Cloud Operations Support Specialist (Tier 2)

About the role

Dark Wolf is seeking a Cloud Operations Support Specialist (Tier 2) to join our team and serve as an essential frontline escalation point for maintaining, monitoring, and operating our AWS cloud environments. In this role, you will handle Tier 1 escalations, monitor system health, manage incident response, oversee backups and capacity, and execute standard operational changes. Our support specialists solve real-time operational challenges for unique mission customers and play a vital role in ensuring the high availability, reliability, and security of critical cloud systems.

Key Responsibilities

• Serving as the primary Tier 2 escalation point for Tier 1 service desk tickets, diagnosing and resolving complex technical issues across AWS cloud environments before escalating to Tier 3 engineering.
• Proactively monitoring cloud infrastructure, service metrics, and system performance using AWS monitoring tools (e.g., CloudWatch, CloudTrail) to detect and resolve alerts before impact occurs.
• Conducting routine checks of automated backup schedules, snapshot integrity, and storage/compute capacity; take corrective action or implement routine adjustments when thresholds are exceeded.
• Triaging, investigating, and resolving operational incidents in accordance with established SLAs; perform initial root cause analysis and document problem trends to prevent recurring outages.
• Executing approved standard changes, routine maintenance tasks, service restarts, access requests, and basic configuration updates following strict change-management procedures.
• Coordinating closely with Tier 1 support staff, Tier 3 Cloud Systems Engineers, and security personnel to provide seamless handoffs, operational feedback, and continuous documentation updates.
• Authoring and maintaining comprehensive Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), troubleshooting runbooks, and Knowledge Base (KB) articles to empower Tier 1 resolution, streamline escalation paths, and capture lessons learned from incident triage.

Required Qualifications

• 2+ years of experience in IT help desk, technical support, systems operations, or a Tier 2 support role.
• Hands-on operational experience supporting services and basic infrastructure within Amazon Web Services (AWS) (e.g., EC2, S3, IAM, CloudWatch, VPC).
• Demonstrated experience handling incident, problem, and service request ticketing workflows within GitLab
• Proven track record monitoring system performance, resource utilization, and backup integrity in a cloud or hybrid environment.
• Solid baseline troubleshooting skills across Linux and/or Windows operating systems and basic cloud networking (DNS, routing, security groups).
• Excellent verbal and written technical communication skills, with experience creating standard operating procedures (SOPs) and knowledge base articles.
• US Citizen with an active Top Secret security clearance (or Secret with ability to obtain/maintain Top Secret, as required by customer contract).

Desired Qualifications

• AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner, AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate, or AWS Certified SysOps Administrator - Associate.
• Relevant DoD 8570/8140 baseline certification (e.g., CompTIA Security+, Network+, or CySA+).
• Familiarity with basic scripting (e.g., Bash, PowerShell, Python) for routine administrative queries or log parsing.
• Familiarity with Department of War (DoW) security controls, ticketing processes, or Air Force base operations.

Pay and benefits

The estimated salary range for this position is $60,000.00 - $110,000.00, commensurate on experience and technical skillset.

We are strictly looking for direct, full-time W2 employees. We do not engage with third-party staffing agencies, C2C, or 1099 independent contractors for this role.

We are proud to be an EEO/AA employer Minorities/Women/Veterans/Disabled and other protected categories.

In compliance with federal law, all persons hired will be required to verify identity, confirm US Citizenship, and complete the required employment eligibility verification upon hire.