IT & Cybersecurity Manager

Nooks•El Segundo, CA

About The Position

Nooks is pioneering Classified-Infrastructure-as-a-Service (CIaaS) — designing, building, and operating Sensitive Compartmented Information Facilities (SCIFs) and other secured, classified environments for the defense and national security community. We work with the agencies, contractors, and mission-driven organizations that keep the nation safe, delivering the physical infrastructure that makes classified work possible. We’re growing fast, operating across multiple markets, and building a company that takes both the mission and the business seriously. Each Nooks site needs one person accountable for its technology and its security at once — that is this role. As IT/Cyber Manager, you will own the IT and cybersecurity function for a Nooks site end to end: keeping infrastructure running, executing the corporate cyber program locally, and bridging site operations and the broader Nooks network. This is a leadership seat with a player-coach reality — as comfortable briefing leadership on site risk as stepping into the server room during a critical failure. You will report to the Senior IT/Cyber Ops Manager under the VP of IT/Cyber and directly manage the site IT and Cyber Personnel. Nooks runs this seat at every classified site, so this description covers the role across all locations rather than any single facility. Ownership is defined, but a growing company moves fast: new systems come online, customers integrate, and priorities shift week to week. You will balance governance with hands-on execution and step in wherever the site's operations or security need you.

Requirements

8+ years in IT and/or cybersecurity operations, including 3+ years managing technical teams.
Proven ability to implement and enforce IT and security policy in classified or otherwise regulated environments.
Working knowledge of the frameworks that govern classified systems — RMF, NIST SP 800-53, ICD 503, JSIG, and DAAPM.
Broad technical grounding across networking, virtualization, identity and access management, and endpoint security, with the ability to go hands-on.
Experience owning budgets, vendors, and technology lifecycles within a governance model.
Active DoD 8140.03/8570.01 Information Assurance Manager (IAM) Level II certification (e.g., CISSP, CISM, or GSLC).
Bachelor's degree in IT, Cybersecurity, Computer Science, or a related field — or equivalent experience.
Candidates must be eligible to work in the United States and capable of maintaining eligibility up to the Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI) level within 45 days of hire.

Nice To Haves

IAM Level III certification.
Experience delivering IT and security for customer-integration or managed-service environments.
Familiarity with IT service management (ITSM) and security-monitoring tooling for reporting operational health and compliance metrics.
Experience standing up IT and cyber for new classified sites.

Responsibilities

Own the lifecycle of the site's IT infrastructure — hardware, software, and networks — for uptime, rigorous configuration management, and minimal downtime.
Manage the site IT/Cyber budget and third-party vendors, prioritizing the investments that most reduce risk.
Step into hands-on troubleshooting during outages, migrations, and peak demand, where the player-coach expectation is real.
Establish and enforce the site's security protocols and incident response plans in line with Nooks' cyber program and federal frameworks — the Risk Management Framework (RMF), NIST SP 800-53, Intelligence Community Directive (ICD) 503, the Joint Special Access Program Implementation Guide (JSIG), and the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency Assessment and Authorization Process Manual (DAAPM).
Lead local response to security events and outages, with disciplined communication to corporate and network cyber leadership.
Own the site's accreditation posture in execution, keeping systems inspection-ready and authorizations current alongside the cyber team.
Directly manage the site's IT and Cyber personnel — setting priorities, holding accountability, and running performance management.
Grow technical and leadership depth across the team so the site can staff new systems as it scales.
Model the standards you hold the team to, balancing governance with execution.
Enable customer integration into the site's classified infrastructure, onboarding tenants securely into the CIaaS model.
Brief executive leadership and customers on site risk, readiness, and remediation in terms they can act on.
Localize and enforce Nooks' corporate IT and security policy at the site without weakening it.