POSITION SUMMARYThe Network Operations Center (NOC) Manager is responsible for establishing and managing a high-performing, 24/7 operational support organization responsible for monitoring infrastructure, managing customer support requests, coordinating incident response, and ensuring exceptional service delivery.
This is a hands-on leadership position requiring a combination of technical expertise, operational discipline, customer service leadership, and organizational development.
The NOC Manager will initially focus on building the Austin NOC operation, including recruiting personnel, establishing staffing schedules, implementing operating procedures, defining escalation processes, and developing the tools and reporting necessary to manage a growing global infrastructure environment.
Once operational, the NOC Manager will have direct accountability for the performance of the NOC, including ticket response times, ticket resolution coordination, incident escalation, customer communications, shift coverage, and operational reporting.
A primary responsibility of this position is ensuring that every customer support ticket receives timely attention, accurate classification, appropriate escalation, consistent follow-through, and documented resolution.
The NOC Manager must establish a culture in which tickets are actively managed from creation through closure, regardless of which technical department is responsible for performing the underlying work.
The successful candidate will understand that the NOC is not simply a monitoring organization. It is the central coordination point for customer-impacting operational issues across Cirrascale's infrastructure.
The NOC Manager will work closely with Engineering, Data Center Operations, Infrastructure Deployment, Network Engineering, Systems Engineering, Hardware Support, and RMA personnel to ensure issues are resolved efficiently and customers remain informed.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIESNOC Development, Organization, Leadership, and Change Management- Lead the establishment and operational development of Cirrascale's Network Operations Center in Austin, Texas.
- Develop the organizational structure required to support continuous 24/7/365 infrastructure monitoring and customer support.
- Participate in recruiting, interviewing, selecting, onboarding, and training NOC personnel.
- Establish staffing requirements, shift schedules, and coverage plans based on ticket volumes, infrastructure growth, and customer service commitments.
- Develop structured onboarding and training programs to ensure employees can perform their responsibilities consistently and independently.
- Establish shift turnover procedures to ensure continuity of operations and communication of unresolved incidents, open tickets, customer commitments, and operational risks.
- Build a culture of accountability, professionalism, technical competency, teamwork, and exceptional customer service.
- Conduct performance reviews, coaching sessions, and employee development activities.
- Establish and oversee operational change management processes for production infrastructure.
- Ensure the NOC has visibility into scheduled maintenance, approved infrastructure changes, and anticipated service impacts.
- Ensure monitoring, documentation, escalation contacts, and support procedures are established before new systems, infrastructure expansions, and customer deployments are transitioned into production.
- Establish procedures for identifying, monitoring, and escalating incidents associated with recent infrastructure changes.
Ticket Management and Service Desk OperationsTicket management is the primary responsibility of the NOC Manager. The individual must maintain complete operational visibility into customer and internal support activities.
- Oversee the complete lifecycle of all customers and internally generated operational support tickets.
- Continuously monitor ticket queues for unassigned, aging, stalled, improperly prioritized, or unresolved tickets.
- Establish response-time, escalation, and resolution expectations consistent with customer service-level agreements.
- Ensure tickets are properly documented and not closed prematurely or without adequate resolution.
- Establish escalation procedures for tickets exceeding response or resolution targets.
- Establish standardized ticket documentation requirements, including troubleshooting steps, technical findings, escalation history, customer communications, and final resolution.
- Identify recurring ticket categories and coordinate corrective actions to reduce repeat issues.
- Establish procedures for reopening tickets when reported issues have not been fully resolved.
The NOC Manager must understand ticket volumes, backlog conditions, outstanding customer issues, assigned ownership, and the actions being taken to resolve them at any given time.
Incident Management, Operational Escalation, Planned Maintenance- Establish and manage incident detection, classification, response, escalation, and resolution procedures.
- Develop clearly defined incident severity levels and escalation requirements.
- Ensure critical incidents receive immediate attention and are escalated according to established procedures.
- Coordinate incident response across Engineering, Infrastructure Operations, Data Center Operations, and external service providers.
- Serve as an operational escalation point during significant service interruptions.
- Maintain clear accountability for incident ownership, response coordination, and resolution.
- Ensure incident activities are documented accurately, including timelines, actions taken, communications, and resolution details.
- Coordinate post-incident reviews and root cause analysis with the appropriate technical teams.
- Track corrective actions resulting from incidents and ensure identified problems are addressed.
- Ensure unresolved incidents are appropriately communicated during shift transitions and customer-impacting incidents receive proper follow-up.
- Manage and monitor the planned maintenance schedule across all sites and ensure customers are notified and go smoothly.
- Coordinate customer notifications and internal communications associated with planned maintenance and infrastructure changes.
Cross-Functional Operational CoordinationThe NOC serves as a central coordination function within Cirrascale's Operations organization. The Noc manager owns this piece.
- Coordinate with Network Engineering on connectivity issues, network outages, routing problems, and equipment failures.
- Work with Systems Engineering on server failures, operating system issues, and hardware-related incidents.
- Coordinate with Data Center Operations and remote technicians for physical troubleshooting and hardware replacement activities.
- Work with RMA and hardware support personnel to track failed components, replacement parts, and repair activities.
- Participate in operational readiness reviews for new customer deployments and infrastructure expansions.
- Ensure operational documentation, monitoring requirements, and escalation contacts are available before new environments transition to NOC support.
- Identify recurring problems requiring action by Engineering or other operational departments.
- Escalate unresolved interdepartmental dependencies to Operations leadership when necessary.
Operational Procedures, Documentation, and Knowledge Management- Develop and maintain standard operating procedures for routine NOC activities.
- Establish documented troubleshooting, incident response, and escalation procedures.
- Create and maintain technical runbooks, troubleshooting guides, and operational reference materials.
- Ensure NOC personnel have access to accurate infrastructure documentation and support contacts.
- Establish procedures for reviewing and updating documentation as infrastructure and operational requirements change.
- Incorporate lessons learned from incidents and operational reviews into established procedures.
- Maintain standardized documentation requirements for ticket handling, shift turnover, incident communication, and escalation.
- Ensure operational knowledge is shared across shifts rather than concentrated among individual employees.
Security, Compliance, and Operational Controls- Ensure NOC activities comply with Cirrascale security policies and operational requirements.
- Support the company's information security and compliance programs, including applicable SOC 2 and ISO requirements.
- Maintain appropriate access controls and operational procedures for monitoring and support systems.
- Ensure security-related alerts and incidents are escalated to designated security personnel.
- Maintain accurate records of incidents, changes, and operational activities when required for audit purposes.
- Ensure NOC personnel understand security responsibilities and escalation requirements.
- Support internal and external audits by providing appropriate operational documentation and evidence.
- Identify operational control deficiencies and coordinate corrective actions.
Technical Operations- Provide Level 1/Level 2 technical support and escalation for complex incidents.
- Oversee troubleshooting of LAN, WAN, WLAN, VPN, and internet connectivity issues.
- Monitor network availability, latency, packet loss, bandwidth utilization, and device health.
- Troubleshoot routing, switching, DNS, DHCP, TCP/IP, and connectivity-related issues.
- Oversee monitoring of firewalls, routers, switches, load balancers, and wireless infrastructure.
- Coordinate with network, systems, security, cloud, and application teams.
- Support infrastructure changes, upgrades, and maintenance activities.
- Review network performance trends and identify potential capacity or availability risks.
- Linux and Windows server operating environments.
- Familiarity with scripting and automation technologies, including Python, Bash, PowerShell
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONSEducation- Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Network Engineering, Information Systems, or a related technical discipline preferred.
- Equivalent professional experience may substitute for formal education.
- Advanced education or relevant technical certifications are beneficial but not mandatory.
LEADERSHIP AND PERSONAL ATTRIBUTESThe successful candidate must demonstrate:
- Customer Commitment: A genuine commitment to exceptional customer service, recognizing that responsiveness, communication, and accountability are essential to customer satisfaction.
- Operational Ownership: A willingness to take responsibility for problems and actively coordinate their resolution, even when technical work is performed by another department.
- Leadership: The ability to establish expectations, develop employees, address performance deficiencies, and build a professional, accountable team.
- Technical Judgment: The ability to evaluate operational issues, recognize their severity, and determine when additional technical expertise or management escalation is required.
- Communication: Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to explain technical problems clearly to customers, engineers, and senior management.
- Organization: The ability to manage competing priorities, monitor multiple operational issues, and maintain accurate visibility into outstanding work.
- Decision-Making: The ability to make sound decisions under pressure, particularly during customer-impacting incidents.
- Attention to Detail: A disciplined approach to ticket documentation, escalation tracking, operational procedures, and customer commitments.
- Continuous Improvement: A proactive approach to identifying operational weaknesses and implementing practical improvements.
- Professionalism: The ability to represent Cirrascale effectively when interacting with customers, vendors, employees, and executive leadership.
Salary Range The base salary range for the
Manager, NOC is $108,000 to $120,000 USD. This pay range reflects the broad, minimum to maximum, pay range for this job for the location for which it has been posted. Compensation decisions are dependent on several factors including, but not limited to, an individual's qualifications, location where the role is to be performed, internal equity, and alignment with market data.
BenefitsComprehensive benefits package, including health, dental, and vision insurance, retirement plans, paid time off,
