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CURRENT PENN STATE STUDENT (not employed previously at the university) and seeking employment with Penn State, please login to Workday to complete the student application process. Please do not apply here, apply internally through Workday.
If you are NOT a current employee or student, please click "Apply" and complete the application process for external applicants.
Approval of remote and hybrid work is not guaranteed regardless of work location.For additional information on remote work at Penn State, seeNotice to Out of State Applicants.
POSITION SPECIFICS
Your working location will be fully on-site, located in State College, PA. Questions related to flexible work should be directed to the hiring manager during the interview process.
We are searching for a highly motivated and self-driven IT Technical Support (ARL) - Supervisor for our highly secured environments to join our Information Technology Services Division at the Applied Research Laboratory (ARL) at Penn State University. ARL's purpose is to research and develop innovative solutions to challenging scientific, engineering, and technology problems in support of the Navy, the Department of Defense (DoD), and the Intel Community (IC).
ARL is an authorized DoD SkillBridge partner and welcomes all transitioning military members to apply.
This role will lead frontline ITS support and Service Desk operations-overseeing student hiring/supervision, businesshours coverage, ARL collaboration, and daily metricdriven improvements.
You will:
Lead and supervise an IT support team (Tier 1): manage queues, assign/prioritize tickets, monitor SLAs, establish and maintain documentation, and provide coaching/performance feedback
Coordinate operational governance: maintain the knowledge base/runbooks; standardize triage and escalation workflows; ensure adherence to incident/problem/changemanagement policies and audit requirements
Provide technical support and training on IT Services and end users systems; advise on computing policies and procedures for faculty, staff, and students
Manage Service Desk performance and compliance: set KPIs/SLAs, review dashboards, publish regular reports, and drive corrective actions to improve Customer Satisfaction (CSAT), Mean Time to Resolution (MTTR), and backlog
Represent the Service Desk in IT/ARL meetings and project teams; collaborate to ensure support readiness for new services and initiatives
Proactively monitor and report outages, changes, incidents, and problems; ensure timely, accurate communication to the Service Desk in accordance with established notification protocols
Recruit, hire, onboard, and schedule student employees; deliver ARL-specific training (customer service, security, tools) with ongoing coaching and feedback to ensure coverage and quality support
Own student development and performance management: conduct performance reviews; design training modules and assessments; map competency paths to support career growth within the student pipeline
Required skills and experience include:
Team leadership & workforce management: proven ability to hire, schedule, coach, and evaluate Tier 1 staff and student employees
Service desk operations & ITSM proficiency: experience with incident/problem/change management, majorincident coordination, standardized triage, and escalation control
Ticketing / ticket management proficiency: handson experience with enterprise ticketing systems (intake, triage, assignment, workflow, SLAs), queue management, and backlog control
Customer service excellence: strong empathy and active listening; clear written/verbal communication; ability to manage expectations, deescalate issues, and deliver highquality support for diverse user groups
Technical troubleshooting: competence with Windows and Linux endpoints, common enterprise applications, and standard hardware/peripherals; ability to translate technical concepts for nontechnical users and deliver userfocused training
Knowledge management & documentation: ability to maintain KB articles, runbooks, playbooks, and standard operating procedures aligned to governance and audit needs
Communication & stakeholder engagement: deliver timely status updates; collaborate across IT groups; effectively represent the Service Desk in meetings and project teams
Metrics-driven improvement: define SLAs/KPIs, analyze dashboards/reports, and drive actions to improve CSAT, MTTR, firstcontact resolution, and backlog health
Preferred skills and experience include:
Specific tools familiarity (preferred, not required): Jira Service Management (JSM); Active Directory/Group Policy; endpoint management platforms such as SCCM/MECM; Linux lifecycle tools including Red Hat Satellite; automation/orchestration via Ansible Automation Platform (AAP)
Automation/scripting: (PowerShell/Python) to streamline triage, reporting, and routine tasks
Knowledge of DoD regulations and standards: familiarity with DoD 8500.01 and NIST guidelines
Security clearance: current eligibility for access to classified information at the Secret level or higher; may be subject to a government background investigation to upgrade clearance eligibility, if required. Active Secret Clearance is a plus
DoD 8140: The ability to certify and maintain information security related certification (Security+, CASP+, CySA+). Current CompTIA Security+ certification is a plus
MINIMUM EDUCATION, WORK EXPERIENCE & REQUIRED CERTIFICATIONS
Associate Degree4+ years of relevant experience; or an equivalent combination of education and experience acceptedRequired Certifications:None
ARL's purpose is to research and develop innovative solutions to challenging scientific, engineering, and technology problems in support of the Navy, the Department of Defense (DoD), and the Intel Community (IC).
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION on ARL, visit our web site at www.arl.psu.edu.
BACKGROUND CHECKS/CLEARANCES
Employment with the University will require successful completion of background check(s) in accordance with University policies.Notice regarding employment at the Applied Research Laboratory (ARL):Employees must be eligible to obtain a government security clearance, participate in the ARL drug testing program, and comply with electronic and physical monitoring requirements applicable to federal contractors. ARL operates in a secure information environment involving Unclassified, Controlled Unclassified Informati
