Head of Technical Operations (TechOps)

Formlabs•Somerville, MA

4h•$150,000 - $190,000•Onsite

About The Position

The Head of Technical Operations (TechOps) is a combined leadership and hands-on role responsible for the infrastructure, IT services, identity and access, and cybersecurity program that support Formlabs globally. The role leads a team of seven across network administration, systems administration, help desk, and cybersecurity, supporting offices in Somerville, Germany, Budapest, and Shenzhen. It is part of the Systems team and reports to the CIO. The position is based onsite in Somerville, Massachusetts. The role owns the company’s global network and connectivity, on-premise computing and resilience, security program, identity and access processes, IT service desk and endpoint management, automation, vendors and budget, and operational documentation. It sets infrastructure and security direction in balance with reliability, risk, cost, and user experience, and communicates recommendations and technical risk to executive stakeholders. The role also determines the team’s staffing and sourcing model, oversees service-provider performance, and personally handles the most difficult escalations. The annual base pay range is $150,000–$190,000 USD. Equity is also part of total compensation.

Requirements

At least 8 years of experience in IT infrastructure and/or security.
At least 2 years of experience leading teams.
Hands-on expertise in enterprise networking, including routing, VPN, firewalls, segmentation, and Wi-Fi, and in server virtualization.
Practical experience building or running a security program in an organization without a large dedicated security team, including EDR, identity, vulnerability management, and incident response.
A service-oriented approach, with experience measuring IT service quality and leading a help desk.
Proven ability to design a team staffing and sourcing model and select, negotiate with, and hold managed service providers accountable.
Ability to translate technical risk into clear business decisions for executives and write clear policies, runbooks, and recommendations.
Experience with frameworks such as NIST CSF, ISO 27001, or SOC 2, and with IT general controls in an audit-ready environment.
Bachelor’s degree in a technical field or equivalent experience.

Nice To Haves

Experience in a mid-sized company of 500–2,000 people with multiple international sites.
Experience with Cisco Meraki, Proxmox, CrowdStrike, Google Workspace, and Cloudflare.
Experience operating IT in China, including cross-border connectivity, local regulations, and remote-site support.
Familiarity with GCP and AWS security fundamentals, including IAM, logging, and network controls.
Scripting and automation skills in Python, PowerShell, Terraform, or similar, and hands-on use of AI tools in IT or security operations.
Security certifications such as CISSP, CISM, or CCNP Security.
Experience in a hardware or manufacturing company with R&D labs and lab networks.

Responsibilities

Lead, coach, and develop a team of seven across network, systems, help desk, and cybersecurity; set priorities and build technical leadership, automation, and scripting skills.
Own global network connectivity, including SD-WAN, site-to-site and cloud VPNs, firewalls, segmentation, Wi-Fi, ISP circuits, remote access, and connectivity and compliance requirements in China.
Define and drive an infrastructure and security roadmap that balances reliability, risk, cost, and user experience, and explain it in business terms to executive leaders.
Own on-premise compute and services, including lifecycle management, patching, monitoring, backups, tested restores, and disaster recovery; determine what should remain on-premise versus move to cloud or SaaS.
Own the cybersecurity program, including policies, risk registers, vulnerability and patch management, endpoint protection, email and SaaS security, logging, data loss prevention, incident detection and response runbooks, and exercises.
Determine team staffing and service sourcing, including what to build in-house versus obtain from managed service and security partners; set clear scope and SLAs and hold partners accountable.
Own identity and access processes, including joiner/mover/leaver workflows, SSO, MFA, privileged and break-glass access, and administrator hygiene across Google Workspace and core SaaS, with audit-ready evidence.
Ensure a fast, friendly, measurable help desk for approximately 800 employees, including ticket SLAs, onboarding and offboarding, laptop lifecycle and MDM, conference rooms and A/V, and site support; personally handle the hardest escalations.
Use automation and AI-assisted workflows for provisioning, monitoring, ticket triage, and reporting.
Own infrastructure and security vendors and budget, including contracts, renewals, licensing, hardware refresh plans, and build/buy/partner decisions.
Maintain current diagrams, inventories, runbooks, and on-call and escalation coverage to preserve operational continuity.