IT Operations Engineer

About the Role:

This role is crucial in supporting our technology infrastructure for our expanding business. The responsibilities include addressing IT issues, streamlining the onboarding and offboarding processes, and improving the performance and security of our network. The ideal candidate is a hands-on IT engineer who enjoys solving complex technical problems in a fast-paced hardware and engineering environment. This person is comfortable supporting everything from end users to lab infrastructure, takes ownership of problems from start to finish, and continuously improves systems through automation, documentation, and process improvement. 

Success in this role requires intellectual curiosity, strong technical ownership, and a willingness to learn unfamiliar technologies while supporting a broad range of users and systems. We're looking for someone who enjoys building, improving, and scaling IT operations—not just maintaining them.

This role is based five days in our Santa Clara office.

What You'll Do:

• Managing Business SaaS Applications: Oversee provisioning, access management, and on/off-boarding processes for our various SaaS services.
• IT Support and Administration: Provide comprehensive support for critical IT cloud-based tools, including Google Workspace, Okta, Slack, Atlassian, Gitlab, VPN solutions, Airtable, etc.
• Process Improvements and Automation: Document and improve our IT processes, and wherever possible, enhance efficiency by automating tasks and creating run books and playbooks.
• Hardware Lifecycle Management: Support procurement, device management (Apple, Linux and Windows devices), patching, and depreciation of hardware assets.
• Software Asset Management: Oversee the lifecycle of software/application assets from procurement to license assignment & reclamation, and create and maintain an Access Control Matrix to provision software based on least privilege access.
• IT Operations and Helpdesk: Handle day-to-day end user IT tasks, including hardware, software, troubleshooting and support.
• OT Support: Work with engineers to install, manage, and secure new technologies.
• Team Support: Actively collaborate with senior IT team members for advanced diagnostics and troubleshooting. 
• IT Infrastructure Maintenance: Maintain and support IT tech stacks such as Conference AV systems, and on-premises infrastructure (routers, firewall appliances, ethernet drops, security cameras, etc.) 
• Security Support: Stay updated with security issues and CVEs and promptly remediate them.
• Minimal Off-Hour Support: Provide support for rare network and infrastructure updates outside business hours.

What You’ll Need:

• 5+ years of experience in IT Operations, IT Infrastructure, or End User Support, including direct support of engineering, manufacturing, hardware development, laboratory, R&D, or other highly technical environments.
• Demonstrated ownership of IT systems through proactively identifying problems, improving processes, and designing, implementing, or automating scalable solutions rather than simply maintaining existing ones.
• Excellent customer service and communication skills, with the ability to support engineers, researchers, technicians, and business teams in a fast-paced, high-touch environment.
• 5-days a week in Emeryville, with occasional travel to Santa Clara (up to 1 x week).
• Experience managing and deploying Okta, with general familiarity with SSO/SAML tools.
• Strong understanding of MDM tools for the management of a Mac/WinTel/Linux fleet.
• Significant experience with Google Workspace.
• Strong understanding of IT/OT systems administration, including core SaaS business applications and advanced troubleshooting on macOS, Linux, and Windows OS.
• Strong understanding of network infrastructure and experience configuring and supporting scalable hybrid networks.
• Excellent analytical, logical thinking, and problem-solving skills.
• Experience in project management and excellent writing/documentation skills.
• Strong troubleshooting and critical thinking skills, with the ability to independently diagnose and resolve complex technical issues across multiple systems.
• Demonstrated ability to quickly learn unfamiliar technologies through self-directed learning and become independently productive in new technical domains.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, a scientific discipline, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.

Nice to Have:

• Demonstrable technical and security experience, including proficiency in data protection best practices.
• Experience using Python, PowerShell, Bash, APIs, or similar tools to automate repetitive operational tasks and improve team efficiency.
• Experience managing AWS.
• Experience automating manual onboarding/offboarding tasks, preferably with Okta Workflows.
• Experience managing Meraki switches, Palo Alto Networks (PAN) firewalls, and modern VPN solutions. 
• Certifications such as CompTIA A+, CompTIA Security+, and CompTIA Network+.