IT Manager

Kepler is seeking an experienced, hands-on IT Manager to lead its IT Operations team, spanning network administration, systems administration, DevOps, and IT support. You'll be accountable for the reliable, secure, and scalable operation of the technology environment that Kepler's engineers, operators, and mission systems depend on every day.

This is a player-coach role.You'll set priorities and develop the team, and you'll also be in the work with them, troubleshooting escalations, designing infrastructure, running incident response, and executing projects. You'll also need to learn quickly: Kepler's environment spans on-premises infrastructure and public cloud, changes often, and no candidate arrives knowing every tool in it. What matters is that you can pick up an unfamiliar system fast enough to make sound decisions, evaluate trade-offs, and credibly support the specialists who own it.

Expected Time Breakdown:

• 35% - Team leadership and operational management

• 30% - Hands-on technical work and escalations

• 20% - Technical strategy and roadmap development

• 15% - Recruiting, onboarding, and administration

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead, mentor, and grow a cross-functional IT team that may include Network Administrators, Systems Administrators, DevOps Specialists, and IT Specialists, fostering a culture of accountability, documentation, and continuous learning that exemplifies Kepler's Values

• Provide ongoing coaching, technical guidance, and career development through regular 1:1s and structured performance reviews

• Work alongside the team as a technical contributor, leading through hands-on involvement rather than delegation alone, while growing the team's independence rather than becoming a bottleneck

• Serve as senior technical escalation point for complex incidents across networks, servers, cloud platforms, identity systems, DevOps tooling, and business-critical applications

• Own IT operations end to end: service delivery, prioritization, support quality, incident response, root-cause analysis, and after-hours escalation coverage

• Own the reliability, scalability, and lifecycle management of Kepler's infrastructure, including network operations, Linux and Windows systems, identity and access management, virtualization, AWS, monitoring, backups, and disaster recovery

• Drive DevOps practices and automation, including CI/CD, infrastructure as code, configuration management, containerization, and controls around production access, deployments, and secrets

• Lead IT security practices and technical controls, including privileged access, endpoint protection, network security, vulnerability remediation, patching, and system hardening; partner with Security and Legal on customer, contractual, and compliance requirements

• Develop and maintain the IT operations roadmap, balancing immediate operational needs against longer-term investment in reliability, security, and operational maturity

• Contribute to annual planning, budgeting, vendor management, and technology lifecycle planning, and guide make/buy decisions

• Ensure accurate technical documentation and provide regular reporting to senior leadership on service performance, infrastructure health, security posture, operational risks, and resource needs

• Support hiring plans, lead interviews, onboard new team members, and act as primary liaison between IT Operations and Engineering, Security, People and Culture, Finance, and Facilities

Required Skills & Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Engineering, or related field, or equivalent practical experience

• 7+ years of progressive IT experience, with 3+ years of which were leading or managing multidisciplinary technical teams

• Demonstrated success in a player-coach role combining people management with meaningful hands-on technical responsibility

• Track record of picking up unfamiliar technologies quickly and self-directing your own learning, with specific examples of systems you learned on the job well enough to lead work on

• Strong practical experience with network administration, Linux and Windows systems, identity and access management, virtualization, and infrastructure operations

• Ability to independently troubleshoot complex issues across infrastructure, networking, cloud services, identity platforms, and operational tooling

• Experience with cloud platforms, preferably AWS

• Working knowledge of modern DevOps practices, including CI/CD, infrastructure as code, configuration management, containers, and scripting

• Familiarity with network security technologies, endpoint management, monitoring platforms, backup systems, and disaster recovery practices

• Proven ability to manage incidents, projects, operational risk, and shifting priorities, and to drive execution through ambiguity

• Track record of building healthy team culture and driving performance through clear expectations and feedback

• Strong communication skills and the ability to explain technical concepts, risks, and trade-offs to senior leaders and non-technical stakeholders

• Demonstrates a willingness to adopt and effectively utilize AI-assisted engineering tools, applying sound judgment to improve productivity, quality, and innovation while continuously adapting to evolving technologies

Bonus Points:

• Relevant certifications such as CCNA, CISSP, AWS, Linux Professional Institute, or ITIL

• Experience supporting hybrid environments spanning on-premises infrastructure and public cloud

• Experience with Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, or Ansible

• Scripting and automation experience with Bash, Python, or PowerShell

• Familiarity with security and compliance frameworks such as NIST, ISO 27001, or SOC 2

• Experience leading disaster recovery, infrastructure modernization, cloud migration, or security-improvement programs

• Experience developing IT roadmaps, operational metrics, budgets, and technical business cases

• Experience working in fast-paced startup or aerospace environments