Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for a Senior Fault Locator & Diagnostics Engineer

🎯 Role Definition

Are you a natural-born detective with a passion for solving complex technical puzzles? As a Fault Locator & Diagnostics Engineer, you will be at the forefront of our mission to deliver unparalleled system uptime and reliability. This is not just a support role; you are a high-level investigator, tasked with dissecting our most intricate and elusive system failures across software, hardware, and network domains. You will utilize your deep technical expertise and a state-of-the-art toolset to perform root cause analysis (RCA), develop preventative measures, and drive the continuous improvement of our platform's resilience. Your work will directly impact platform stability and customer satisfaction, making you a vital contributor to our success.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Network Operations Center (NOC) Engineer (Tier 2/3)
Senior Technical Support Engineer
Systems Administrator or Site Reliability Engineer (SRE)

Advancement To:

Principal Diagnostics Engineer or Architect
Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) Manager
Technical Incident Commander

Lateral Moves:

Senior Site Reliability Engineer (SRE)
Automation or Tools Development Engineer

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Perform in-depth, end-to-end analysis of system-level failures to precisely identify the root cause of complex hardware, software, or network issues.
Utilize a wide range of advanced monitoring and logging platforms (e.g., Splunk, Datadog, Prometheus, ELK Stack) to proactively detect anomalies and potential faults before they impact services.
Develop and implement sophisticated diagnostic methodologies and custom tools to significantly reduce mean time to resolution (MTTR) for critical incidents.
Analyze complex circuit schematics, intricate network diagrams, and application source code to trace signal paths and data flows, effectively isolating points of failure.
Operate and interpret results from specialized test equipment, such as oscilloscopes, spectrum analyzers, protocol analyzers, and time-domain reflectometers (TDRs).
Lead post-mortem and root cause analysis (RCA) investigations following major incidents, identifying all contributing factors and authoring actionable recommendations for preventative measures.
Develop and execute comprehensive test plans to replicate reported faults within a controlled laboratory environment, ensuring the verification and validation of proposed fixes.
Automate repetitive diagnostic tasks, data collection procedures, and initial triage steps using scripting languages like Python, Bash, or PowerShell to improve team efficiency.
Monitor system, application, and network performance metrics, establishing critical baselines and configuring intelligent alerts for deviations that indicate potential faults.
Analyze customer-reported issues, translating ambiguous problem descriptions into specific, actionable technical investigation paths and hypotheses.
Perform controlled fault injection testing to proactively identify system weaknesses, architectural flaws, and to validate the effectiveness of high-availability and failover mechanisms.
Manage and prioritize a queue of the most complex technical escalations from tier 1/2 support teams, ensuring strict adherence to service level agreements (SLAs).
Reverse engineer system behavior in environments with sparse documentation to fully understand failure modes and identify potential remediation strategies.
Conduct detailed trend analysis on incident data to identify recurring problems, systemic issues, and strategic opportunities for proactive engineering improvements.
Participate in a scheduled on-call rotation to provide expert-level 24/7 support for critical system outages and severe performance degradations.

Secondary Functions

Create and maintain a comprehensive library of knowledge base articles and detailed runbooks to empower first-level support and streamline future fault-finding processes.
Provide clear, concise, and timely communication regarding incident status, impact, and resolution progress to stakeholders at all levels, from technical teams to executive leadership.
Collaborate intimately with cross-functional teams, including software development, hardware engineering, and network operations, to drive effective and timely issue resolution.
Interface directly with third-party vendors and service providers to troubleshoot, escalate, and resolve issues related to their integrated products or services.
Contribute to the design and architecture review of new systems and features, providing expert input on reliability, testability, monitoring, and serviceability.
Mentor junior engineers and support personnel, sharing your diagnostic expertise and fostering a culture of technical excellence and meticulous problem-solving.
Contribute to the organization's data-driven operational strategy and technology roadmap by identifying gaps in tooling and observability.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Advanced Troubleshooting: Expert-level ability in logical deduction and systematic elimination to solve problems in complex, distributed systems.
Scripting & Automation: Strong proficiency in at least one scripting language (Python, Bash, PowerShell) to automate diagnostics and data analysis.
Monitoring & Observability: Hands-on experience with enterprise-grade monitoring, logging, and tracing tools (e.g., Datadog, Splunk, Prometheus, Grafana, Jaeger).
Network Protocol Analysis: Deep understanding of the TCP/IP suite, including routing (BGP, OSPF), DNS, HTTP/S, and the ability to analyze packet captures (Wireshark).
Operating Systems: In-depth knowledge of Linux/Unix internals, performance tuning, and command-line system administration.
Cloud Platforms: Familiarity with a major cloud provider (AWS, Azure, GCP) and their native diagnostic and monitoring services (e.g., CloudWatch, Azure Monitor).
Database Querying: Proficiency in writing SQL queries to extract and analyze data from relational databases for investigative purposes.
Incident Management Tooling: Experience using incident management and ticketing platforms like PagerDuty, Jira, and ServiceNow.

Soft Skills

Analytical & Critical Thinking: An exceptional ability to analyze complex, often incomplete, information to form logical conclusions and a path forward.
Communication Prowess: The ability to clearly articulate highly technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences, both verbally and in writing.
Composure Under Pressure: A calm and focused demeanor when managing high-stakes, time-sensitive critical incidents.
Meticulous Attention to Detail: A precise and thorough approach to investigation and documentation, leaving no stone unturned.
Innate Curiosity: A relentless drive to understand "why" things break and a passion for continuous learning.
Ownership & Accountability: A strong sense of personal responsibility for seeing problems through to their final resolution and prevention.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

Bachelor's Degree in a relevant technical field or equivalent demonstrated practical experience.

Preferred Education:

Master’s Degree in a relevant field.
Industry certifications such as CCNA/CCNP, RHCE, AWS Certified Solutions Architect.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Computer Science
Electrical or Computer Engineering
Network Engineering
Information Technology

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 5-10 years in a relevant technical role.

Preferred:

Demonstrated experience in a Tier 3/4 technical support, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), or Network Operations Center (NOC) role.
A proven track record of successfully resolving complex, multi-faceted technical incidents.
Experience working in large-scale, high-availability production environments.