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Great Sky is an AI startup rebuilding AI from first principles with neuroscience-inspired hardware and algorithms. They are seeking a hands-on IT & Security Expert to own their technology infrastructure from the ground up as their first dedicated IT hire.
You will report to the CTO and work directly with the engineering and operations teams. This is an individual contributor role with room to grow in scope and seniority as the company scales.
Key responsibilities include:
IT Operations & Infrastructure: Own and manage the full IT stack across macOS, Linux, and Windows environments, including computers, software, network, firewall, and office infrastructure. Stand up a secure VPN, deploy MDM (device management and policy enforcement) and endpoint security (CrowdStrike Falcon), and build toward zero-trust architecture, asset inventory, centralized logging, and SIEM. Manage hardware procurement, asset tracking, onboarding/offboarding, software license management, and IT budget. Manage IT and security vendor relationships, deciding what to manage internally versus outsource. Support on-site rack-mounted server hardware and bare-metal Linux as the company productizes. Own AI usage and safety policies by defining practical protocols that balance productivity with IP protection.
Identity, Access & Secrets Management: Stand up an identity platform (Active Directory, Entra ID) with SSO, MFA, and role-based access. Implement secrets management (Vault, 1Password Teams, SSM) with key rotation. Implement a zero-trust mesh or VPN (Tailscale, WireGuard, Cloudflare Access) with identity-gated SSH. Own cloud security across AWS, GCP, and SLURM including IAM, VPC/network segmentation, and controlled ingress/egress. Maintain encrypted backups and build toward secure external access to hardware.
Compliance & Security: Lead and own all compliance roadmaps and certification efforts (e.g., CMMC Level 2, SOC 2), overseeing buildouts, ongoing compliance, documentation, and coordination with external assessors. Build a real security program with zero-trust architecture, asset inventory, centralized logging, SIEM, monitoring, and identity governance. Own incident response, disaster recovery, and business continuity planning. Maintain awareness of export control rules given the company's deep tech work and government contracts.
REQUIREMENTS:
- 5–8 years of IT and security experience, with direct experience building from scratch at a small technical company (not just running a mature setup)
- Strong identity and access management experience: SSO, MFA, role-based access, directory services
- Secure networking experience: VPN, zero-trust, identity-gated SSH, device management, endpoint security
- Cloud security across at least one major provider (AWS, GCP, or Azure): IAM, network segmentation, controlled ingress/egress
- Fluent across macOS, Linux, and Windows
- Infrastructure-as-code mindset — builds things documented and self-serve
- Scripting and automation depth (Python, Bash, Terraform, or similar)
- Experience working directly with engineering, operations, and leadership to understand business needs and translate them into reliable, usable, documented systems
NICE TO HAVE:
- Hands-on experience with CMMC, NIST 800-171, or CUI environments
- Export control awareness (deemed exports, access segregation for non-US persons)
- Experience with EDR/MDR tooling (CrowdStrike Falcon, SentinelOne, or similar)
- Experience with on-site rack-mounted server hardware and bare-metal Linux
- Centralized logging, SIEM, and incident response experience
- Familiarity with Microsoft GCC High or government cloud environments
- SOC 2 experience
