Help Desk Technician

On-site in San Diego, CA, this Help Desk Technician role supports a United States Air Force customer through SAIC. The position centers on configuring, maintaining, and supporting Windows and Linux systems, networks, and authentication services, with emphasis on Tier 1 and Tier 2 incident handling and scripting to drive automation. The role carries a salary range of USD 80,001 to 120,000 per year and requires a PhD level education.

Responsibilities

• Engage with customers directly in a technical capacity to resolve issues and provide guidance.
• Install, configure, operate, and maintain systems hardware, software, and related infrastructure.
• Configure and manage operating systems (Windows and Linux), applications (commercial and government), networks (IP ranges, subnets), and network devices (switches).
• Set up and administer DOD and IC standard distributed authentication services.
• Review and maintain knowledge base articles, SOPs, and technical guides for Tier 1 and Tier 2 teams to support issue resolution and compliance with government policies.
• Perform archival and purging of files as needed.
• Manage user accounts, including creation, modification, and deletion per requests.
• Repair and recover from hardware or software failures across multiple sites.
• Collaborate with internal development teams to report bugs, request enhancements, and address Linux-related product issues.
• Contribute technical content and tutorials to product documentation.
• Operate with familiarity across distributed systems such as Hadoop, HBase/Accumulo, Spark, and Kafka.
• Utilize tooling including Puppet, Ansible, Terraform, Bash, PowerShell, and Python for administration and automation.
• Apply security best practices and concepts, including Secure Shell, public key infrastructure, credentials, certificates, TLS, and data encryption, aligned with DoD and IC security policies.

Requirements

• 2+ years of experience implementing and applying engineering principles in a professional setting.
• 2–3 years of progressive IT support experience, with at least 2–3 years in a Tier 1 or similar role focusing on Linux environments.
• IAT Level 1 certification (CompTIA Security+ and OS/Computing Environment).
• Experience maintaining, configuring, operating, and troubleshooting electronic computer interface systems and network equipment.
• Knowledge of U.S. Government computers, networks, and security is beneficial.
• Past experience administering server-side technology and networked computing systems.
• Strong critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
• Patient and professional demeanor with a can-do attitude.
• Familiarity with DNS, DHCP, Kickstart, LDAP, Kubernetes, Red Hat 7&8, Windows 10, ACAS, Rancher, Grafana, and Cloud Security Gateway.
• Ability to maintain and update system documentation.
• Willingness to learn new technologies and adapt to changing environments.
• Ability to surge hours as needed for events.
• Proficiency in creating simple scripts in PowerShell or Bash.
• Ability to automate installation, configuration, and provisioning using Infrastructure as Code tools such as Terraform, Ansible, Puppet, and Chef.
• Capability to configure and manage operating systems, applications, networks, and network equipment.
• Ability to configure and manage DoD and IC standard distributed authentication services.
• Knowledge of DoD and IC network infrastructures is advantageous.
• Knowledge of Joint IO Range, Defense Research and Engineering Network, and similar environments is beneficial.

Technologies

• Hadoop
• HBase/Accumulo
• Spark
• Kafka
• Puppet
• Ansible
• Terraform
• Bash
• Powershell
• Python
• Secure Shell
• TLS
• DNS
• DHCP
• Kickstart
• LDAP
• Kubernetes
• Red Hat 7&8
• Windows 10
• ACAS
• Rancher
• Grafana
• Cloud Security Gateway