Help Desk Specialist III

The Help Desk Specialist III provides first-contact technical support to end users through phone, email, web-based requests, remote-assistance tools, and in-person support channels within a regulated federal IT environment. The role diagnoses and resolves common hardware, operating-system, application, access, email, peripheral, and connectivity issues across PC and Mac platforms while delivering clear, timely, and customer-focused support.

This position creates complete incident and service-request records, follows established escalation procedures, and helps restore service in accordance with service-level expectations. The Help Desk Specialist III also recognizes potential cybersecurity events, maintains accurate troubleshooting documentation, and partners with specialized technical teams when issues require escalation.

Key Responsibilities

• Serve as the first point of contact for end users reporting incidents and service requests through phone, email, web portal, remote-support tools, and walk-up or in-person support channels.
• Diagnose and resolve common PC and Mac hardware, operating-system, desktop-application, peripheral, printer, scanner, docking-station, display, keyboard, mouse, and local-connectivity issues.
• Support enterprise email, directory, authentication, password-reset, account-access, and standard productivity-application issues while protecting user credentials and following approved access-control procedures.
• Apply structured troubleshooting techniques to gather symptoms, reproduce issues when possible, identify likely causes, implement approved fixes, validate restoration of service, and document outcomes.
• Create complete and accurate incident and service-request records that capture user impact, affected equipment or applications, troubleshooting actions, resolution details, priority, ownership, and escalation history.
• Prioritize, route, and escalate tickets based on urgency, user impact, service-level expectations, and the need for specialized desktop, network, security, application, or infrastructure support.
• Configure, install, test, and support standard workstation software, printers, and peripheral devices in accordance with approved endpoint-management and configuration procedures.
• Recognize and promptly escalate suspected cybersecurity events, malware indicators, phishing reports, unauthorized-access concerns, and repeated authentication failures using established incident-reporting procedures.

Required Qualifications

• High school diploma or equivalent required; associate degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, or a related technical discipline preferred.
• Up to 2 years of hands-on experience providing IT help desk, service desk, desktop support, customer technical support, or similar end-user support services.
• Experience troubleshooting common hardware, operating-system, desktop-application, account-access, email, printer, and peripheral issues on PC and Mac platforms.
• Experience documenting incidents, service requests, troubleshooting actions, resolutions, and escalations in an IT service-management or comparable ticketing system.
• Demonstrated ability to provide clear, and technically accurate support to users with varying levels of technology proficiency.
• Ability to follow established procedures for access control, credential protection, endpoint configuration, incident escalation, and cybersecurity reporting.
• U.S. citizenship and the ability to obtain and maintain a Public Trust background investigation.

Preferred Qualifications

• CompTIA A+, ITIL 4 Foundation, HDI Support Center Analyst, Microsoft 365 Fundamentals, or a comparable entry-level IT support certification.
• Experience using ServiceNow or a comparable IT service-management platform for incident, request, knowledge, and asset documentation.
• Experience supporting enterprise email, directory services, user authentication, endpoint devices, and standard productivity applications.
• Experience providing IT support in a Public Trust or similarly regulated environment.