NOC Lead (Top Secret)

Zachary Piper Solutions is seeking a NOC Lead to support a critical program for the Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration in Manassas, VA. The team is seeking an experienced network engineer to oversee and safeguard the availability, performance, security, and operational resilience of enterprise IT services and infrastructure for the agency.

Clearance: Active Top Secret Clearance, ability to obtain DOE Q clearance
Location: Manassas, VA (100% on-site), ability to commute to Washington, D.C. initially

Responsibilities

• Monitor and maintain the availability, performance, and health of enterprise networks, systems, applications, and infrastructure.
• Oversee 24x7x365 operations, ensuring continuous service coverage and operational readiness across all shifts.
• Lead incident response activities, coordinate service restoration efforts, and manage escalations to minimize business impact.
• Ensure incidents, outages, and service requests are documented, tracked, and resolved in accordance with established SLAs and operational procedures.
• Conduct root cause analyses and drive corrective and preventive actions to reduce recurring incidents and improve service reliability.
• Supervise, mentor, and develop NOC analysts and engineers, including workload management, performance coaching, and staff onboarding.
• Coordinate change implementations, maintenance activities, and cross-functional technical support to ensure stable and reliable service delivery.
• Serve as the primary operational liaison for customers, stakeholders, vendors, and support partners, providing timely communication on service impacts and resolution status.
• Monitor operational risks, maintain situational awareness of ongoing incidents and outages, and ensure compliance with service level and contractual requirements.
• Prepare and deliver operational reports, performance metrics, dashboards, and executive-level status updates.

Requirements

• Active Top Secret and/or DOE Q clearance
• Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college in a related discipline and 10+ years of IT network operations/engineering, 4+ years of leadership experience
• Enterprise network technologies (TCP/IP, DNS, DHCP, routing, switching, firewalls)
• Cisco Route and Switch configuration (IOS-XE, NX-OS)
• Arista Switch Configuration (EOS)
• Spine/Leaf Architecture
• Familiar with WAN Circuits i.e. Metro Ethernet, Circuit Diversity
• Windows and Linux server environments
• Cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud) preferred
• Monitoring and management tools such as Riverbed NetIM, Syslog, Wireshark, Splunk, or Panorama/PAN-OS
• IT Service Management (ITSM) processes including Incident, Problem, Change, and Knowledge Management

Pay

Total compensation based on experience level: $160,000–190,000

Benefits

• PTO
• 11 Paid Holidays
• Medical, Dental, and Vision
• 401k with ADP

Long-term program (3.5 years remaining)