Help Desk Lead

Position Overview

Trace Systems is seeking a highly motivated and customer-focused Help Desk Lead to oversee critical contract operations in Al Nakhla, Saudi Arabia. This role is pivotal in ensuring seamless IT support for classified and unclassified networks, serving as the primary contact point for end-users. The Help Desk Lead will be responsible for managing daily support operations, ensuring rapid issue resolution, maintaining comprehensive documentation, and coordinating escalations to specialized technical teams. This position demands a blend of technical expertise, leadership acumen, and exceptional communication skills to uphold mission-critical services.

Key Responsibilities

The Help Desk Lead will play a central role in the following areas:

• Team Leadership and Operations Management: Oversee daily Service Desk operations, including workload assignment, ticket queue monitoring, and response requirement adherence. Ensure continuous support for mission-critical incidents, VIP disruptions, and enterprise-wide outages.
• Technical Guidance and Quality Assurance: Provide mentorship, training, and technical guidance to Service Desk personnel. Review ticket documentation and resolution practices to maintain high service standards. Identify recurring issues and implement process improvements to enhance service delivery.
• Incident and Request Management: Receive and process incidents and service requests via telephone, email, walk-ins, remote-support tools, and a Government-approved ticketing system. Create, categorize, prioritize, assign, update, track, and close tickets with detailed customer interactions, troubleshooting steps, escalation records, and resolution outcomes.
• Tier I Technical Support: Deliver first-level support for desktops, laptops, monitors, docking stations, printers, scanners, smart-card readers, and approved peripherals. Troubleshoot Microsoft Windows, Office Suite, Outlook, Teams, approved browsers, Adobe products, and other enterprise applications.
• User Access and Connectivity Support: Assist with Common Access Card (CAC) authentication, certificate issues, password resets, account unlocks, profile management, printer mapping, shared-drive access, and approved access requests. Perform basic Ethernet, wireless, VPN, TCP/IP, DNS, DHCP, and local connectivity troubleshooting.
• System and Workstation Support: Install and configure approved client software, peripherals, and workstation settings. Support workstation setup, equipment replacement, office relocations, technology refresh initiatives, and basic Video Teleconferencing (VTC) or conference-room requirements.
• Escalation and Collaboration: Escalate advanced technical issues to Desktop, Systems, Network, Voice, VTC, SharePoint, Cybersecurity, or external support teams while retaining ownership of tickets. Maintain clear communication with military leaders, Government civilians, mission partners, and distinguished visitors.
• Knowledge Management and Process Improvement: Contribute to the development of knowledge articles, troubleshooting guides, and recurring-issue analyses. Participate in service improvement initiatives to enhance operational efficiency and user satisfaction.
• Compliance and Security: Adhere to cybersecurity protocols, approved-software guidelines, removable-media policies, information-protection standards, and Government Furnished Equipment (GFE) accountability requirements.
• After-Hours Support: Participate in emergency recall and on-call support rotations as assigned to ensure uninterrupted service delivery.

Minimum Qualifications

To qualify for this role, candidates must meet the following criteria:

• Clearance and Citizenship: Active, in-scope U.S. Government-issued Secret clearance. U.S. Citizenship is mandatory due to contract requirements.
• Experience: Minimum of three years in IT help desk or service desk roles, including at least one year in a leadership capacity. Proven ability to coordinate daily workload, monitor ticket queues, and manage issue escalation and resolution processes.
• DoD 8140 Compliance: Candidates must meet the applicable DoD 8140 qualification requirements for the assigned work role. Eligible DoD 8140 Work Roles include Technical Support Specialist (411) at the Intermediate proficiency level. Qualification may be achieved through education, military training, certifications, or a combination thereof.
• Educational and Certification Requirements: A bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Cybersecurity, Computer Science, Information Systems, or completion of relevant military communications or network training is preferred. Qualifying certifications may include Security+, Cyber Network Defense (CND), GIAC Foundational Cybersecurity Technologies (GFACT), GIAC Security Essentials (GSEC), or other DoD 8140-approved credentials. Higher proficiency levels or equivalent certifications are advantageous.