Systems Support Engineer

Aquent; Tacoma (WA); On-site; USD 65,000 - 95,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Vision plan

Dental plan

Paid sick leave

Retirement match

Free online training

Job summary

Aquent is seeking a technically skilled Customer/Developer Support specialist to help developers connect to remote development environments and resolver remote build and CI issues. You’ll be the first point of contact for engineers and will document solutions for self-service.

Ideal candidates have 2–4 years in similar roles, strong networking and debugging abilities, and excellent written communication. This position offers growth potential and a supportive team culture.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in an engineering field (e.g., Mechanical, Computer, Aerospace).
• 2–4 years of relevant experience.
• Basic networking literacy: SSH, DNS, VPNs, HTTP(S) proxies, and diagnosing client-to-remote host connectivity.
• Cross-platform familiarity: macOS, Windows (incl. WSL), Linux.
• Command-line fluency and shell navigation, logs, and config editing.
• Version control basics: clone, branch, diffs, PRs.
• Strong debugging instincts and precise issue description.
• Excellent customer-facing communication and ticket hygiene.

Responsibilities

• Own the first response to incoming requests; monitor support channels and set a professional tone.
• Triaging issues by reproducing, categorizing, and routing with clear hand-offs.
• Resolve a wide range of environment or configuration issues without escalation.
• Escalate complex issues to engineering with reproductions and context.
• Improve support docs by creating runbooks, FAQs, and updated docs.
• Participate in on-call rotation for high-severity escalations.
• Help customers resolve remote development environment connection issues initially.
• Potentially cover CI, build systems, and development tools in the future.

Skills

Networking basics

SSH / VPN / proxies

Cross-platform (macOS, Windows, Linux)

CLI proficiency

Git version control

Debugging

Customer communication

Problem solving

Developer support experience

Education

Bachelor's Degree in Engineering

Tools

VS Code

Remote dev environments

Build/CI familiarity

Python/C++ exposure

Job description

About the Opportunity

Join a team that builds and operates the essential systems used by developers of advanced vehicle technology every day. This includes the Continuous Integration and build platform, remote development environments, source-hosting integrations, and the foundational language and toolchain ecosystems. Our mission is to continuously enhance the productivity of the entire organization dedicated to autonomous vehicle technology development. Our customers are professional software engineers who utilize a diverse range of operating systems, repositories, development environments, and language ecosystems. You will be their first point of contact when they encounter challenges.

What You’ll Do

• Own the first response to incoming requests, monitoring customer support channels, acknowledging issues promptly, and setting a professional tone for a fast support experience.
• Triage issues by reproducing them, categorizing their nature, assigning severity, and either resolving them directly or routing them to the appropriate team with a clear, well-documented hand-off.
• Resolve a wide array of niche environment or configuration issues, such as connectivity problems, setup challenges, and client-side misconfigurations, without requiring escalation.
• Escalate complex issues effectively to the owning engineering team, providing tight reproductions and all necessary context for immediate action.
• Continuously improve support documentation by transforming recurring issues into valuable runbooks, FAQ entries, and updated documentation, enabling future self-service for customers.
• Participate in a shared on-call rotation for high-severity (P0/P1) escalations, complementing standard US business hours coverage.
• Initially, focus on helping customers resolve issues connecting to remote development environments, particularly addressing client setup, authentication, and networking problems.
• Potentially expand your role to cover other services and scenarios, including Continuous Integration, build systems, and various development tools.

What We’re Looking For (Must-Have Qualifications)

• A Bachelor’s Degree in an Engineering field (e.g., Mechanical, Computer, Aerospace).
• 2-4 years of relevant experience.
• Basic networking literacy, including familiarity with SSH (key authentication, ssh-agent, port forwarding), DNS resolution, VPNs, HTTP(S) proxies, and the ability to diagnose connectivity or latency problems between a client and a remote host.
• Cross-platform comfort with macOS, Windows (including WSL), and Linux, sufficient to follow setup processes and identify system differences.
• Command-line fluency, comfortable navigating a shell, reading logs, running diagnostic commands, and editing configuration files in a terminal environment.
• Proficiency in version control basics, including cloning repositories, branching, performing diffs, and reviewing pull requests.
• A strong debugging instinct, capable of taking vague problem descriptions, reproducing issues, narrowing down their scope, and describing them precisely.
• Exceptional customer-facing communication skills, demonstrating clear, calm, and professional written interaction with engineers, alongside excellent ticket hygiene (status updates, severity, reproduction steps, resolution details).
• A personality that enjoys solving complex problems.

What Will Set You Apart (Nice-to-Have Qualifications)

• Prior experience in a developer support, DevOps support, or IT/platform support role.
• Familiarity with build and Continuous Integration systems, including remote build execution or comparable tooling.
• Exposure to programming language ecosystems (e.g., Python, C++).
• Experience with code editors (e.g., VS Code) and remote or cloud-based development environments.
• Comfort with public cloud platforms (e.g., a specific leading cloud provider) and light scripting for diagnostics and automation (e.g., Bash, Python).

Why This Role is Exciting

This is a unique opportunity to contribute to the cutting edge of autonomous vehicle technology. You will join a team with a great culture and friendly, collaborative colleagues, all while maintaining a healthy work-life balance. This role offers significant growth potential, allowing you to gain extensive experience across a wide range of technologies and systems. There is a high likelihood of extension, with the potential for a direct hire opportunity.

About Aquent Talent:

• Our eligible talent get access to amazing benefits like subsidized health, vision, and dental plans, paid sick leave, and retirement plans with a match.
• We also offer free online training through Aquent Gymnasium.
• More information on our awesome benefits!

Aquent is an equal-opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, and other legally protected characteristics. We’re about creating an inclusive environment-one where different backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives are valued, and everyone can contribute, grow their careers, and thrive.