Network Operations Center Supervisor

Network Operations Center (NOC) Supervisor

Summary:

The NOC Supervisor is the essential, shift-level manager responsible for the stable, efficient, and reliable day-to-day operation of the network infrastructure. This supervisor ensures staff adherence to all procedures, manages workload prioritization, and serves as the primary escalation point for frontline NOC Analysts and Technicians, driving incident response to meet critical Service Level Agreements (SLAs) during their shift.

Responsibilities :

Daily Operations & Workload Management :

• Shift Command: Oversee all day-to-day NOC activities during the assigned shift.
• Workload Distribution: Review and assign all incoming work, including automated alerts, trouble tickets, service requests, and change orders, ensuring proper prioritization and timely resolution by NOC staff.
• Performance Monitoring: Ensure the team is diligently monitoring all network and system health dashboards, performance metrics, and alerts using monitoring tools.
• SLA Compliance: Drive the team to meet or exceed Service Level Agreements (SLAs) for response time (MTTA) and resolution time (MTTR).
• Documentation Quality: Review the quality and completeness of all incident tickets, ensuring all actions, escalations, and resolutions are accurately logged in the ticketing system.

Incident and Crisis Management :

• Escalation Authority: Act as the first point of escalation for complex technical issues that Level 1/2 NOC staff cannot resolve, providing guidance or stepping in to troubleshoot.
• Major Incident Coordinator: Take ownership of critical incidents (P1/P2 outages), coordinating the initial response, managing bridge calls, and engaging specialized engineering teams (Tier 3/Network Engineering).
• Communication Hub: Ensure clear, timely, and effective internal and external communication regarding the status of all significant incidents and maintenance activities.
• Problem Prevention: Lead preliminary root cause analysis (RCA) on recurring incidents and collaborate with the Problem Management team to find and eliminate systemic issues.

Team Leadership and Development :

• Staff Management: Manage the daily supervision of NOC Analysts and Technicians, including scheduling, time-off requests, and ensuring adequate 24/7 coverage.
• Mentoring and Coaching: Provide coaching, training, and technical mentorship to develop the team's troubleshooting and diagnostic skills.
• Performance Evaluation: Conduct regular check-ins and performance reviews, offering constructive feedback and contributing to formal employee appraisals.
• Hiring and Onboarding: Assist the NOC Manager with the recruitment, interviewing, and onboarding of new technical staff.

Process and Policy Enforcement :

• Procedure Enforcement: Ensure all NOC staff strictly adhere to established Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), runbooks, and ITIL-based processes (Incident Management, Change Management, Problem Management).
• Change Control Review: Oversee and approve network change requests during the shift, ensuring change management policies are followed to minimize risk to the production environment.
• Knowledge Base Maintenance: Champion the creation and maintenance of a robust knowledge base (KEDB) for common resolutions and known errors.
• Operational Reporting: Prepare and present daily, weekly, or shift reports on NOC performance, network availability, and key metrics for management review.

Required Qualifications :

• Security Clearance: Must be eligible for and able to successfully obtain and maintain a U.S. Government Public Trust clearance.
• Education: Associate's Degree (or equivalent) in IT, Computer Science, or equivalent technical training/certifications (or equivalent work experience).
• Experience: Minimum 3 years of hands-on experience in a 24/7 operations environment, triage, and ticket management.
• Experience: Minimum 1 year of experience guiding, mentoring, or directly supervising junior technical staff.
• Core Skills: Proven ability to coordinate initial incident response, manage bridge calls, and perform accurate ticket quality review.
• Core Skills: Solid understanding of network monitoring tools, protocols (TCP/IP), and basic troubleshooting for LAN/WAN/Security devices.

Desired Qualifications :

• IT Service Management: ITILv4 Foundation.
• Networking/Security: Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA).
• Networking/Security: Fortinet Certified Associate (FCA) or NSE 2/3.
• Soft Skills: Strong verbal and written communication, essential for clear shift handovers and incident reporting.