Sr. IT Manager

This is an exciting opportunity to join a fast-growing startup in the aerospace/defense industry as a Senior IT Manager to lead and evolve the IT function. This is a hands-on role building on an existing foundation, implementing the technologies, processes, and systems needed to support a rapidly scaling defense technology company.

The ideal candidate identifies gaps as opportunities, builds with purpose, and focuses on creating lasting impact.

Responsibilities

• Lead and mentor the IT team; set priorities, grow capabilities, and act as technical lead
• Define org structure and hiring roadmap to scale a high-performing IT team
• Establish helpdesk processes, ticketing workflows, and SLA standards
• Develop and maintain runbooks, SOPs, and escalation procedures
• Own incident management, root-cause analysis, and corrective actions
• Implement monitoring, alerting, and observability (e.g., CloudWatch, Azure Monitor, Sentinel)
• Optimize onboarding/offboarding processes for rapid growth
• Own IT roadmap balancing reliability, compliance, and scalability
• Manage vendors, licensing, contracts, and hardware lifecycle
• Support budgeting, capacity planning, and executive reporting
• Represent IT in program reviews, technical groups, and customer engagements
• Align IT operations with business and engineering objectives
• Drive modernization, efficiency, and security improvements
• Oversee Microsoft 365 GCC-High (Exchange, SharePoint, Teams, Intune, Entra ID) in compliance environments
• Manage AWS Commercial and GovCloud (VPCs, IAM, EC2, S3, RDS, CloudTrail) with proper segregation
• Administer GitHub/GitLab (SSO, access controls, branch policies, runners)
• Maintain IaC standards and CI/CD integrity with DevSecOps
• Manage endpoint security and device lifecycle via Intune
• Ensure compliance with NIST 800-171, CMMC L2/3, FedRAMP, and DoD IL requirements
• Support ATO processes, POA&M remediation, and continuous monitoring
• Enforce Zero Trust across identity, devices, networks, and apps
• Partner on vulnerability management, patching, incident response, and audits
• Manage MFA, conditional access, and privileged access controls
• Maintain audit-ready documentation of systems and access

Requirements And Desired Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, IT, MIS, Business, or related field
• 7 or more years of progressive IT experience, including 3+ years in leadership
• Experience with Microsoft 365 GCC-High or equivalent government tenants
• Hands-on experience with AWS Commercial and GovCloud (IAM, networking, security)
• Familiarity with GitHub Enterprise and/or GitLab (RBAC, CI/CD, audit logging)
• Working knowledge of NIST 800-171, CMMC, and CUI requirements
• Experience supporting or leading ATO/RMF processes
• Proven ability to build or scale IT functions in high-growth environments
• Ability to translate technical concepts for non-technical stakeholders
• Relevant certifications (AWS Solutions Architect, MS-102, SC-300, Security+, CISSP, etc.) preferred
• Experience with GitLab Ultimate in GovCloud or restricted environments a plus
• Familiarity with DoD Impact Levels (IL2/IL4/IL5) and FedRAMP a plus
• Experience with SIEM (Sentinel, Splunk) and endpoint security tools (Defender, CrowdStrike) a plus
• Background in CMMC Level 2 or 3 environments preferred
• Scripting/automation skills (PowerShell, Python, Terraform, Ansible) a plus
• Experience in Series A–C startups or high-growth defense tech companies a plus
• Must be a US citizen, able to obtain and maintain a U.S. Government security clearance

Compensation (DOE): $155k – $175k annual base salary