IT Operations Manager (Contract)

Kaizen Labs•New York, NY

2d•$75 - $110•Hybrid

About The Position

Kaizen exists to strengthen trust in American public services by building technology that residents and public servants are proud to use. We partner with local, state, and federal agencies to replace legacy systems with modern, AI-native software that is worthy of the people they serve. Our platform reaches 55 million Americans across 50+ agencies. Founded in 2022 and based in New York City, Kaizen has raised $35 million from NEA, a16z, Accel, 776, and Carpenter Capital. We're builders, designers, and operators who believe that beautifully designed software shouldn't be a luxury in government. It's how you earn trust back. The Role Kaizen builds software for federal and local government. We are roughly 80 people on a cloud-first, mostly macOS stack, and we sell into customers who impose real requirements on how we run our own corporate systems. IT here is currently distributed across engineers and operators who all have other full-time jobs. It works, in the sense that people can log in. Selling into government means holding a higher bar on identity, devices and access than a side-of-desk model can sustain, so we are building the layer properly. This engagement does that and leaves behind something that runs without you. Hands-on build work: deploying tools, writing policy, and cleaning up account sprawl rather than advising on it.

Requirements

Owned a modern identity provider (Okta, Entra, or JumpCloud) as an administrator.
Deployed endpoint management from zero across a real fleet (Jamf, Kandji, Hexnode, or Intune).
Paired endpoint management with an EDR tool (CrowdStrike, Huntress, or similar).
Built a joiner, mover, and leaver process that produced an audit trail.
Run an access review that an auditor accepted.
Fluent in a cloud-first, mostly macOS environment (Google Workspace, password manager, AWS console access, SSO).
Ability to write runbooks that other people can follow.
Comfortable as the only IT person, with an engineering team who will help but does not report to you.
US person.

Nice To Haves

Taken a company through SOC 2, FedRAMP, or CMMC on the IT side.
Knowledge of certificate and smart-card authentication, PIV or CAC, and government PKI.
Handled device, software, or account restrictions that flowed down from a government contract.
Experience coming out of a managed service provider and wanting to build in-house.
Previous experience in a similar contract engagement.

Responsibilities

Consolidating everything behind a single identity provider, including applications, manual provisioning, and lifecycle rules.
Standing up a device management program, selecting tools, deploying them, and writing policies to meet government customer requirements.
Building a joiner, mover, and leaver process that is a system with timing, an audit trail, and named owners, including credential and hardware return.
Establishing a recurring access review process that produces evidence for auditors and government customers.
Standing up a separate, narrow environment for controlled information with its own identity, managed devices, controlled storage, and a documented boundary.
Inventorying the SaaS estate, including owners, renewal dates, administrators, and data location.

Benefits

100% coverage for medical (Oxford/United Gold and Platinum PPO plans), dental (Guardian PPO), and vision (Beam) for employees and dependents.
$100,000 in fully paid life insurance.
FSA and Dependent Care FSA.
One Medical membership.
Fertility and family-building support through Carrot.
401(k) through Guideline with a 2% company match.
16 weeks of fully paid parental leave for birthing parents.
10 weeks fully paid parental leave for non-birthing parents.
Unlimited PTO with a two-week minimum.
Closed for all federal holidays.
Company-wide winter break the week of Christmas.
Company offsites throughout the year.
Up to $750 one-time home office or desk setup stipend for NYC-based employees.
$500 for remote employees.
$50/month commuter benefit.
Expensed lunch while in the office.
Company-provided laptop of your choice.
Fully covered gym membership at Grindhouse ($225/month value) or $100/month reimbursement for remote employees.
$100/month utility stipend.
$500/year professional development stipend.
$250/year recreation stipend.
$300/quarter pet care stipend.