Help desk manager

This is a U.S. based position. All of the programs we support require U.S. citizenship to be eligible for employment. All work must be conducted within the continental U.S.

Who we are:

Raft (https://TeamRaft.com) is a customer-obsessed non-traditional defense tech company dedicated to empowering U.S. military and government agencies with cutting-edge AI/ML and data solutions. We are a leader in autonomous data fusion and Agentic AI, with a purposeful focus on Distributed Data Systems, Platforms at Scale, and Complex Application Development. With headquarters in McLean, VA, our range of clients includes innovative federal and public agencies leveraging design thinking, cutting-edge tech stack, and cloud-native ecosystem. We build digital solutions that impact the lives of millions of Americans.

About the role:

As a Help Desk Manager, you will lead technical support operations for secure, mission-critical platform services supporting the United States Space Force (USSF). You will oversee incident resolution, technical troubleshooting, and support workflows while providing advanced Tier II and Tier III support across complex infrastructure, applications, and networking environments. You will collaborate with engineering teams, stakeholders, and customers to ensure system reliability, improve service delivery, and drive continuous improvement in support operations.

What You Will Do

• Lead help desk operations, establish support priorities, and manage technical troubleshooting and escalation workflows.
• Provide advanced Tier II and Tier III technical support for complex hardware, software, networking, and platform-related issues.
• Diagnose and resolve technical incidents, outages, and system performance issues through remote troubleshooting and direct user support.
• Evaluate incident severity, complexity, and mission impact to determine appropriate prioritization and escalation paths.
• Collaborate with platform engineers, developers, and cybersecurity teams to troubleshoot recurring issues, identify root causes, and implement lasting solutions.
• Review system configurations, installations, and service changes to ensure successful deployment and production stability.
• Improve system availability and reduce Mean Time to Repair (MTTR) through proactive maintenance, incident analysis, and process improvements.
• Develop and maintain troubleshooting procedures, knowledge base documentation, support tools, and operational best practices.
• Provide technical guidance, mentorship, and training to help desk personnel and customers.
• Communicate incident status, technical risks, resolutions, and service improvements to customers, stakeholders, and leadership.
• Support continuous improvement initiatives involving support automation, incident management, and customer service delivery.
• Provide technical consultation and support for critical incidents outside normal business hours as needed.

What we are looking for:

• Bachelor's degree with 2–4 years of relevant experience, Master's degree with 0–2 years, or high school diploma with 8–10 years of relevant experience.
• Demonstrated experience in technical support, help desk operations, IT service management, or related fields.
• Experience coordinating technical support teams, managing incident priorities, and overseeing escalation workflows.
• Advanced troubleshooting skills across computer hardware, operating systems, enterprise applications, and networking technologies.
• Experience providing Tier II and Tier III technical support for complex systems and production environments.
• Strong understanding of incident management, root-cause analysis, problem management, and service reliability practices.
• Experience with ticketing systems, knowledge management tools, and technical support documentation.
• Familiarity with IT service management (ITSM) principles, service-level agreements, and continuous process improvement.
• Ability to analyze complex technical problems, identify effective solutions, and coordinate resolution across multiple engineering teams.
• Strong customer service, communication, organizational, and technical leadership skills.
• Experience supporting DoD, federal, or other regulated environments.
• Ability to provide technical guidance and training to both technical and non-technical users.

Clearance Requirements:

Secret clearance required

Salary Range:

$100,000.00 - $120,000.00

Work Type:

Remote with a preference for candidates based in Colorado Springs, CO

Foreign and domestic travel up to 35% to customer sites

What we will offer you:

• Highly competitive salary
• Fully covered healthcare, dental, and vision coverage
• 401(k) and company match
• Take as you need PTO + 11 paid holidays
• Education & training benefits
• Generous Referral Bonuses
• And More!

Our Vision Statement:

We bridge the gap between humans and data through radical transparency and our obsession with the mission.

Our Customer Obsession:

We will approach every deliverable like it's a product. We will adopt a customer-obsessed mentality. As we grow, and our footprint becomes larger, teams and employees will treat each other not only as teammates but customers. We must live the customer-obsessed mindset, always. This will help us scale and it will translate to the interactions that our Rafters have with their clients and other product teams that they integrate with. Our culture will enable our success and set us apart from other companies.

How do we get there?

Public-sector modernization is critical for us to live in a better world. We, at Raft, want to innovate and solve complex problems. And, if we are successful, our generation and the ones that follow us will live in a delightful, efficient, and accessible world where out-of-box thinking, and collaboration is a norm.

Raft’s core philosophy is Ubuntu: I Am, Because We are. We support our “nadi” by elevating the other Rafters. We work as a hyper collaborative team where each team member brings a unique perspective, adding value that did not exist before. People make Raft special. We celebrate each other and our cognitive and cultural diversity. We are devoted to our practice of innovation and collaboration.

We’re an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran or disability status.