Principal Systems Engineer #208 Job in Washington DC, DC

Vacancy No. req437 Department Senate
Salary $126,372.00 to $175,868.00 Grade 00 to 00
Perm/Temp Permanent FT/PT Full-time
Open Date 9/19/2024 Close Date 10/3/2024
Job Link Apply Online Who may apply Public
Locations:
Washington DC, DC


Job Description (Please follow all instructions carefully)

Summary

The Senate Sergeant at Arms is seeking a Principal Systems Engineer. The complete vacancy announcement and application can be found on the United States Senate Career Page at https://sen.gov/J5NY. This vacancy announcement closes at 7pm EST on the closing date. Late applications will not be accepted.

Duties

Contributes to the section's work effort in responding to incidents from other sections, including the help desk. Supports tasks which may include helping to develop standard operating procedures, assignments, and coordination of work efforts to address issues. Assists users with computer needs such as installing and configuring software/hardware on their PC; troubleshoots problems with user systems. Provisions new accounts for users. Supports the section's work effort to develop processes and procedures to streamline the resolution of issues. Provides technical support for Senate information technology or telecommunications services, systems, hardware, software, and storage solutions to the users; supports Senate offices, contract support vendors, and other technical staff in troubleshooting and managing the various Senate environments. Maintains and monitors LAN/WAN and SAN operations and solves LAN/WAN and SAN applications problems; installs integrates, customizes, enhances, troubleshoots, and tests LAN and SAN hardware and software. Assists in installing, upgrading, customizing, tuning, and maintaining databases for optimal performance and availability; assists in developing, testing, and implementing database store procedures, functions, triggers, views, and packages. Conducts acceptance and integration testing; assists vendor systems implementation by troubleshooting related system issues affecting Senate users. Analyzes, designs, develops, implements, and maintains applications to meet the needs of Senate users; assists with product evaluations and implementation. Attends internal training provided by subject matter experts to understand operational tasks, documents support needs, and share the information within the assigned section. Other duties as assigned.

Requirements

Conditions of Employment

  • For conditions of employment and citizenship requirements, please visit the job announcement on the United States Senate Career Page at https://sen.gov/J5NY.

Qualifications

Other Duties/ Responsibilities

  • Participate in on-site and on-call rotation.  

Required Work Experience

  • Eight to ten years of relevant work experience (GED), six to eight years (Associates), four to eight years (Bachelor’s), two to four years (Master’s).

Required Special Skills/ Knowledge

  • Provides long-range strategic planning activities for the Senate in the areas of information technology or telecommunications hardware, software, storage solutions, and networking systems; monitors the impact of technological developments; identifies emerging technologies.
  • Provides expert-level technical support on Senate hardware, software, storage solutions, and network systems to vendors, other technical staff, and other divisions and departments; resolves critical and complex systems, applications, storage or communications performance problems.
  • Serves as project manager on assigned projects; plans, assigns, directs and coordinates work efforts; develops project plans, timetables and staff assignments.
  • Customizes, tests, recommends and configures operating and network systems and software platforms; monitors, evaluates and resolves hardware/software configuration system performance problems; recommends third party software on other operating systems.

As part of our hiring process, we may conduct a skills assessment to better understand an applicant’s proficiency in key areas relevant to the role. 

Desired Qualifications

  • Experience with Splunk in distributed deployments.
  • Experience with Splunk Enterprise Security or integration with other Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) platforms.
  • Proficient at data onboarding activities, including routing, parsing, and normalizing events to the Splunk Common Information Model (CIM).
  • Proficiency in onboarding data using Splunk-developed add-ons for Windows, Linux, and common third-party devices and applications.
  • Proficiency in onboarding data into Splunk via forwarder, scripted inputs, TCP/UDP, and modular inputs from various sources.
  • Proficiency in managing Splunk using the Splunk command-line interface.
  • Proficiency in managing Splunk using configuration files.
  • Experience collaborating with separate engineering teams to configure data sources for Splunk integration.
  • Proficiency in implementing and onboarding data in Splunk DB Connect.
  • Experience with Splunk performing systems administration, including performing installation, configuration, monitoring system performance and availability, upgrades, and troubleshooting.
  • General networking and security troubleshooting (firewalls, routing, NAT, etc.).
  • Splunk implementation and troubleshooting experience.
  • Experience managing, maintaining, and administering multi-site indexer clusters and search head clustering.
  • Proficiency in developing log ingestion and aggregation strategies per Splunk best practices.
  • Experience with performing integration activities to configure, connect, and pull data with 3rd party software APIs.
  • Scripting and development skills (Ansible, Bash, Python, and PowerShell).

Desired Certifications 

  • Splunk Administrator.
  • Splunk Certified Architect.
  • Certified Storage Associate.
  • Red Hat Certified Systems Administrator or greater (RHCE).
  • At least one of the following certifications: CISSP, CCSP, CSSLP, CCNP, CCNP Security, CCIE Security, CEH, ECSP, MCSE, RHCA, RHCSA, RHCE, VCP, VCAP, VCIX, and VCDX.

Working Conditions

  • No exceptional physical demands.

Security Clearance

  • This position requires that the applicant obtain and maintain a Secret U.S. Government security clearance.
  • Applicants must be U.S. citizens in order for the SAA to submit your application for a security clearance.

Education

High School Diploma, GED or an equivalent combination of education and work experience.

Additional information

The Sergeant at Arms is an equal opportunity employer in accordance with the requirements of Senate rules, regulations, and applicable Federal Laws. This agency provides reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the application and hiring process, please notify the agency. Decisions to grant reasonable accommodations will be determined on a case-by-case basis. Please email employment@saa.senate.gov with “Applicant Accommodation” in the subject line. No moving, relocation or pre-employment travel expenses will be paid for this position, or while in application for this position.

Benefits

A career with the U.S. government provides employees with a comprehensive benefits package. As a federal employee, you and your family will have access to a range of benefits that are designed to make your federal career very rewarding. Opens in a new windowLearn more about federal benefits.

Eligibility for benefits depends on the type of position you hold and whether your position is full-time, part-time or intermittent. Contact the hiring agency for more information on the specific benefits offered.

How You Will Be Evaluated

You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.

Your application will be evaluated by a panel on the quality and extent of your total accomplishments, experience, and education. Highly qualified candidates may be interviewed and a reference check conducted.

Required Documents

Subject to background/security investigation.

If you are relying on your education to meet qualification requirements:

Education must be accredited by an accrediting institution recognized by the U.S. Department of Education in order for it to be credited towards qualifications. Therefore, provide only the attendance and/or degrees from schools accredited by accrediting institutions recognized by the U.S. Department of Education.

Failure to provide all of the required information as stated in this vacancy announcement may result in an ineligible rating or may affect the overall rating.

How to Apply

All applicants must apply for jobs online using this link: https://sen.gov/J5NY. Paper application materials, resumes and attachments that are sent via email, mail or brought in-person will not be considered or accepted. All applicants MUST attach their documents to the online employment application.

Agency contact information

Address
U.S. Senate Sergeant at Arms
SH-142 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC, Washington, DC 20001
Learn more about this agency

Next steps

Qualified candidates will be contacted directly.


Note: We cannot accept applications on behalf of Federal Agencies. Application instructions are listed within the Job Description.