Solutions Specialist (contract)

Company Description

Viasat has been at the forefront of global mobile satellite communications for forty years, and is the market leading provider of voice and high-speed data communications for users on land, at sea and in the air through its constellation of 14 geostationary satellites. Viasat plc is a privately owned company with a profitable track record and significant growth aspirations. This is represented by more than 55 nationalities in the workforce, reflecting the global and dynamic nature of the business. With an investment of over $3 billion in its latest network infrastructure, Viasat is at the forefront of global mobile communications innovation.

Job Description

International Government:

International Government business unit delivers against the requirements for voice, data and video services with demand for global availability and utmost reliability. Whether a military commander on operations, a government official responding to a local emergency or a head of state conducting international affairs, Viasat provides them with essential access to voice and broadband data, where and when they need it.

Primary Role Purpose:

The primary function of this role is to work as part of a team to provide technical expertise in satellite connected networking solutions. This role also provides networking infrastructure design, satcom system installation, commissioning, training and post-sales support to Viasat clients as part of the International Government Engineering Team.

The Solutions Specialist is a self-sufficient and self-motivated engineering professional with solution design as well as field experience, who is expected to oversee all requirements and dependencies of tasks allocated to them. This includes arranging availability of required materials, transport of equipment and materials to site where applicable, travel logistics and site access considerations, safety considerations of the task and supervision of any allocated contractors or assisting peers.

The Solutions Specialist is expected to be able to identify and adapt an existing solution design to meet customer requirements where this can be achieved using existing G2 products and services.

Solutions Specialist must also be prepared to participate in a 24/7 on-call roster for end client engineering support. This role provides contracted telephone support to end users of mobile satellite systems and solutions as well as engineering support of the internal networking infrastructure supporting these users on a 24/7 basis.

Key Responsibilities:

• Satellite solution hardware component configuration development, installation, commissioning and maintenance, including dependant Internal systems and customer-facing networks.
• Support and maintenance of VIG Solutions airtime systems (Legacy TC Comms DP and G2 VAR networks and applications).
• Support and maintenance of VIG Solutions internal network infrastructure (APN & SVN routers, firewalls, servers, SaaS systems and restricted / classified networks).
• Conducting diagnosis, either physically or remotely, of issues being experienced by end users with end to end solutions in order to isolate the identified cause of the incident and implement corrective maintenance strategy as agreed with the end user to return the system to service.
• Working with peer team members and line management to assist in incident analysis and underlying problem identification for escalation to solution architects or appropriate external teams.
• Provide assistance with pre-sales support activities, demonstrations and exhibitions as and when required.
• Assembly and testing of custom solutions to meet specific client needs.
• Creation of technical documentation to record as-fitted client system configuration baselines, or supporting commercial bids and proposals.
• Development and delivery of operator and technical training to partners and end user customers as required.
• Conduct, and report on the outcome of, technical skills assessments of VIG partner and end user technical staff where required.
• Conducting root cause analysis of end-to-end satellite solution issues and documenting findings.
• On site and workshop technical inspections, repairs, installations and maintenance of networking equipment, satellite terminals (aero, marine, land) and other associated hardware.
• Participation in the on-call roster.

Dimensions:

• Corrective Maintenance activities completed successfully on first site visit, eliminating any need to rework. 
• Completion of allocated tasks to required quality within the agreed completion schedule.
• Compliance with all Viasat and client site safety requirements, ensuring zero injuries to staff or assigned contractors. 
• Meeting response and performance SLAs of the 24/7 on-call roster.
• This role requires travel, both domestically and internationally. The staff-member in this role will be required, on an irregular basis and provided reasonable notice, to travel sometimes for periods exceeding 7 days, and if required to travel on weekends to meet on-site weekday commitments.
• Must be committed to on-going personal development.
• Must have a suitable background to qualify and maintain an Australian Defence security clearance – must currently hold and maintain Australian citizenship.
• The post-holder must have and maintain a Current Australian drivers’ license and passport.

Qualifications

• Must be formally trade qualified to Australian Electrotechnology/Telecommunications/IP Networking Certificate VI standard or equivalent tertiary industry qualification, with a minimum 4 years industry experience.
• Must have experience in IP networking and IT (server deployment and maintenance) or satellite communications technologies, with a working knowledge of Microsoft and/or Linux operating systems.
• Must be capable of developing and applying configurations to IP networking hardware such as routers, firewalls and managed switches to allow a solution to function as designed to meet customer needs.
• Ability to prepare and deliver technical presentations and reports to both internal and external clients on solutions performance against defined metrics as well as network events or outages.
• The post-holder must be able to analyse communications issues being experienced by the client and devise solutions for clients requiring service and support from Viasat, regardless of the issue being satellite or terrestrial segment based. They must be self-motivated and be able to motivate their peers to achieve required task and project completion to BEST standard in a busy environment.
• Must be competent with use of Microsoft office applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) as well as Microsoft Visio.
• Must be able to work at heights, gaining and maintaining Australian Working at Heights certification.
• Must be able to work in confined space environment, gaining and maintaining Australian Confined Space certification.

Additional Information

• Formal Australian tertiary qualifications in Workplace Training and Assessment (TAE40116)
• GVF Advanced Installer or GVF Examiner certification
• Project Management qualifications
• Certifications in IP Networking (Cisco CCNA, Network+ or equivalent)
• Microsoft, Linux, Asterisk certifications.
• A working knowledge of network virtualisation technologies (VMware, Hyper-V)
• ITIL Foundation certification