Senior IT Manager

Firestorm•San Diego, CA

1d•$150,000 - $180,000•Onsite

About The Position

Firestorm is looking for a Senior IT Manager who will own and shape our IT function. You will inherit a foundation and be trusted to build on it -- implementing the technologies, processes, and systems that will carry a fast-scaling defense technology company into its next chapter. We are looking for someone who sees gaps as opportunities, builds with intention, and measures success by the lasting impact they leave behind.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Management Information Systems (MIS), Business Administration or equivalent degree. In lieu of a degree need to have 12 years of progressive relevant experience.
U.S. Citizenship required due to ITAR regulations, with the ability to obtain and maintain a DoD security clearance
7+ years of progressive IT experience
3+ years in a management and/or senior lead role
Experience administering Microsoft 365 GCC-High or equivalent M365 Government tenants
Experience with AWS GovCloud and AWS Commercial, including IAM, networking, and cloud security services
Working knowledge of GitHub Enterprise and/or GitLab administration, including RBAC, CI/CD pipelines, and audit logging
Understanding of NIST SP 800-171, CMMC, and CUI handling requirements in a defense contractor environment
Experience supporting or leading ATO/RMF processes
Experience building or significantly scaling an IT function at a company in rapid growth — not just inheriting and maintaining one
Experience translating technical requirements for non-technical stakeholders

Nice To Haves

Certifications: AWS Solutions Architect (Associate or Professional), Microsoft MS-102 / SC-300, CompTIA Security+, CISSP, or equivalent
Experience with GitLab Ultimate self-managed deployments in a GovCloud or restricted environment
Familiarity with DoD Impact Levels (IL2, IL4, IL5) and the FedRAMP authorization process
Experience with SIEM platforms (Microsoft Sentinel, Splunk) and endpoint detection tools (Defender for Endpoint, CrowdStrike)
Background working in a CMMC Level 2 or Level 3 certified environment
Scripting and automation experience (PowerShell, Python, Terraform, Ansible)
Prior experience at a Series A–C startup or high-growth defense technology company

Responsibilities

Directly manage and mentor the IT team from day one; set priorities, develop their capabilities, and serve as their technical lead
Define the IT org structure and hiring roadmap as the company scales — identify when to add headcount, what roles to hire, and how to build a high-performing team
Establish IT helpdesk processes, ticketing workflows, and SLA standards to create a scalable, responsive support function from the ground up
Build and maintain IT operational runbooks, SOPs, and escalation procedures — creating the documentation layer the team will rely on as it grows
Own incident management and major incident response; coordinate root-cause analysis and corrective action
Drive monitoring, alerting, and observability practices using tools such as CloudWatch, Azure Monitor, Microsoft Sentinel, or equivalent
Build and continuously refine the employee onboarding and offboarding process to support rapid headcount growth
Build and own the IT roadmap, balancing operational reliability, compliance posture, and the needs of a fast-scaling company
Manage IT vendor relationships, licensing, contract renewals, and hardware procurement lifecycle
Contribute to IT budget forecasting and capacity planning; report to the Director of Operations on system health, project status, and team capacity
Participate in program reviews, technical working groups, and customer meetings as the IT operations subject matter expert
Partner with department heads and engineering teams to align IT operations with program and business objectives
Identify and champion opportunities to modernize operations, reduce toil, and improve security posture
Oversee the operation, availability, and performance of Microsoft 365 GCC-High (Exchange Online, SharePoint, Teams, Intune, Azure AD/Entra ID) in compliance with ITAR, DFARS, and CUI handling requirements
Manage AWS Commercial and AWS GovCloud environments, including VPCs, IAM roles and policies, EC2, S3, RDS, and CloudTrail; enforce separation of duties between commercial and GovCloud workloads
Administer GitHub Enterprise and/or GitLab platforms for development teams, including SSO integration, branch protection policies, runner infrastructure, and access control
Maintain infrastructure-as-code (IaC) standards and CI/CD pipeline integrity in coordination with DevSecOps and engineering teams
Manage and continuously improve endpoint management using Microsoft Intune (MDM/MAM) across all company devices
Ensure all environments comply with NIST SP 800-171, CMMC Level 2/3, FedRAMP Moderate/High, and DoD IL2/IL4/IL5 requirements
Support ATO (Authority to Operate) processes, POA&M remediation, and continuous monitoring for applicable systems
Enforce Zero Trust principles across identity, device, network, and application layers
Partner with the Senior Security Manager on vulnerability management, patch cycles, incident response, and audit readiness
Manage MFA enforcement, conditional access policies, and privileged access management (PAM) across all platforms
Maintain accurate documentation of IT systems, configurations, and access controls to support compliance audits and assessments

Benefits

Comprehensive medical, dental, and visions plans
401(k) Retirement Savings Plan
Equity grants for new hires
Unlimited PTO
Extremely generous company holiday calendar, including a holiday hiatus in July, & December.
Generous Parental Leave
Lifestyle Spending Account
FSA
DCFSA
HSA
Hospital Indemnity insurance
Critical Illness insurance
Accident insurance
Basic Life/AD&D, short-term and long-term disability insurance, 100% covered by Firestorm. Plus, the option to purchase additional life insurance for you and your family.
Mental Health Resources: We provide free mental health resources 24/7 including therapy and more. Additional work-life services, such as free legal and financial support, are available to you as well.
Relocation assistance is available