SOC Operator - Govt Customer (TS -SCI Required. On-Site Chantilly VA - 5 days per week)

SOC Operator - Federal Customer (Chantilly, VA)
(On-site 5 days per week: TS/SCI Clearance Required) Please note: Candidates without existing Required Clearances will be auto declined.
The SOC Operator serves as the first line of defense for monitoring, detecting, and resolving network and infrastructure incidents. In this role, you will actively track alerts across enterprise systems, perform initial diagnostics, and apply standard operating procedures to restore service promptly. You will manage incoming incident tickets, maintain meticulous shift documentation, and communicate real-time updates to stakeholders throughout the event lifecycle. When issues exceed triage scope, you will efficiently escalate incidents to the respective engineering teams, field technicians, or third-party vendors.
What You’ll Do
● Monitor Infrastructure Health: Continuously watch enterprise network dashboards, servers, and circuit links in a 24/7 environment to identify alarms, performance anomalies, and outages in real time.
● Conduct Initial Diagnostics: Perform first-touch technical triage—such as executing CLI network diagnostics, verifying interface states, validating basic configurations, and restarting services—using standard runbooks.
● Manage Incident Tickets: Create, update, and prioritize incident records within the ticketing platform, documenting symptoms, diagnostic steps taken, and resolution paths with meticulous detail.
● Escalate & Coordinate: Seamlessly escalate complex issues to Tier 2/Tier 3 engineers, field technicians, and telecommunication carriers, tracking progress to uphold established Service Level Agreements (SLAs).
● Maintain Communications & Documentation: Publish incident notifications to stakeholders, conduct thorough shift-handoff briefings, and contribute updates to operational knowledge base articles and standard operating procedures (SOPs).

Required Qualifications
● Network Fundamentals & Protocols: Solid grasp of the OSI model, TCP/IP, DNS, DHCP, and basic routing/switching concepts.
● Basic Command-Line Diagnostics: Proficiency using network troubleshooting commands such as ping, traceroute, nslookup, netstat, and ipconfig/ifconfig.
● Monitoring Tools Experience: Practical familiarity with enterprise monitoring and alerting platforms (e.g., SolarWinds, PRTG, Nagios, Datadog, or Zabbix).
● Ticketing & Incident Management: Experience managing ticket lifecycles, following ITIL incident management practices, and using service desk tools (e.g., ServiceNow, Jira Service Management, Remedy).
● Clear Technical Communication: Strong verbal and written communication skills to document shift handoffs, log detailed ticket updates, and escalate issues accurately under pressure.
● Clearance: Active TS/SCI and ability to maintain access as required by the program.
● Physical Requirements: Candidates must be able to lift up to 25lbs.
Preferred Qualifications
● Industry Certifications: Foundational networking credentials such as CompTIA Network+, Cisco CCNA, or ITIL 4 Foundation.
● Multi-Platform OS Navigation: Hands-on comfort working in both Linux/Unix and Windows server environments.
● Basic Scripting & Automation: Familiarity with Python, Bash, or PowerShell to automate routine triage tasks or parse logs.
● Packet Inspection Tools: Foundational experience capturing and reading packet data using tools like Wireshark or tcpdump.
● Hardware & Cloud Basics: Introductory exposure to enterprise hardware components (chassis, transceivers, cabling)

What We Offer
● Cutting-Edge Lab Access: Direct access to enterprise-class hardware, sandbox environments, and emerging software stacks.
● Technical Growth: Sponsored training, conference attendance, and certification support to continuously sharpen your engineering toolkit.
● Collaborative Engineering Culture: A multidisciplinary team that values bias for action, intellectual curiosity, and autonomous problem-solving.