Director of IT

Aetherflux • San Carlos, CA

6d • Onsite

About The Position

The Head of IT will define and execute the company’s IT strategy across corporate systems, engineering infrastructure, mission operations support, cybersecurity, and compliance. This leader will ensure our IT architecture supports secure satellite development, ground segment operations, regulatory requirements, and rapid global scaling.

This is a highly cross-functional leadership role, reporting to the COO/CLO but partnering with Engineering, Security, Finance, and People teams to build resilient, secure, and scalable systems in a highly regulated environment. This is both a strategic and hands-on leadership role in a rapidly scaling hardware company, and is in-person at our San Carlos, CA HQ.

Requirements

• 10+ years of progressive IT leadership experience
• Experience scaling IT in a high-growth startup or technology company from early architecture to defense-level compliance
• Deep expertise in cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP)
• Strong background in cybersecurity and compliance
• Experience supporting engineering organizations (DevOps, high-performance compute, secure SDLC)
• Proven ability to build teams and operate strategically and tactically
• Experience in defense or other regulated industries; familiarity with export controls (ITAR/EAR)

Nice To Haves

• Experience preparing for or maintaining SOC 2 / ISO 27001 audits

Responsibilities

• Define and execute the company-wide IT roadmap aligned with business and mission objectives
• Build and lead a high-performing IT team (infrastructure, applications, support, security)
• Develop IT governance, policies, and standards
• Manage IT budget planning and vendor relationships
• Design and operate secure and scalable hybrid infrastructure
• Support high-performance compute environments for satellite design, simulation and testing
• Ensure high availability for mission-critical systems and operations
• Implement disaster recovery and business continuity planning
• Own enterprise cybersecurity strategy across corporate, production, and mission environments
• Implement zero-trust architecture and endpoint security
• Ensure compliance with relevant frameworks (e.g. ITAR/EAR)
• Lead incident response planning and execution
• Oversee ERP, HRIS, collaboration, identity management, and productivity tools
• Support scaling processes across Finance, Supply Chain, and Manufacturing
• Drive automation and process optimization initiatives
• Partner with software and hardware engineering to support secure development environments
• Ensure secure data pipelines for satellite telemetry and payload data
• Manage MSPs, cloud providers, and security vendors; negotiate enterprise contracts and SLAs
• Serve as executive point-of-contact for IT-related audits and due diligence

Benefits

• Equity in Aetherflux
• Employees and their eligible dependents may enroll in medical, dental, and vision insurance; long-term disability and life insurance for employees
• 401(k) retirement savings plan
• Paid time off
• 10 paid holidays per calendar year
• Paid leave for new parents
• Daily lunch in the office and a fully stocked kitchen with beverages and snacks

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Education Level: No Education Listed