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Cogent Security is an Applied AI Lab building next-generation AI agents for cybersecurity. The company uses AI to assess petabytes of enterprise data to identify and remediate security issues before critical breaches occur. Backed by Greylock and Bain Capital Ventures, Cogent partners with Fortune 500 companies to secure complex production environments.
You will be the founding IT Engineer, building and owning the IT function from the ground up as the company scales. This is a hands-on individual contributor role based in San Francisco (4 days/week in-office) responsible for all aspects of IT infrastructure and operations.
Key responsibilities include:
- Managing and securing endpoints across all environments: device provisioning, MDM configuration, patching, and fleet inventory tracking
- Owning corporate identity and access management: SSO, MFA, role-based permissions, and automated provisioning/deprovisioning through the employee lifecycle
- Running vendor management across the SaaS stack: license provisioning, renewals, and cost tracking for tools like Google Workspace, Slack, Linear, and Microsoft 365
- Managing physical IT infrastructure across San Francisco and New York offices: UniFi network switches, routers, access control systems, and cameras
- Providing end-user support and ticketing with on-call availability for critical issues
- Building automation using Python for custom integrations and workflow platforms like n8n or Zapier to scale operations and eliminate repetitive work
- Defining guardrails for AI tool usage company-wide and creating internal documentation and self-serve workflows for non-technical teammates
You will work alongside a team of applied AI experts from top universities (Stanford, Berkeley, Penn, Carnegie Mellon) and high-growth companies (Scale AI, Databricks, Stripe, Tesla, Coinbase), as well as cybersecurity specialists from Wiz, Abnormal AI, and Zscaler.
REQUIREMENTS:
- Experience founding or building an IT function from zero at a fast-moving company (first or second IT hire experience required)
- Security-first mindset from working in high-security environments (fintech, enterprise SaaS, or similar)
- Strong scripting and automation skills in Python or similar languages
- AI-native in practice: daily use of tools like Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex for scripting, workflow building, and task automation while maintaining security controls
- Project management instincts to operate beyond individual capacity through smart prioritization and process design
- Hands-on availability for building, supporting, and responding to issues
NICE TO HAVE:
- Experience with compliance frameworks (SOC 2, ISO 27001) and audit support
- Security domain expertise, particularly in vulnerability management
- Windows environment administration at scale
