Sr IT and Security Manager

IT and Security ManagerSan Francisco Bay Area: Byron, CA (On-site required)Client is a fast-scaling tech company moving from product testing into full-rate production, and we need one person to own IT and security from the ground up. This is a true builder role: you'll be a team of one in the near future until the company grows fast enough to build a small team, operating as both the strategist setting direction and the hands-on operator keeping systems running day to day. You'll design and defend the network against real threats, and you'll build and maintain the CMMC compliance framework that lets us operate in export-controlled, government-adjacent environments — essentially standing up the function solo before it grows.You'll work directly with engineering, security, legal, and leadership, with full ownership of decisions that in a larger company would be split across a team.What You'll OwnSecurity & network defense — architect and actively defend physical and cloud network infrastructure against intrusion; own logging, detection, and incident responseCMMC / compliance framework — build and maintain CMMC (and related NIST 800-171/800-53) compliance from the ground up, and serve as the key stakeholder in audits and regulatory inspectionsIdentity & access management — own IdP systems on least-privilege and just-in-time principlesEndpoint management — MDM/EDR deployment, fleet lifecycle, device-trust and conditional-access workflowsDay-to-day IT operations — corporate IT, SaaS management, employee onboarding/offboarding automation, web hosting/DNS supportVendor management — select and manage IT/security tooling and contractsBusiness continuity & disaster recovery planningWhat Success Looks LikeYou're equally comfortable setting long-term security strategy and personally racking a switch or troubleshooting a laptop. You take full ownership with no team to delegate to, make sound judgment calls in ambiguity, and treat security as a first principle — not a checkbox — while still enabling the business to move fast. You're building something that doesn't exist yet, not maintaining something that does.Requirements8+ years in IT infrastructure, operations, or systems engineering, including solo or small-team ownershipStrong cloud experience (GCP and AWS)Hands-on MDM (Jamf/Intune) and EDR implementationIdentity system automation (Okta, Azure AD) in regulated environmentsDeep network security expertise — VPNs, firewalls, routing, segmentation, threat defenseDirect experience building or maintaining CMMC and/or NIST 800-171 compliance frameworksEligible to work in the US and to hold ITAR/EAR accessComfortable being on-site regularly to support a small, fast-moving teamNice to HavePrior ITAR/EAR or export-controlled environment experienceAerospace, defense, energy, or deep-tech backgroundExperience supporting hardware labs or secure manufacturing facilitiesHistory being the first IT hire at an early-stage company and scaling the function over time