Sr. Customer Support Engineer

The Sr. Customer Support Engineer’s role is to ensure the stability, integrity, and efficient operation of customer information systems that support core Fortna software functions. This is achieved by monitoring, maintaining, supporting, and optimizing all customer infrastructure systems and internal development environments. The Sr. Customer Support Engineer will apply proven communication, analytical, and problem-solving skills to help identify, communicate, and resolve issues to maximize customer success.

Hours for this role: Thursday through Monday 12p-8p or Thursday through Sunday 10 hours.

Responsibilities:

Strategy & Planning

• Collaborate with the project implementation team and the customer lifecycle performance team to ensure smooth and reliable operation of software and systems for fulfilling business objectives and processes.
• Follow process and scheduled proactive tasks including patching, event management and alert response processes.
• Work with cross-functional software and development teams to identify and resolve customer systems issues.
• Follow standard ITIL framework Problem management with detailed Root Cause Analysis.

Operations and Support

• Provide mentorship and guidance to global support teams to increase customer satisfaction.
• Provide leadership and collaboration with customer IT teams and FORTNA’s LPS teams to solve issues efficiently and drive standard troubleshooting steps.
• Coordinate with customer program and project managers to complete requests and provide IT best practice standards.
• Design and deploy new development systems on-premises and in public cloud environments.
• Provide 24x7 escalation support on a rotating schedule for all customer systems related incidents and support requests.
• Respond to incidents following internal and customer service level objectives.
• Review and manage alerts, set thresholds, and respond to all alert and event records.
• Follow and adhere to ITIL change management procedures.

Proactive Managed Services

• Apply OS patches and upgrades on a regular basis and upgrade administrative tools and utilities, as necessary.
• Perform ongoing performance tuning, hardware upgrades, and resource optimization as required. Configure CPU, memory, and disk partitions as required.
• Maintaining and reporting on data center environmental and power redundancy equipment.
• Gauge the effectiveness and efficiency of existing systems; develop and implement strategies for improving or further leveraging these systems.
• Design and perform server and security audits, system backup procedures, and other recovery processes in accordance with the disaster recovery and business continuity strategies.
• Ensure system connectivity of all servers and shared software.
• Create and maintain documentation as it relates to system configuration changes and service records.
• Monitor and test system performance; prepare and deliver system performance statistics and reports.

Required Knowledge, Skills, Abilities (must be able to be ascertained from the resume):

• 5 years’ work experience in an IT support or system engineering role.
• Strong experience in Linux RHEL/OEL/CentOS administration
• Proven experience with systems planning, security principles, and general infrastructure management best practices.
• Strong experience with VMware or other virtualization experience.
• Excellent English Communication
• Experience with Kubernetes or other application development orchestration and containerization tools.
• Experience with automation tools like Ansible and Terraform.
• Experience with public cloud Virtual machine, networking, storage and container solutions and support.
• Network topology and infrastructure expertise
• Strong understanding of Virtual Private Networking and other remote access tools.
• Working knowledge of server and workstation infrastructure.
• Strong understanding of high availability protocols and architecture.
• Working knowledge of storage area network and network attached storage systems.
• Working knowledge of Unix compliant command line interfaces.
• Ability to understand and diagnose customer-server architecture.
• Proficient with other open-source operating systems and applications.

Education and Experience:

• University degree in computer science or software engineering and/or 2 years equivalent work experience.
• VMware certification
• ITIL Foundations

Other Qualifications Desired:

• Excellent oral and written communication skills and the ability to clearly articulate to project members and stakeholders; must be a team player who works well with technical and non-technical resources.
• Ability to work in a high-paced, highly dynamic environment.
• Ability to conduct research into systems issues and products as required.
• Highly self-motivated and directed, with keen attention to detail.
• Proven analytical and creative problem-solving abilities.
• Able to prioritize and execute tasks in a high-pressure environment.
• Strong customer service orientation.
• Ability to work in a team-oriented, collaborative environment.
• Strong interpersonal, organizational, time management and problem-solving skills

Physical Requirements:

• 40-hour hybrid (3 days onsite) work week with on-call availability for 10 days per month.
• Sitting for extended periods of time.
• When travelling to customer sites, essential requirements of this position may require physical presence in various environments and locations. Physical stamina may be required for prolonged standing, bending, stooping, and/or working in cramped quarters. Exposure to potentially dangerous tools and equipment amidst a variety of building materials is probable, as is occasional exposure to moving mechanical parts.
• The noise level in the work environment can vary from being relatively quiet, to moderate, to excessive. Safety shoes or boots may be required in certain situations. Additional safety clothing including gloves, hardhats, and devices to protect eyes, mouth, or hearing, will be worn, as necessary.
• Dexterity of hands and fingers to operate a computer keyboard, mouse, power tools, and other computer components.
• Lifting and transporting of moderately heavy objects, such as computers and peripherals.
• Lifting and transporting of moderately heavy objects, such as computers, devices, and peripherals.

Travel Requirements:

• 10% travel could be required.

The base salary range for this role is $76,100 to $114,200. This base salary range represents the low and high end of the base salary range for this position. Actual base salary offered will vary based on various factors including but not limited to location, level, job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and performance.

This job description describes the general nature and level of work expected of a person assigned to this position. All job requirements listed indicate the minimum level of knowledge, skills and/or ability deemed necessary to perform the job proficiently. Employees may be required to perform any other job-related duties as requested by their supervisor.

It is the policy of FORTNA and its affiliated companies to provide equal employment opportunity (EEO) to all persons regardless of age, color, national origin, physical or mental disability, race, religion, creed, gender, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, genetic information, marital status, pregnancy or pregnancy-related condition, status with regard to public assistance, veteran status, citizenship status (if authorized to work in the U.S.), or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local law. In addition, FORTNA will provide reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities.