Jr. Network Operations Engineer

Valiant Solutions is seeking a Junior Network Operations Engineer to join our rapidly growing and innovative cybersecurity team!

Valiant Solutions is seeking a Junior Network Operations Engineer to serve as the first line of response for a federal enterprise Network Operations Center supporting roughly 50 sites nationwide. This position triages incoming incidents and service requests in Service Now, performs first-tier diagnostics such as connectivity verification and switch port resets, and escalates to Tier 2 and Tier 3 engineers against defined service levels.

Tier 1 acts as the incident response manager on this program, which means the role carries real ownership of the ticket from intake through resolution rather than simply passing it along. The position is a structured entry point into federal network operations, with direct exposure to Cisco enterprise routing and switching, Zero Trust network access control, and an enterprise IPv6 modernization effort driven by OMB M-21-07.

Named one of the Best Places to Work in the Washington DC area for 12 consecutive years, Valiant is proud of our employee-centric culture and commitment to excellence.

This is a Hybrid Role. The position requires 3/days on-site in Silver Spring and allows for 2/days remote. Remote work requires a high level of trust in our employees, and we strictly adhere to the details outlined in our Remote Work Policy below.

• 1 to 3 years of Network Operations Center or technical help desk experience.
• High school diploma or equivalent. Trade certifications are highly preferred.
• Experience working tickets in an IT service management platform.
• Interest in building a career in enterprise network engineering, with a willingness to pursue certification while on contract.

• Networking fundamentals: the OSI model, IP addressing and subnetting, VLANs, DNS, and DHCP.
• Basic Cisco IOS command line navigation for interface status and port configuration.
• Ticket handling in Service Now or a comparable IT service management platform.
• Alarm triage in an enterprise monitoring tool such as Solar Winds.
• Clear technical writing for knowledge base articles and ticket documentation.
• Microsoft Office and collaboration tool proficiency.

• Written and verbal communication skills sufficient to explain network and security concepts to both engineers and non-technical government stakeholders.

• CompTIA Network+ or A+.
• CCNA, or active progress toward it.
• ITIL v4 Foundation certification is preferred, given the requirement to unify operations under an ITSMframework.

• Serve as the incident response manager for incoming tickets, owning triage, categorization, and routing to Tier 2 and Tier 3 engineers.
• Perform first-tier diagnostics, including connectivity verification, interface status checks, and switch port resets.
• Monitor the enterprise monitoring platform for alarms and open tickets proactively when thresholds are crossed.
• Escalate against defined service levels so that Priority 1 incidents receive a response within 15 minutes.
• Track ticket aging and flag overage tickets before they breach a service level.

• Open, update, and close tickets in Service Now ITSM, capturing clear problem statements, actions taken, and resolutions.
• Process network service requests submitted through the service catalog.
• Provide status updates to requesters and government stakeholders throughout the incident lifecycle.
• Supply ticket metrics and service level performance data for the weekly and monthly status reports.

• Write and maintain How-To…