Systems Engineering Manager

Instant Connect; Chicago (IL); Hybrid; USD 110,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Instant Connect in Chicago is looking for a System Engineering Manager to lead engineering and support teams across pre-sales and post-sales engagements. This position requires managing performance metrics, ensuring high-quality support, and engaging with both DoD and commercial clients.

The ideal candidate will have over 10 years of experience in systems engineering, technical support roles, and must possess an active US DoD Top Secret Security Clearance. The role is available for remote work.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in Radio over IP and Voice over IP systems engineering.
• Must have Active US DoD Top Secret Security Clearance.
• Experience managing technical support teams and SLA-driven support programs.

Responsibilities

• Lead pre-sales and post-sales technical support teams.
• Ensure accountability for SLA performance metrics.
• Manage delivery of customer support for DoD and commercial sectors.

Skills

Radio over IP systems engineering

Voice over IP systems engineering

Routing and switching

Technical support management

Communication skills

Education

Bachelor's degree in relevant field

Tools

Salesforce CRM

JIRA

Job description

Instant Connect Enterprise™ (ICE ) is a push-to-talk platform that connects incompatible radio networks, mobile devices, satellite links, and command infrastructure into unified talk channels over IP. Hardware-agnostic by design, ICE runs on any standard device or OS and is engineered to operate in DDIL (Denied, Degraded, Intermittent, and Limited-bandwidth) environments.

ICE is the official voice engine of the U.S. Army and the special operations forces of five allied nations. Certified by the U.S. Joint Interoperability Test Command (JITC) and approved for use on the DoD Information Network, it is in active use across more than 58 countries.

Instant Connect Software LLC is an affiliated company of the Dillon Kane Group (dillonkane.com), a Chicago-based technology firm serving defense, government, and commercial markets since 2002.

The Role

Location: Chicago, IL or Remote
Start: Immediate
Duration: Full-time employee, long term
Clearance: Active U.S. DoD Top Secret Clearance (required)
Citizenship: U.S. citizen (required)

We’re hiring a System Engineering Manager to lead both our pre-sales engineering team and our post-sales technical support organization. The role covers the full customer technical lifecycle — from initial evaluation and proposal through implementation and ongoing support — with direct accountability for SLA performance across DoD and commercial accounts. This position can be performed remotely.

Note: In compliance with federal law, all persons hired will be required to verify identity and eligibility to work in the United States and to complete the required employment eligibility verification form upon hire.

Leadership & Management Requirements

• Lead, mentor, and manage the Pre-Sales System Engineering team supporting Radio over IP and Voice over IP solutions.
• Manage the post-sales technical support team providing Level 1–4 support in accordance with Instant Connect’s Technical Support Service (TSS) commitments.
• Own accountability for all SLA performance metrics including response time objectives:
  • Critical and High severity: initial response within 15 minutes
  • Medium and Low severity: initial response within 1 hour
• Oversee and enforce the Support Escalation Policy for both commercial and DoD customers, managing escalation paths up to VP and CEO level as required.
• Manage and optimize the DoD support workflow in JIRA (DOD project), ensuring ticket quality, accurate priority assignment, and proper data hygiene for workforce planning.
• Serve as the TAC (Technical Assistance Center) Duty Manager for high-priority escalations.
• Develop staffing models based on JIRA work log data, support ticket volume, and SLA performance trends.
• Coordinate with Sales leadership to allocate pre-sales engineering resources across active opportunities.
• Drive continuous improvement of support processes, documentation, and tooling.

DoD Support Management

• Manage all aspects of DoD support delivery under the separate JIRA DoD Support project, ensuring data isolation and compliance requirements are met.
• Ensure all support personnel engaging with DoD tickets are US citizens and cleared to the appropriate level.
• Monitor and enforce the DoD-specific escalation matrix including timely alert of ice-dod-incident-support, DoD lead, and senior management per elapsed time thresholds.
• Maintain readiness to support thousands of nodes in high-tempo, volatile production environments (e.g., C3T kits in tactical deployments).
• Ensure accurate labeling and tracking of DoD tickets including kit identification (e.g., TRIK numbers), License Issued events, and Upgrade activities.
• Support preparation for security‑based criteria changes that may require further isolation of support data from non‑US citizens.
• Familiarity with and ability to manage compliance with US DoD JITC Certification processes as they relate to support activities.
• Coordinate with the DoD program team to align support coverage with contractual obligations and mission‑critical operational requirements.

Commercial Support Management

• Manage commercial customer support delivery in accordance with the Instant Connect Support Terms and Conditions (published October 28, 2024).
• Ensure 24/7 TAC availability for Level 1 and Level 2 support across all commercial customers on active TSS agreements.
• Oversee Level 3 and Level 4 support availability per severity: 24/7 for Critical; during Normal Business Hours (9am–6pm ET, M–F) for Medium/Low.
• Manage delivery of support entitlements including remote maintenance, remote migration and license support, and no‑cost software updates.
• Ensure customer responsibilities are clearly communicated and enforced per the TSS agreement, including access, contact information, and authorized personnel lists.
• Oversee commercial escalation paths including TAC Manager, Director of QA and Escalations, VP Engineering, and CEO as required by elapsed time thresholds.
• Manage the case severity classification process and reserve the right to reclassify cases that do not meet submitted priority definitions.
• Oversee quoting of support renewals, incorporating license change history captured in JIRA to ensure accurate sizing.

Technical Requirements

• 10+ years of experience in Radio over IP (RoIP) and Voice over IP (VoIP) systems engineering.
• Strong background (CCNP+ level) in routing, switching, QoS, unicast, multicast, and IP telephony.
• 10+ years of hands‑on experience implementing RoIP and VoIP solutions including:
  • Determining pinouts for radio interface cables
  • Radio gateway configuration with Cisco Routers, CisTech, Vocality (DTech), and JPS
  • Troubleshooting unicast and multicast networks
  • Integration with IP PBX systems including Cisco Call Manager, Asterisk, Avaya, and Mytel
• Strong understanding of US DoD Tactical Networks and operational requirements.
• Experience with Salesforce CRM and JIRA for customer tracking and support management.
• Ability to review and contribute to product manuals, as‑built documentation, and test plans.
• Familiarity with QA/QC processes for beta product testing and release management

Pre‑Sales Engineering Oversight

• Provide technical leadership and oversight across the pre‑sales engineering team supporting the full sales cycle.
• Review and approve statements of work, technical requirements documents, and deliverable definitions.
• Ensure quality and consistency of customer‑facing engineering presentations and solution demonstrations.
• Guide engineers in developing site acceptance test plans and supporting proposal efforts for DoD and commercial opportunities.
• Collaborate with Product and QA teams to channel pre‑sales feedback into product development priorities.
• Oversee delivery of product training to partners and end customers.

Required Qualifications

• Active US DoD Top Secret Security Clearance — required at time of application.
• Must be a US Citizen.
• 10+ years of progressive experience in systems engineering, with at least 3 years in a management or team lead role.
• Demonstrated experience managing technical support teams and SLA‑driven support programs.
• Proven ability to manage both pre‑sales and post‑sales engineering functions simultaneously.
• Experience with JIRA for support operations including ticket management, custom filters, and work log analysis.
• Excellent communication skills with demonstrated ability to present to and interact with government and enterprise customers.
• Experience managing or working within DoD support environments with sensitivity to data classification and access control requirements.

Preferred Qualifications

• US DoD Top Secret/SCI clearance.
• Experience with C3T (Command, Control, Communications – Tactical) or similar tactical communications programs.
• Familiarity with the Instant Connect platform or comparable PTT/RoIP/VoIP middleware solutions.
• PMP, ITIL, or equivalent service management certification.
• Familiarity with US DoD JITC Certification processes.