IT Manager

Longbow Advantage•Toronto, ON

2d•Remote

About The Position

Longbow Advantage is an end-to-end warehousing strategy company that leverages real-time data to manage people, processes, and warehouses through The Rebus® Platform, and WMS consulting services purpose-built to expand and enhance warehouse technologies. We take a holistic approach to warehousing strategy, understanding that technology is only one piece in the solution process. Our warehouse experts work with customers to understand challenges and goals, developing a recommendation that’s aligned to the customer’s business objectives and supply chain initiatives. Rebus is a B2B SaaS company providing supply chain analytics and labour management software (Rebus), with a sister consulting and WMS hosting business (Longbow). Our IT function spans both organisations, supporting our internal teams as well as critical hosted customer environments running on Windows Server, SQL Server, VMware, and Google Cloud Platform. We are seeking an experienced IT Manager to lead our IT team of two, take ownership of our entire IT estate, and bring structure, documentation, and operational maturity to a function that has grown organically over many years. The successful candidate will also be a hands-on contributor — this is not a role for someone who only manages from a distance. This is a critical hire. The previous IT lead held deep, undocumented knowledge across our most business-critical systems, particularly our hosted WMS environment, VMware platform, Microsoft365, Active Directory, security tools. Reducing key-person risk and bringing professional process discipline to the function is a primary objective for the first six months. This is a work-from-home remote role based in Toronto ON, with occasional travel to local data center. On Call is a shared rotation with IT team for critical issues. As our IT Manager, this is a chance to take a critical IT function and meaningfully reshape it. The team is small but capable, the technology footprint is interesting and varied (cloud, on-prem, hosted production, end-user IT), and the business depends on getting this right. You will have the autonomy to make significant changes, the support of an engaged executive team, and the budget to invest in the tools, training, and processes needed to do the job well. If you are someone who thrives on bringing order to complexity, who enjoys both leading a team and staying close to the technology, and who wants the impact that comes with owning an entire IT estate end-to-end, we'd like to hear from you.

Requirements

8+ years of progressive IT experience, including at least 3 years in a management or team-lead role
Proven hands-on experience with Microsoft technology stack: Active Directory (on-prem and Azure AD), Office 365, Windows Server, SQL Server
Strong working knowledge of VMware vSphere
Hands-on experience with Google Cloud Platform — VMs, networking, IAM, VPN tunnels, monitoring, and cost management
Working knowledge of SQL Server administration, including high-availability concepts (Always On, failover clusters), maintenance plans, and backup strategies
Experience managing networking infrastructure including firewalls (FortiGate or equivalent), VPN, and managed-service-provider relationships
Demonstrated experience implementing and operating change management, incident management, and IT documentation practices
Experience managing IT vendor contracts, renewals, and budgets
Strong written and verbal communication skills; able to translate technical risks into clear business language for executives
Comfortable balancing strategic leadership with hands-on technical work

Nice To Haves

Familiarity with Proxmox or other virtualisation alternatives
Experience with Office 365, Active Directory, Sentinel One, Ninja RMM, or comparable EDR/RMM platforms
Experience working toward or operating under SOC 2 Type 2 (or ISO 27001) compliance
Experience running and leading cloud infrastructure (e.g. GCP, AWS, Azure)
Bilingual English/French (working knowledge sufficient — most communication is in English)
Relevant certifications: Microsoft (e.g., Azure Administrator), Google Cloud (Associate Cloud Engineer or Professional Cloud Architect), CISSP, ITIL

Responsibilities

Lead our IT team of two.
Take ownership of our entire IT estate.
Bring structure, documentation, and operational maturity to the IT function.
Be a hands-on contributor.
Reduce key-person risk and bring professional process discipline to the function.
Manage networking infrastructure including firewalls (FortiGate or equivalent), VPN, and managed-service-provider relationships.
Implement and operate change management, incident management, and IT documentation practices.
Manage IT vendor contracts, renewals, and budgets.
Translate technical risks into clear business language for executives.
Balance strategic leadership with hands-on technical work.