Sr. IT Manager

Cypress HCM; San Diego (CA); On-site; USD 155,000 - 175,000; Full time

Job summary

Cypress HCM seeks a Senior IT Manager to lead and evolve the IT function for a fast-growing aerospace/defense tech environment. This hands-on role builds on an existing foundation, implementing technologies, processes, and systems to support scaling while aligning with business and engineering objectives.

You will mentor the IT team, drive the roadmap, ensure compliance with NIST 800-171, CMMC, FedRAMP, and DoD IL requirements, and partner with vendors to enable secure, resilient operations

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, IT, MIS, Business, or related field.
• 7+ years of progressive IT experience, including 3+ years in leadership.
• Experience with Microsoft 365 GCC-High or equivalent government tenants.
• Hands-on AWS Commercial and GovCloud (IAM, networking, security) experience.
• Familiarity with GitHub Enterprise and/or GitLab (RBAC, CI/CD, audit logging).
• Knowledge of NIST 800-171, CMMC, and CUI requirements.
• Experience supporting ATO/RMF processes.
• US citizenship and ability to obtain security clearance.

Responsibilities

• Lead and mentor the IT team; set priorities, grow capabilities, and act as technical lead.
• Define org structure and hiring roadmap to scale a high-performing IT team.
• Establish helpdesk processes, ticketing workflows, and SLA standards.
• Develop and maintain runbooks, SOPs, and escalation procedures.
• Own incident management, root-cause analysis, and corrective actions.
• Implement monitoring, alerting, and observability across clouds (e.g., CloudWatch, Azure Monitor).
• Oversee security, zero trust, and compliance with DoD frameworks (NIST 800-171, CMMC).
• Manage vendors, licenses, and hardware lifecycle.

Skills

Leadership & mentoring

Strategic IT planning

Vendor management

Regulatory compliance

Executive communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, IT, MIS, Business, or related field

Tools

Microsoft 365 GCC-High

AWS GovCloud

GitHub Enterprise / GitLab

SIEM: Sentinel / Splunk

Defender / CrowdStrike

DevSecOps / IaC

Job description

This is an exciting opportunity to join a fast-growing startup in the aerospace/defense industry as a Senior IT Manager to lead and evolve the IT function. This is a hands-on role building on an existing foundation, implementing the technologies, processes, and systems needed to support a rapidly scaling defense technology company. The ideal candidate identifies gaps as opportunities, builds with purpose, and focuses on creating lasting impact.

Responsibilities

• Lead and mentor the IT team; set priorities, grow capabilities, and act as technical lead
• Define org structure and hiring roadmap to scale a high-performing IT team
• Establish helpdesk processes, ticketing workflows, and SLA standards
• Develop and maintain runbooks, SOPs, and escalation procedures
• Own incident management, root-cause analysis, and corrective actions
• Implement monitoring, alerting, and observability (e.g., CloudWatch, Azure Monitor, Sentinel)
• Optimize onboarding/offboarding processes for rapid growth
• Own IT roadmap balancing reliability, compliance, and scalability
• Manage vendors, licensing, contracts, and hardware lifecycle
• Support budgeting, capacity planning, and executive reporting
• Represent IT in program reviews, technical groups, and customer engagements
• Align IT operations with business and engineering objectives
• Drive modernization, efficiency, and security improvements
• Oversee Microsoft 365 GCC-High (Exchange, SharePoint, Teams, Intune, Entra ID) in compliance environments
• Manage AWS Commercial and GovCloud (VPCs, IAM, EC2, S3, RDS, CloudTrail) with proper segregation
• Administer GitHub/GitLab (SSO, access controls, branch policies, runners)
• Maintain IaC standards and CI/CD integrity with DevSecOps
• Manage endpoint security and device lifecycle via Intune
• Ensure compliance with NIST 800-171, CMMC L2/3, FedRAMP, and DoD IL requirements
• Support ATO processes, POA&M remediation, and continuous monitoring
• Enforce Zero Trust across identity, devices, networks, and apps
• Partner on vulnerability management, patching, incident response, and audits
• Manage MFA, conditional access, and privileged access controls
• Maintain audit-ready documentation of systems and access

Requirements And Desired Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, IT, MIS, Business, or related field
• 7 or more years of progressive IT experience, including 3+ years in leadership
• Experience with Microsoft 365 GCC-High or equivalent government tenants
• Hands-on experience with AWS Commercial and GovCloud (IAM, networking, security)
• Familiarity with GitHub Enterprise and/or GitLab (RBAC, CI/CD, audit logging)
• Working knowledge of NIST 800-171, CMMC, and CUI requirements
• Experience supporting or leading ATO/RMF processes
• Proven ability to build or scale IT functions in high-growth environments
• Ability to translate technical concepts for non-technical stakeholders
• Experience with GitLab Ultimate in GovCloud or restricted environments a plus
• Familiarity with DoD Impact Levels (IL2/IL4/IL5) and FedRAMP a plus
• Experience with SIEM (Sentinel, Splunk) and endpoint security tools (Defender, CrowdStrike) a plus
• Background in CMMC Level 2 or 3 environments preferred
• Experience in Series A–C startups or high-growth defense tech companies a plus
• Must be a US citizen, able to obtain and maintain a U.S. Government security clearance

Compensation (DOE): $155k – $175k annual base salary