- Location
- Chicago, IL
- Department
- Engineering
- Source
- Paylocity
Description
Description
Position Overview
NOTE: This job description formalizes the Systems Support Engineer role. It does not change the role, compensation, or employment terms, which remain governed by existing agreements. Its purpose is to define the role clearly for the role holder and the team.
The Systems Support Engineer is a front-line technical role and the first point of contact for clients seeking technical assistance. The role troubleshoots and resolves support issues across managed client environments, documents the work thoroughly, communicates with clients throughout the ticket lifecycle, and escalates issues that require senior engineering involvement.
This is the foundation of the service desk. The standard of work, documentation, and communication set in this role is what clients experience directly, which makes consistency and quality at this level central to how JMA is seen.
Role Classification
Attribute
Definition
Role Type
Individual contributor
Function
Front-line technical support across managed client environments
Direct Reports
None
Reports To
Sr. Engineer / Service Delivery Manager
Ticket Load
Full technical ticket queue; primary front-line resolution
Escalation Path
Senior engineering and the Sr. Engineer / Service Delivery Manager
Reporting and Authority
• Reports to the Sr. Engineer / Service Delivery Manager.
• Owns assigned tickets from first contact through resolution, including client communication and documentation.
• Escalates issues that exceed technical authority, require senior engineering involvement, present a security risk, require vendor involvement, or may affect client operations.
• Does not hold HR, performance review, performance action, compensation, hiring, termination, or disciplinary authority. Those remain with the CTO/CISO and the President.
Core Duties
The following duties are carried forward, as written, from the offer of employment. They are preserved here without change and define the baseline responsibilities of the role.
• Serve as the first point of contact for customers seeking technical assistance
• Perform remote troubleshooting utilizing diagnostic techniques
• Target questions to quickly determine the root cause of the problem
• Implement preferred solutions based on the issues and details provided by customers
• Prioritize and manage several open issues simultaneously
• Direct unresolved issues to the next level Support Technician
• Document issues, problems, and their resolutions
• Audit customer hardware/software
• Audit customer SaaS solutions (alerts/notifications and software licensing)
• Follow-up and update customer status
• Identify and suggest possible improvements to internal procedures
Core Duties in Practice at JMA
Each duty above carries a JMA standard behind it. The following describes what each one looks like in practice here.
• First point of contact. On any issue, this role is the client's first impression of JMA. That means responding promptly, taking ownership, and setting a white-glove tone from the first interaction. The engineer represents the firm, not just a queue.
• Remote troubleshooting. Diagnosis is methodical and uses JMA's approved tools, the PSA, RMM, remote access, and monitoring, rather than guesswork. It also means recognizing when an issue carries a security dimension and handling it accordingly.
• Finding root cause. The goal is to resolve the underlying problem, not just clear the symptom, so the issue does not return. Targeted questions reach the actual cause and separate closing a ticket from solving a problem.
• Implementing the right solution. The preferred solution is the one that fits the client's environment, documented standards, and security posture, not simply the fastest fix. Short-term shortcuts that create long-term risk are not the JMA standard.
• Managing the queue. Several issues move at once, prioritized by urgency and impact, with no client left in the dark. When the desk is overloaded, the all-hands expectation applies everyone takes tickets, even if only to provide a customer update.
• Escalating cleanly. When an issue exceeds front-line scope, requires senior engineering, carries security risk, or needs a vendor, it is escalated early to senior engineering or the Sr. Engineer / Service Delivery Manager, with a complete handoff so the next person does not start from zero. This is the next level the duty above refers to.
• Documentation. Documentation protects the client, the team, and the engineer, and it follows JMA's NinjaOne knowledge base documentation process and procedure. Notes, time entries, client communication, resolution summaries, and knowledge base entries are created to that standard, so the work is consistent, discoverable, repeatable, and defensible, and another engineer can pick the ticket up cold.
• Auditing hardware and software. Support work is also a chance to notice the state of the environment. Aging, unsupported, or risky hardware and software is flagged and fed into the client's roadmap rather than passed over.
• Auditing alerts. Alerts are monitored across the whole environment, not just SaaS, including RMM, security, backup, and monitoring alerts along with SaaS notifications and license usage. Real signals are separated from noise, and anything affecting security, cost, compliance, or risk is acted on or surfaced to leadership.
• Client follow-up. Clients are kept informed proactively, before they have to ask. A client should never wonder what is happening with their issue; consistent updates are central to the relationship-driven standard.
• Improving how we work. Engineers see friction first. Practical suggestions for tools, SOPs, and workflows are brought back to leadership, which is part of how JMA stays streamlined and keeps improving.
What This Role Does Not Own
• HR matters, performance reviews, performance actions, compensation, hiring, termination, and discipline. These remain with the CTO/CISO and the President.
• Final approval of SOPs, standards, and change management items, which remain with the CTO/CISO.
• Authority over other engineers. This is an individual contributor role.
Required Competencies
• Ability to troubleshoot common workstation, Microsoft 365, identity, network, server, endpoint, security, and backup issues across managed client environments.
• Strong client communication skills across the full ticket lifecycle.
• Strong written documentation skills, including ticket notes, resolution summaries, and knowledge base entries created to JMA's NinjaOne knowledge base documentation process and procedure.
• Ability to prioritize and manage multiple open issues at once.
• Sound judgment about when to resolve, when to escalate, and when to document.
• Proficiency with a PSA, ticketing system, RMM platform, documentation platform, remote access tool, and monitoring tools.
