System Administrator / IT Lead

About the role

We're a combat-tested group of engineers, operators, and entrepreneurs who believe America's edge depends on autonomous airpower that's trusted and deployable today, not in 2040. Backed by tier-one investors, we've secured the runway - financial, regulatory, and literal - to move at startup speed while tackling a national-security mission that matters. We've structured the company for radical ownership: no silos, no "systems integrator" overhead, just tightly knit mission-focused IPTs that live and breathe the hardware and code they ship. If you thrive where hard-tech ambition meets national-security urgency, you'll build faster here than anywhere else. Let's get after it. Culture That Ships Strong Core Values, Startup Execution. Integrity, Service Before Self, Excellence, Honor, Courage, Commitment-powered by a bias for action and a "figure it out" mindset. Self-Starters Only. You'll have clear objectives, a blank sheet of paper, and the trust (plus capital) to move fast. Bureaucracy stays out of your way. One Team, No Tourists. Whether you're tuning a control law at 2 a.m. or heat-treating a Ti-6Al-4V spar, everyone sweats the details. We celebrate wins together and own failures together. We're looking for a System Administrator / IT Lead to be the first internal IT hire. You'll shape not just how the environment runs today, but how it's designed and governed going forward. The immediate work is operational: standing up and managing our Microsoft 365 environments (commercial and government) alongside our MSP, working with the MSP and internal security and compliance teammates to maintain the technical requirements of our CMMC L2 posture. The longer arc is bigger: defining how IT operates as a function as we grow. We plan to hire additional IT staff and want someone who can help think through what that team looks like, but this is not a management requirement. If you want to stay hands-on later, you can.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the internal technical owner for our Microsoft 365 commercial and GCC-High environments, administering identity, device management, and productivity tooling.
• Act as the primary internal counterpart to our MSP, coordinating on network operations, changes, and issue resolution while maintaining internal accountability for outcomes.
• Work with security and GRC to maintain configuration management practices aligned to NIST 800-171 technical controls, with an eye toward repeatability, auditability, and scale.
• Contribute to IT architecture decisions, including environment design, tooling selection, and segmentation strategy as the company scales.
• Build out IT operational documentation, runbooks, and procedures that can support future hires and reduce single-point-of-failure risk.
• Partner cross-functionally with compliance, security, and engineering to ensure technical decisions align with regulatory requirements and business needs.

Requirements

• 7+ years of systems administration experience with meaningful depth in Microsoft cloud environments (Intune, Entra ID, Purview, Exchange Online).
• Hands-on experience with NIST 800-171 control implementation in a technical capacity.
• Demonstrated experience with configuration management practices and tooling across Windows and Linux environments.
• Experience managing or coordinating with an MSP, including holding vendors accountable and supplementing coverage where needed.
• Able to lead environment design conversations, not just execute on them.
• Strong documentation habits and communication skills suited to a cross-functional environment where IT is one piece of a broader compliance and security program.
• Experience taking charge of efforts and setting a direction.
• U.S. citizenship required
• Bonus Points
• Experience working in GCC-H.
• Experience with multi-cloud environments (e.g., AWS and Microsoft)
• Interest in eventually building and leading an IT team as the company grows.
• Experience with segregated environments (OT, manufacturing, hardware test) is a big plus.
• Experience designing or evolving IT programs at a startup or high-growth company.
• Scripting or automation experience (PowerShell, Bash, Python) to support configuration management and operational efficiency.
• Current clearance (Secret or above)
• Why You'll Love Working Here (Compensation and Benefits)
• Base Salary: $140,000 to $190,000 USD
• The salary range for this role is an estimate based on a wide range of compensation factors, inclusive of base salary only. Actual salary offer may vary based on (

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