Director of IT Engineering

Horizon3

10d•$218,000 - $256,000•Remote

About The Position

Horizon3 is seeking a Director of Information Technology to lead its internal IT function for a fully remote, security-focused SaaS company. This leader will be responsible for the overall IT strategy, operations, and service delivery for a global workforce, managing multiple teams including Help Desk/End-User Support, Corporate Systems, and IT Infrastructure. The role involves ensuring a secure, reliable, and efficient technology experience for employees while collaborating with Security, Engineering, People, and Finance departments to support the company's growth. The position requires defining and executing a multi-year IT strategy, overseeing IT service delivery for a distributed, remote-first workforce, and building a high-performing IT organization. Key responsibilities include establishing IT operating rhythms, partnering with Security and Compliance on secure IT environments, managing IT platforms and tools, optimizing IT budgets and vendor relationships, defining KPIs and SLOs, and ensuring smooth technology onboarding and offboarding for remote employees. The role also involves leading IT support for company events and serving as an escalation point for IT incidents.

Requirements

Significant experience (typically 10+ years) in IT, with at least 5+ years in people leadership roles, including managing managers and multi-site or distributed teams.
Proven track record owning IT strategy and operations for a mid-sized or larger organization, ideally in a SaaS, security, or other highly regulated / security-conscious environment.
Demonstrated ability to manage other managers and have a track record of developing them.
Experience operating in a remote-first or hybrid workplace, supporting distributed employees across time zones.
Deep understanding of core IT domains, including: Endpoint management (macOS and/or Windows) and device lifecycle, Identity and access management (e.g., Okta, Entra, or similar), Collaboration and productivity suites (e.g., Google Workspace, Slack, Zoom), Ticketing and ITSM tooling (e.g., Jira Service Management or similar), Network and office connectivity in hub locations (Wi-Fi, conference rooms,), Enterprise AI administration and enablement (e.g., Claude, Gemini, AWS Bedrock or similar), Cloud infrastructure (e.g., AWS, or similar).
Strong partnership history with Security, Engineering, and Compliance teams on identity, access, and device security controls.
Demonstrated ability to design and implement IT processes at scale (intake, change management, incident management, problem management, asset management).
Comfort making pragmatic tradeoffs between ideal architectures and business reality, while still moving toward secure, durable solutions.
Excellent communication skills with the ability to explain technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders and to present options, risks, and recommendations clearly.
Strong vendor management skills, including evaluation, negotiation, and ongoing performance management.
High bias for action, ownership, and follow-through in ambiguous, rapidly changing environments.

Nice To Haves

Experience in a high-growth startup or scale-up environment.
Background in cybersecurity, IT security engineering, or exposure to security frameworks and audits (e.g., SOC 2, ISO 27001, FedRAMP).
Experience building or supporting IT operations for federal, regulated, or public sector customers.
Prior leadership of IT in a remote-first organization.

Responsibilities

Define and drive the multi-year IT strategy and roadmap, aligned with company goals and the broader Security & IT vision.
Own end-to-end accountability for the performance, quality, and outcomes of the Help Desk, IT Engineering, and Business applications teams.
Own IT service delivery for a distributed, remote-first workforce, ensuring reliable endpoint, identity, and collaboration experiences for employees.
Build, lead, and develop a high-performing IT organization, including managers and senior individual contributors across Help Desk, Corporate Systems, and Infrastructure.
Establish and continuously improve IT operating rhythms, including intake, prioritization, change management, incident management, and communication practices.
Partner with Security, Engineering, and Compliance to design and operate secure-by-default IT environments, with strong identity, access management, device compliance, and data protection controls.
Oversee selection, implementation, and lifecycle management of core IT platforms and tools (e.g., identity and access management, endpoint management, MDM, collaboration suite, device and asset management, ticketing).
Own and optimize IT budgets, vendor relationships, and contracts, balancing cost control with reliability and user experience.
Define and track key performance indicators (KPIs) and service-level objectives (SLOs) for IT (e.g., ticket response and resolution times, employee satisfaction, device compliance rates, onboarding time-to-productivity).
Partner with People team and hiring managers to deliver a smooth technology onboarding and offboarding experience, including provisioning, access setup, and device logistics for remote employees.
Ensure IT processes and documentation (runbooks, knowledge base articles, standards) are created, maintained, and leveraged by the team.
Lead IT support for periodic company events (e.g., in-person summits, trainings) and any office or hub environments as needed.
Serve as an escalation point for complex or high-impact IT incidents, collaborating with Security and Engineering on root cause analysis and long-term remediation.
Communicate clearly with executives and stakeholders about IT priorities, tradeoffs, risks, and progress.
Recruit, hire, and onboard talented IT professionals and managers to support our organizational goals.
Set the operating rhythm for IT Leadership, prioritization, planning cadences, escalation paths, and cross-team coordination, so the teams operate as one integrated organization rather than silos.
Set clear expectations and success metrics for your teams, and provide regular feedback, coaching, and career development.
Build a culture that emphasizes ownership, service excellence, inclusion, and continuous improvement.
Recognize and retain high performers while addressing performance gaps with clarity and fairness.
Model calm, accountable leadership during incidents and periods of high change.