IT Operations & Security Lead

Logoslabs; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

Zen Educate is seeking a senior IT and security leader to own our internal IT systems and security as we scale. You will report to the CTO and join our new Business Systems team, becoming the first dedicated hire to consolidate responsibilities currently spread across multiple roles.

You will drive modern IT and security practices, including automation, governance, and AI adoption, with a north star of a clear, scalable IT posture for today and tomorrow.

Responsibilities

• Own Zen’s internal IT systems and security as we grow.
• Lead automation, governance and AI adoption to improve IT posture.

Job description

Our Vision

Every child deserves a better start toward the best possible future. The right educator in the right classroom at the right time can change a child’s chances and, at scale, a nation’s trajectory. Yet too much of our education system’s time, money, and talent are lost to inefficiency.

At Zen Educate, we’re changing that through technology: helping schools save millions in tight times, helping educators find work that rewards their skills and fits their lives, and building a better-educated society that invests its best in every child.

What I’m looking for

Hi, I’m Martin, Chief Technology Officer at Zen Educate, and I’m looking for someone to own Zen’s internal IT systems and security as we grow. You’ll report directly to me as part of our new Business Systems team, and you’ll be the first dedicated hire to replace what has so far been spread across several roles.

I’ll lean on you to execute well and to show the way on modern IT and security practice, including automation, governance and AI adoption. Your north star is a clear, proportionate, defensible and scalable IT and security posture, for the company Zen is today and the one it’s growing into.

That means fixing the problem in front of you, while making sure nobody has to fix it manually again tomorrow.

So this probably isn’t the role for you if you solely enjoy clearing ticket queues or becoming very good at provisioning accounts by hand.

It might be if your instinct is: why are we still doing this manually, and who do I need to work with to fix it?

My ideal hire:

• has seen what great looks like and now wants to build their version of it from scratch;
• takes this headspace off my plate, while keeping me informed and involved on the decisions that matter;
• communicates confidently at every level of the business to get things done;
• treats every pound spent here as a pound not spent elsewhere on our mission: investing confidently where it matters, cutting what doesn’t, and making the return easy to see.

Where we are and where we need to go

Zen now has around 600 people across the UK and US (not counting the educators we place in schools), and our IT and security practices need to grow with us.

Up to now, we’ve kept pace with that growth through good people, manual processes and a few well-kept spreadsheets. It’s worked well. But our growth has steepened recently (yay!), and the cracks and inefficiencies are