Senior Escalation Engineer (Tier 3) - MSP, US Client Hours, Work From Home, Long Term

Crown Computers is a managed services provider in San Diego, California. We help businesses and their employees with IT issues and manage the networks, servers, and cloud environments for roughly 60 small and mid-sized businesses. I have run this business for 30 years, and I am the owner. We are a 13-person team, completely virtual, and we all genuinely like each other.

This is our senior engineer seat - the engineer the hard stuff goes to. It is the only role we are hiring right now, and we are hiring one person for the long term.

THE ROLE

You are the escalation point for our Tier 1 and Tier 2 engineers. When a ticket has been touched twice or has run past four hours, it comes to you. You work it through to resolution, keep everyone informed along the way, and leave behind documentation the next engineer can act on.

RESPONSIBILITIES

- Own escalations from our Tier 1 and Tier 2 engineers through to resolution
- Troubleshoot across networking, Windows server, virtualization and Microsoft 365 environments
- Communicate clearly while you work - with our team, with vendors, and occasionally with clients
- Document as you go. Every escalation you close leaves behind clear notes the next engineer can use. Documentation matters a lot to us.
- Help us improve: spot recurring issues, suggest permanent fixes, make our processes a little better every month
- Speak up when you are blocked - we would always rather hear about it early

Anything physical - swapping hardware, running cable, being onsite - stays with our US engineers, so you can focus on the interesting work.

WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR

- 10+ years in IT support or systems engineering, with real Level 3 depth - you have been the escalation point before, ideally at a managed services provider
- Strong networking: firewalls, switching, VLANs, VPN, DNS, DHCP
- Strong Windows server: Active Directory, Group Policy, Hyper-V or VMware
- Microsoft 365 and Entra ID administration
- Strong written English - your documentation will be read and relied on by US engineers
- Clear spoken English - you will be on calls with vendors and occasionally with clients
- Reliable power and internet, with a backup plan for both

WHAT WE USE

Kaseya VSA ( moving to Ninjarmm) , ConnectWise Manage, Hudu, Microsoft 365 and Entra ID, Windows Server ---------- , Active Directory, Hyper-V and VMware, Sophos, SonicWall and Ubiquiti, Acronis, Synology, DNS, DHCP, VPN, L2/L3 switching, Dell iDRAC, Exchange.

You do not need every one of these. Deep on several and comfortable learning the rest is exactly right.

THE SCHEDULE

Our clients work 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM San Diego time, and this seat supports them live - so the hours are 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM Pacific, which is 11:00 PM to 8:00 AM in Manila, five days a week. We know that schedule is not for everyone, and that is completely okay. Many experienced engineers have worked US hours for years and genuinely prefer it - if that is you, everything else about this job is built to make it worth your while.

There is a 15-minute stand-up on Microsoft Teams at the start of the shift, camera on. After that you get your day to work - we do not sit on video calls all day. Log your time daily.

TALK TO OUR PHILIPPINE TEAM MEMBER BEFORE YOU D ----------

We already have an employee in the Philippines who has been with us 3 to 4 years - working these exact hours. Once we are far enough along, we will put you in touch with her privately so you can ask her anything about working for us, including what the schedule is honestly like. It is hard to judge a foreign employer from a job post - ask her instead of taking our word for it.

ABOUT US

Completely virtual, and we genuinely like each other:

- Good vibes
- Hard working
- Customer caring
- Friendly
- Open to suggestions, easy communication
- Most of us really love music and chat about fun things on our Microsoft Teams board
- Willing to share your technical opinion on how to fix something

PAY

$2,500 to $3,500 USD per month, based on experience and English. Paid monthly as an international contractor. We checked what other US MSPs are paying for this seat before we set this number, and it is deliberately above every one of them - because we are hiring for many years, not many weeks.

HOW TO APPLY - THIS IS PART OF THE TEST

Read this part carefully. Most people do not, and that is most of the test.

1. Subject line, exactly this format:
L3 Engineer - [Your Name] - [the first thing you check on a server you have never seen before]

2. Your resume, sent as a LINK - not an attachment.
Google Drive, Dropbox or OneDrive are all fine. Set the sharing to "Anyone with the link" and check that it opens in a private browser window before you send it.
PLEASE DO NOT ATTACH FILES. This job board strips attachments out of the email before it reaches us, so an attached resume arrives as nothing at all and your application looks empty. That is not your fault, but it will cost you the job.

3. A voice recording of yourself, also as a LINK - two to three minutes - reading this question out loud and then answering it: "Tell me about the hardest technical problem you ever solved, and how you figured it out."
The easiest way is ---------- : press record in your browser, talk, press share, then paste the link. Google Drive or Dropbox links work too, again set to "Anyone with the link". No ZIP or RAR files. Applications without a voice recording will not be reviewed - we do this so we do not waste your time or ours on a call that was never going to work.

4. One line: can you work 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM San Diego time (11:00 PM - 8:00 AM Manila), five days a week, long term? An honest answer helps us both.

Short, specific and honest beats long and polished. If you have a story where you got it wrong for two hours before you got it right, that is the story we want.

OUR PROCESS

Stage 1 - these questions and your voice recording.
Stage 2 - a skills conversation on Microsoft Teams, 30 to 90 minutes, camera on.
Stage 3 - a PAID 90-minute practical exercise in a live Microsoft 365 environment. We pay you for your time.
Then references and a background check.

Thanks for reading all the way to the bottom : )