converging on agreed causes and remediation actions.
- Translate RCA findings into corrective and preventive actions aligned with Problem Management workflows.
- Define and track RCA metrics such as recurrence rates, RCA cycle time, and others using data driven insights to improve analysis quality, timeliness, and effectiveness.
- Support integration of RCA activities into ITIL-aligned Problem Management and continual service improvement practices.
- Produce high-quality RCA reports that are audience-appropriate describing what happened, why it happened, and prevention steps.
- Identify systemic reliability risks and patterns across incidents.
Required Qualifications - Bachelor's degree in IT, Computer Science, Business Administration, or related field, or equivalent relevant experience.
- 4-7 years of experience in IT operations, incident/problem management, reliability engineering, or related roles with significant responsibility for conducting structured RCAs.
- Strong understanding of ITIL principles, incident and problem management best practices, and proficiency with incident and problem management tools.
- Demonstrated expertise in at least one structured RCA methodology and ability to coach teams in its use.
- Strong analytical, problem-solving, facilitation and communication skills with the ability to manage multiple concurrent investigations effectively.
- Ability to work collaboratively with cross-functional technical and business teams in a fast-paced enterprise IT environment.
- Candidates must possess a current active secret security clearance or higher.
Preferred Qualifications - Hands-on RCA experience in complex enterprises or federal environments.
- Formal training in RCA or structured problem-solving techniques.
- Experience using observability platforms, log analytics, and monitoring tools to drive data-driven incident reconstruction and analysis.
- Familiarity with reliability engineering concepts (such as SLOs, error budgets, and resiliency patterns) and how they inform RCA priorities and recommendations.
Compensation RangesCompensation 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 RequirementsIt 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.
DisclaimerThe 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.
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