Director of Operations & IT

Rancher Government Solutions; Reston (VA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Rancher Government Solutions in Reston, VA seeks a Director of Operations & IT to lead cross-functional teams, manage IT operations and enterprise infrastructure, and govern spend and compliance. This role reports to the COO and drives a high-velocity operational backbone across the organization.

The candidate will oversee procurement, asset management, and change governance, while coordinating with Services, Engineering, HR, and Finance to deliver strategic initiatives on schedule.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of operational leadership across IT Operations, Business Operations, or delivery in high-growth software, defense tech, or federal contracting environments.
• Hands-on proficiency managing modern enterprise stacks: identity & cloud, endpoint & MDM, ITSM & workflow tracking, and asset management.
• Familiar with federal standards (CMMC Level 2, NIST SP 800-171, DFARS 252.204-7012).
• Demonstrated success in structuring intake pipelines and steering cross-functional initiatives to completion on schedule.

Responsibilities

• Operational Project Management & Strategic Execution.
• Coordinate milestones and deliverables across Services, Engineering, HR, and Finance.
• Oversee enterprise IT infrastructure, vendor spend, and change control.
• Manage IT Operations and Infrastructure team (Systems Engineering, DevSecOps, Service Desk).
• Administer core platforms: Google Workspace, Okta IAM, Jamf Pro/Protect, Zendesk ServiceDesk.
• Oversee asset lifecycle and software/hardware licensing budgets.
• Enforce IT Change Management, impact analyses, rollbacks, and maintenance windows.

Skills

Operational Leadership

IT Operations

Program Management

Cross-functional Collaboration

Vendor Governance

Security Compliance

Change Management

SOP Development

Tools

Zendesk ServiceDesk

Smartsheet

Snipe-IT

Jamf Pro

Apple Business Manager

Okta

Google Workspace

Job description

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Director of Operations & IT

Full Time Management Reston, VA, US

COMPANY DESCRIPTION

Rancher Government Solutions (RGS) is specifically designed to address the unique security and operational needs of the U.S. Government and military as it relates to application modernization, containers, and Kubernetes.

Rancher is a complete open-source software stack for teams adopting containers. It addresses the operations and security challenges of managing multiple Kubernetes clusters at scale, while providing DevOps teams with integrated tools for running containerized workloads.

RGS supports all Rancher products with U.S. based American citizen with the highest security clearances who are currently supporting programs across the Department of Defense, Intelligence Community, and civilian agencies.

POSITION SUMMARY

Reporting to the COO, the Director of Operations & IT serves as an operational leader and Integrator across Rancher Government Solutions. The role manages internal project delivery, enterprise IT infrastructure, technology spend governance, and cross-functional execution.

The Director drives a high-velocity operational backbone by overseeing company-wide projects, enterprise IT and endpoint fleets, vendor spend, and change control.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Operational Project Management & Strategic Execution
• Demand Intake & Prioritization: Own and run the centralized operational demand intake pipeline (leveraging Smartsheet and Zendesk); triage, resource, and execute cross-functional initiatives aligned with executive priorities.
• Cross-Departmental Integration: Act as the operational integrator across the business, coordinating milestones and deliverables between Services, Engineering, HR, and Finance.
• Process Optimization: Identify internal operational friction, map out clean handoffs between departments, and establish repeatable standard operating procedures (SOPs).
• Team Leadership: Lead and resource the IT Operations and Infrastructure team (Systems Engineering, DevSecOps, Service Desk).
• Enterprise Stack Administration: Manage core platforms: Google Workspace Enterprise, Okta IAM, Jamf Pro/Protect/Security Cloud, and Zendesk ServiceDesk.
• Fleet & Endpoint Management: Manage the corporate hardware lifecycle (macOS, iPads, BYOD), automating zero-touch enrollment using MDM.
• Change Management Governance: Enforce IT Change Management, impact analyses, rollbacks, and maintenance windows.

Technology Procurement, Spend & Asset Governance

• Spend Management: Manage IT OpEx, remove redundant tools, oversee SaaS licenses, and optimize technology budgets.
• Procurement & Vendor Relations: Oversee procurement, vendor negotiations, enterprise license agreements, and equipment provisioning.
• Asset Tracking & License Management: Track software, hardware, and license spend in Snipe-IT/Smartsheet.
• Hardware Lifecycle & Sanitization: Enforce end-to-end device lifecycles.

Operational Compliance & Baseline Governance (Silent Rail)

• Baseline Maintenance: Align internal systems and workflows with security baselines (CMMC Level 2, NIST SP 800-171, FOCI guardrails) without reducing operational speed.
• Access & Identity Governance: Enforce RBAC, MFA, and automated JML identity workflows alongside HR.
• Audit & Readiness: Support security assessments, audits, and POA&M remediation tracking for IT assets.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Experience: 7+ years of operational leadership across IT Operations, Business Operations, or technical delivery within high-growth software, defense technology, or federal contracting environments.
• Enterprise Stack Mastery: Hands-on operational proficiency managing modern enterprise stacks:
• Identity & Cloud: Okta, Google Workspace Enterprise.
• Endpoint & MDM: Jamf Pro / Protect, Apple Business Manager (ABM).
• ITSM & Workflow Tracking: Zendesk ServiceDesk, Smartsheet.
• Asset Management: Snipe-IT or equivalent ITAM platforms.
• Spend & Vendor Governance: Proven track record auditing recurring SaaS spend, renegotiating enterprise vendor contracts, and controlling multi-million-dollar technology budgets.
• Compliance & Security Baseline: Working familiarity with federal standards (CMMC Level 2, NIST SP 800-171, DFARS 252.204-7012).
• Operational Project Delivery: Demonstrated success structuring intake pipelines, managing cross-functional initiatives, and driving technical projects to completion on schedule.

CORE LEADERSHIP COMPETENCIES

• Extreme Ownership: Proactive operational driver who takes absolute accountability for uptime, delivery dates, and spend efficiency.
• Structured Thinker: Cuts through organizational chaos with structured workflows, data-backed prioritization, and clean documentation.
• Collaborative Communicator: Bridges technical engineers, corporate leadership, and cross-functional teams with clarity and practicality.