Senior NOSC Administrator

Job Description

Job Description

Position Summary

The Senior NOSC Administrator leads Network Operations and Security Center functions for the MEDXS/MEDEX enterprise, owning continuous monitoring, availability, performance, and network security operations across all CONUS and OCONUS nodes. This position designs and operates the monitoring and alerting architecture, directs the operational response to network and security events, engineers and troubleshoots the advanced routing and transport that connects theater nodes to the enterprise, and serves as the operational authority during outages. The role requires direct prior experience managing military Network Operations and Security Centers and advanced routing expertise at the CCNP level or higher. Primary duty station is the Defense Health Headquarters (DHHQ), Falls Church, Virginia. On-site presence is required; telework is by Government approval only and is not guaranteed.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Lead 24x7 Network Operations and Security Center monitoring operations for all MEDXS/MEDEX enterprise and theater nodes, including shift coverage planning, watch-floor procedures, and escalation authority during events.
• Design, implement, tune, and maintain the enterprise monitoring, alerting, and dashboarding architecture (SNMP, NetFlow, syslog, API-based telemetry) to provide end-to-end visibility of availability, latency, throughput, and error conditions.
• Engineer, configure, and troubleshoot advanced routing and switching across the enterprise and theater transport, including BGP, OSPF, EIGRP, MPLS, VRF, quality of service, route redistribution, and path optimization across DISA transport and commercial circuits.
• Own network security operations: firewall and ACL rule management and review, intrusion detection and prevention monitoring, VPN and IPsec tunnel administration, boundary protection configuration, and network access control.
• Direct incident response for network and security events: detect, triage, contain, coordinate remediation, and restore service; serve as the operational incident commander for Severity 1 network outages.
• Coordinate directly with DISA, host-installation communications units, Network Enterprise Centers, circuit providers, and the supporting Cyber Security Service Provider on circuit outages, trouble tickets, transport changes, and cyber directives.
• Perform IAT Level III duties for privileged network and security systems, including security configuration validation, audit and log analysis, vulnerability remediation, and security impact assessment of network changes.
• Apply and maintain network device STIG compliance; manage device firmware and IOS/NX-OS lifecycle, configuration backups, and version control of device configurations.
• Implement and manage network change actions through the Change Advisory Board process, including engineering the change, validating rollback, executing within the maintenance window, and verifying post-change service health.
• Support OCONUS node activation: circuit ordering coordination, transport turn-up and testing, routing integration, quality of service validation for clinical traffic, and acceptance testing with theater stakeholders.
• Conduct capacity and performance management across WAN and LAN infrastructure; trend utilization, forecast growth, identify saturation risk, and recommend bandwidth or architecture changes.
• Develop, maintain, and exercise NOSC standard operating procedures, escalation matrices, outage notification templates, watch-floor checklists, and continuity of operations procedures.
• Produce operational reporting: availability and Service Level Agreement performance metrics, outage summaries, trend analysis, and executive situational reports for the Project Manager and the Government.
• Train, mentor, and technically supervise NOSC watch personnel and System Administrators performing monitoring duties; validate technical proficiency and procedural compliance.
• Support compliance with cyber tasking orders, operations orders, and IAVA directives affecting network devices and boundary infrastructure, and report compliance status.
• Participate in and lead after-action reviews for network and security events, driving corrective engineering actions to closure.
  
  

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or Information Technology from an accredited institution.
• Minimum six (6) years of Network Operations Center experience.
• IAT Level III certification in accordance with DoD 8570.01-M (for example, CISSP), current and in good standing.
• Advanced network routing certification (for example, Cisco CCNP), current and in good standing.
• Direct experience managing military Network Operations and Security Centers.
• Ability to obtain and maintain the required security clearance and IT-I designation.
  
  

Preferred Qualifications

• Prior experience in a DoD or Service-level NOSC, Regional Cyber Center, or theater network operations element.
• CCIE, CCNP Security, or equivalent advanced networking or network security credential.
• Experience with DISA transport ordering, circuit management, and boundary accreditation processes.
• Experience with SD-WAN, satellite, or tactical transport in bandwidth-constrained theaters.
• Splunk or equivalent SIEM administration experience; GIAC network or intrusion analysis credentials.
  
  

Required Technical Skills and Competencies

• Advanced routing and switching on Cisco and comparable platforms: BGP, OSPF, EIGRP, MPLS, VRF, HSRP/VRRP, spanning tree, VLAN and trunking design, and QoS policy.
• Network security platforms: Palo Alto, Cisco ASA/Firepower, IDS/IPS, ACLs, IPsec and SSL VPN, 802.1X and network access control.
• Monitoring and analytics platforms: SolarWinds, Nagios/Zabbix, NetFlow collectors, syslog aggregation, and SIEM (Splunk or equivalent).
• Packet-level troubleshooting with Wireshark and tcpdump; latency, jitter, and throughput analysis.
• Network automation and configuration management: Python, Ansible, NETCONF/RESTCONF, and configuration version control.
• Operational discipline: watch-floor leadership, structured escalation, outage communication, and incident command under pressure.
  
  

Performance Standards

• Network availability sustained at or above the contractual Service Level Agreement across all monitored nodes.
• Mean time to detect and mean time to restore within contractual targets for network and security events.
• Network device STIG and configuration backup compliance sustained at or above the Government-directed threshold.
• All cyber tasking order and IAVA actions reported compliant within directed suspense dates.
  
  

Work Environment and Conditions

• Primary duty station is the Defense Health Headquarters (DHHQ), Falls Church, Virginia. On-site presence is required per the contract; telework is by Government approval only and is not guaranteed.
• Standard core hours align to Government business hours in the Eastern time zone, with on-call and after-hours support required for scheduled maintenance windows, system outages, and OCONUS time-zone coverage.
• Work is performed in a Government office and data center/NOSC environment. Occasional lifting of equipment up to 40 pounds, work in raised-floor data center spaces, and extended periods at a workstation are expected.
• Position requires a favorably adjudicated background investigation and the ability to obtain and maintain the contract-required security clearance and IT-level designation (ADP/IT-I or IT-II as assigned).
• All personnel must satisfy DoD 8570.01-M / DoD 8140 baseline certification requirements prior to being granted privileged access and must maintain continuing education to keep certifications current.