TriTech Enterprise Systems, Inc. (TriTech) is seeking a ‘Program Manager, to run a Scientific Service Desk for a federal government agency. The candidate will be
responsible for day-to-day interactions with federal scientists with the intent of supporting all laboratory instrumentation in use at the center. There are currently over 300 pieces of instrumentation that have a dedicated scientific personal computer (PC) connected to it with operating systems ranging from multiple Windows versions (2000 to 11) to a variety of Linux flavors (Debian, Ubuntu, Mint, etc.). This instrumentation ranges from next generation sequencers, liquid handlers, low-volume liquid dispensers, plate readers, and a variety of others.
Much of this instrumentation is essential to the agency's scientific mission and some of it requires extended operation across days or even weeks to perform a variety of experiments without interruption.Each piece of this instrumentation typically comes with a specific installation configuration that has been validated by the vendor. Any changes to this configuration can result in inconsistent behavior or even the failure to operate. This configuration in many cases deals specifically with the means of instrument communication, be it via a serial port (RS-232), TCP/IP, CAN bus, Ethernet/IP, USB (2.0 and 3.0), OPC, and others. The nature of these means of communication between the connected PC and the instrument typically requires less stringent security controls to ensure the continuous operation of the device.
This communication coupled with a standard configuration is prone to failure if updated or patched as many patches deal with communication vulnerabilities. Correcting them by disabling necessary protocols requires specific expertise in the establishment, maintenance, and monitoring of a dedicated scientific network to sequester these instruments from the primary NIH network as they cannot be held to the same security standard.
Specific Skills:
This candidate shall provide a knowledgeable, customer-focused IT staff that will be responsible for day-to-day interactions with NIH scientific staff with the intent of quickly identifying and resolving scientific service requests. The team shall perform in-person, remote control, over-the-phone, and automated IT support to all NIH desktops, peripherals, and workstations. In addition, the team shall leverage the use of management tools such as BigFix, Munki, Microsoft Active Directory Group Policy, Bomgar, Remote Desktop, and VNC to pro-actively and efficiently manage NIH desktops and workstations to ensure high availability, reliability, usability, and low cost of ownership.
Specific Tasks:
- Configuring, installing, and supporting desktop computers, handheld devices, printers, monitors, portable data storage devices, and other peripherals
- Relocating IT equipment, including desktop computers, printers, monitors, portable data storage devices, and other peripherals
- Sanitizing computers, as required by NIH and HHS policy
- Supporting the refresh of approximately 33% of NIH computers every year
- Ensuring IT devices are configured for secure operation, including installation of software updates, security software, and other configurations as required
- Connecting and configuring IT devices to use computer networks
- Diagnosing hardware and software failures communicating remediation plans and providing status updates to users
- Providing software support for users of NIH provided applications identified by the task, including basic to advanced software operations and general use of computers and peripherals
- Developing and maintaining secure baseline configurations compliant with the United States Government Configuration Baseline (USGCB)
- Providing user training
Experience and Skills:
- Experience managing the first and second-tier support for end users of scientific instrumentation and scientific information technology (IT) devices
- ITIL and/or PMP certification would be a plus.
TriTech is an Equal Opportunity Employer!
