Knowledge Center Escalation Lead

Overview

Empower AI is AI for government. Empower AI gives federal agency leaders the tools to elevate the potential of their workforce with a direct path for meaningful transformation. Headquartered in Reston, Va., Empower AI leverages three decades of experience solving complex challenges in Health, Defense, and Civilian missions. Our proven Empower AI Platform® provides a practical, sustainable path for clients to achieve transformation that is true to who they are, what they do, how they work, with the resources they have. The result is a government workforce that is exponentially more creative and productive. For more information, visit www.Empower.ai.

Empower AI is proud to be recognized as a 2024 Military Friendly Employer by Viqtory, the publisher of G.I. Jobs. This designation reflects the company’s commitment to hiring and supporting active-duty and veteran employees.

Responsibilities

Description

Empower AI is seeking a motivated Knowledge Center (KC) Escalation Lead to analyze and resolve support requests from the external industry partners and users of a Department of War agency on its portfolio of mission applications (e.g., DISS, NISS, NBIS). External users reach the Knowledge Center by toll-free phone, support email, public web form, and public chatbot; the agent determines what the user needs and how urgent it is, creates and manages the ticket on the user's behalf, resolves common account, access, and navigation issues using documented procedures, and decides when to escalate. Every ticket follows the email-based Customer-Confirmed Ticket Closure process. The position requires focused action to monitor and direct escalation of all KC tickets to appropriate resources to expedite issue resolution.  You will also identify areas, processes and communication channels where we can offer continuous improvements to drive enhanced customer satisfaction. This is a primarily remote position and an excellent entry point into Federal IT customer support. This is a salaried, FLSA-exempt position in which you will independently analyze situations, determine the appropriate course of action, and exercise discretion and independent judgment on matters of significance to the program and its customers.

THIS IS A REMOTE ROLE WITH UP TO 10% OF TRAVEL INVOLVED.

JOB DUTIES:

• Analyze inbound external-user requests from the toll-free line, support email, public web form, and chatbot handoffs to determine the application, nature, business impact, and Priority Level, and create complete, accurate tickets in the Government's ITSM system on the user's behalf.
• Determine the resolution approach for common Tier I external-user issues on DISS, NISS, NBIS, and other designated applications using knowledge articles and documented procedures, and decide when escalation to the KC Escalation Coordinator is required.
• Manage external-user communication through the email-based Customer-Confirmed Ticket Closure process and safeguard sensitive user information in accordance with Privacy Act and CUI requirements.
• Analyze incoming incidents and service requests from internal users across phone, chat, email, and portal channels to determine the nature, scope, and business impact of each issue, and independently assign the appropriate Priority Level (PL1 through PL4) and category in the enterprise ITSM platform (e.g., ServiceNow).
• Determine the appropriate resolution approach for each Tier I issue by evaluating symptoms against known errors, knowledge articles, and system behavior, and decide when an issue can be resolved at Tier I, deflected to self-service, or must be escalated to Tier II, Tier III, or a specialized resolver group.
• Resolve account, access, connectivity, and application issues by selecting and applying the correct diagnostic and remediation steps, including administrative actions on user accounts and configurations within delegated authority.
• Evaluate whether resolution actions have fully addressed the customer's need before placing tickets in "Resolved - Awaiting Customer Confirmation" status under the Customer-Confirmed Ticket Closure process, and document resolutions clearly for reuse by other analysts.
• Assess the age and risk of items in the open ticket queue, decide which require follow-up with users or resolver groups, and take action to prevent tickets from breaching resolution SLAs.

Qualifications

REQUIREMENTS:

• Bachelor's degree and 2 or more years of related experience (an Associate's degree with 2 years of related experience, or 4 years of related experience in lieu of a degree, may be substituted).
• Must be a U.S. Citizen.
• Must have an Active Secret Clearance (favorably adjudicated T3/T3R) to start.
• Must be within investigation scope and/or currently enrolled in Continuous Evaluation / Continuous Vetting.
• Must possess and maintain a current DoD 8570/8140 IAT Level I baseline certification (e.g., CompTIA A+ CE, Network+ CE, Security+ CE, CCNA-Security, or SSCP) prior to performing cybersecurity-related duties.
• Demonstrated ability to work independently, analyze problems, determine the appropriate course of action, and exercise discretion and independent judgment with limited day-to-day supervision.
• Experience or demonstrated aptitude in help desk, service desk, call center, desktop support, or customer technical support.
• Working knowledge of Windows 10/11, Microsoft 365 applications, Active Directory account concepts, basic networking (Wi-Fi, VPN, IP connectivity), and common peripherals.
• Familiarity with ticketing systems and service desk workflows, including accurate ticket documentation and escalation.
• Ability to work assigned shifts within a 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. ET core schedule, and willingness to work extended-hours shifts (evenings, overnight, weekends, and holidays) if assigned to the extended-hours team.
• Strong customer service orientation, patience, and the ability to communicate clearly with non-technical users by phone and in writing.
• Ability to follow documented procedures precisely while handling a high volume of contacts in a fast-paced environment.
• Experience or demonstrated aptitude supporting external customers or the public through phone, email, and web channels; ability to work assigned shifts within 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. ET; this position primarily works remotely.

DESIRED SKILLS:

• HDI Customer Service Representative, HDI Support Center Analyst, or ITIL 4 Foundation certification.
• Experience using ServiceNow (incident, request, knowledge, CMDB, Service Catalog, Virtual Agent) or a comparable enterprise ITSM platform.
• Experience working across multiple security enclaves (NIPRNet, SIPRNet, JWICS) and with classified system handling procedures.
• Familiarity with customer experience (CX) measurement, including CSAT, Customer Effort Score (CES), and experience level agreements (XLAs).
• Experience supporting Department of War (DoW), DoD, or other compliance-driven Federal IT environments.

About Empower AI

All hiring and promotion decisions at Empower AI are based on merit to bring the best talent available to contribute to our firm’s overall success. It is the policy of Empower AI not to discriminate against any applicant for employment, or employee because of age, color, sex, disability, national origin, race, religion, or veteran status. Empower AI is a VEVRAA Federal Contractor.

The base salary range represents the anticipated low and high end of the salary range for this position. Actual salaries may vary based on various factors including but not limited to work location, skills, experience, gov con contractual requirements, and performance. The range listed is just one component of Empower AI's total compensation package for employees.

Pay Band Min

USD $57,470.00/Yr.

Pay Band Max

USD $82,880.00/Yr.