Senior IT Manager

Job Title: Senior IT Manager
Department: Operations
Job Level:  L5
FLSA:  Exempt

Job Summary:

Bear Robotics is hiring a senior, hands-on IT leader to own our IT function end-to-end. Reporting into Business Operations, this person is the company's most senior IT authority — accountable for the systems, security, and infrastructure the U.S. business runs on, and for the policies and controls that govern them. Beyond keeping the environment fast, reliable, and secure, this role carries an explicit mandate to mature IT to public-company-grade standards: the governance, security, and compliance posture expected of an organization preparing for external audit and IPO readiness. The successful candidate operates as a player-coach — comfortable being the only person in the seat today and doing the work directly, while bringing the judgment of an IT leader who can set strategy, author and enforce policy, and build and lead a team as the company scales.

Role Level & Growth Path

This is a senior, player-coach role. For roughly the next 12–24 months, the Senior IT Manager will operate as Bear Robotics' sole IT professional — owning the work hands-on — while standing up the strategy, policies, and controls that a growing team will later run. As the function scales, this role is expected to hire, develop, and lead an IT team, with a clear path to a Head of IT / Director of IT mandate. We are looking for someone who is people-leadership ready and energized to build, yet fully willing to be an individual contributor today.

Key Duties/Responsibilities:

• IT Strategy & Leadership: Serve as Bear Robotics' senior IT authority. Own the IT roadmap, budget, and tooling strategy, aligning technology investment to business growth. Operate as a player-coach today and, within 12–24 months, define the IT operating model, hire, mentor, and lead a team. Set standards and represent IT to executive leadership.
• IT Governance, Risk & Compliance (Public-Company Readiness): Author, implement, and enforce the company's IT policy suite — acceptable use, access control, change management, data classification and retention, incident response, business continuity/disaster recovery, third-party/vendor risk, asset management, and security awareness. Design and operate IT general controls (ITGCs) to support SOX 404 and external audit readiness, partnering with Finance, Legal, and external auditors on control narratives, evidence, walkthroughs, and remediation. Drive readiness toward recognized frameworks such as SOC 2 and/or ISO 27001 and applicable data-privacy obligations.
• Access Governance & Identity: Own identity and access management end-to-end: SSO and MFA, role-based access and least privilege, joiner/mover/leaver provisioning and deprovisioning, periodic user access reviews, and segregation-of-duties controls across financially relevant systems (ERP/CRM).
• Information Security: Own the information security program: endpoint security and mobile device management (MDM), vulnerability and patch management, email and SaaS security, logging and monitoring, and security incident response. Champion a least-privilege, defense-in-depth posture and run ongoing security awareness training.
• Systems & SaaS Administration: Own administration, integration, and lifecycle of the core business stack — Google Workspace, Salesforce (CRM), NetSuite (ERP), Jira, and Looker (BI) — plus identity, MDM, and other SaaS applications. Manage licensing, configuration, and optimization, and ensure cloud data storage is safe, secure, and well-governed.
• Infrastructure & Networking: Maintain and administer networks and related infrastructure (LAN/WAN/VPN), the endpoint fleet, and connectivity across the environment. Monitor for performance, availability, and security, and implement necessary patches, upgrades, and configurations.
• Service Delivery & Incident Management: As the sole responder today, own the support experience: receive, log, prioritize, and resolve requests in a ticketing system within established SLAs, escalating where appropriate. Build the support model, runbooks, and knowledge base that a future team will scale, and manage day-to-day IT operations including new-hire setup, onboarding/offboarding, and company technology assets.
• Vendor & Asset Management: Manage external vendors and service providers for hardware, software, and network support, holding them to service-level agreements. Own the full lifecycle of company technology assets, from procurement and deployment through recovery.
• Documentation & Enablement: Create and maintain technical documentation, SOPs, knowledge-base articles, and control documentation. Train and guide end-users, and raise IT and security literacy across the organization.

Required Skills/Abilities/Qualifications:

• 7+ years of progressive IT experience, including end-to-end ownership of systems, security, and infrastructure for a company or business unit.
• Demonstrated experience authoring, implementing, and enforcing IT policies and controls (access management, change management, security, and data handling).
• Hands-on experience operating IT general controls and supporting audits — e.g., SOX ITGC, SOC 2, or ISO 27001 — or clearly demonstrated readiness to stand these up from scratch.
• Strong information security background: IAM/SSO/MFA, endpoint security and MDM, least privilege / RBAC, vulnerability management, and incident response.
• Owner-level administration of core business SaaS. Google Workspace and Jira required; experience with an ERP (NetSuite or similar), a CRM (Salesforce/SFDC or similar), and a BI tool (Looker or similar).
• Able to install, manage, and secure multiple operating systems — Windows, macOS, and Linux.
• Comfortable with IP protocol networking, domain configuration, and routing; working knowledge of LAN/WAN/VPN.
• Experience securing and governing cloud data storage.
• People-leadership readiness: prior experience leading, mentoring, or formally managing IT staff, and the ambition to build and manage a team — while fully willing to operate as an individual contributor today.
• Excellent oral and written communication, with the ability to translate technical and risk topics for executives and to enforce policy through influence at all levels; a strong customer-service orientation.
• Well-organized and detail-oriented; able to follow instructions and stay composed in high-pressure situations.
• Willingness to be available as needed after hours to proactively resolve critical IT issues and communicate clearly during incidents.
• Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, or a related field (or equivalent experience).

Preferred Skills/Abilities/Qualifications:

• Direct experience supporting a company through IPO readiness, or operating within a public company and its SOX control environment.
• Security/GRC certifications such as CISSP, CISM, CISA, or CompTIA Security+.
• Experience implementing or maintaining SOC 2 Type II and/or ISO 27001.
• Experience with GRC or compliance-automation tooling (e.g., Vanta, Drata, Hyperproof, AuditBoard).
• Familiarity with the NIST Cybersecurity Framework and Zero Trust principles.
• Experience in a high-growth scale-up, and/or a hardware, robotics, IoT, or connected-fleet environment.
• Data-privacy familiarity (e.g., CCPA, GDPR) and experience supporting a multi-site or international organization.
• Light scripting/coding ability (SQL, Python, Java) and the ability to integrate an IDE with ERP, CRM, and BI tools.
• Experience with a version control system such as git.
• General understanding of digital video formats; working knowledge of Video over IP and VOIP technologies is useful.

Education/Experience:

• Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, or a related field (or equivalent experience).
• 7+ years of progressive IT experience, with leadership or formal mentorship exposure and readiness to manage a team.

Physical Requirements:

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform essential functions.

• Prolonged periods of sitting/standing at a desk and working on a computer. The employee routinely is required to type, sit, stand, walk, talk, and hear.
• Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and the ability to adjust focus.
• Ability to lift 40 lbs

About Bear Robotics:

• Bear Robotics was founded in 2017 and we are 250+ motivated Bears who work tirelessly everyday to make our robots a reality. We have developed robotic solutions that autonomously navigate indoor environments for a variety of consumer solutions, like restaurants, senior living facilities, hotels & casinos just to name a few. Working for a dynamic start-up gives you a chance for rapid personal development. While building expertise in your field you'll have countless opportunities for growth as we expand our product line and global reach. We're not a big tech company yet, but we're striving every day to be THE global player when it comes to hospitality robotics. In 2022 we raised $81 Million in Series B funding to accelerate growth and expand into new markets in southeast Asia and Europe. If you feel you're ready for an adventure in robotics, we would love to hear from you.

Benefits Summary

• We hire the best, not only will you be surrounded by exceptionally smart and motivated people, but we believe excellent compensation and benefits are an essential part of our company's success.
  • HDHP & PPO Medical plan options
  • Dental/Vision
  • 401K & Roth Match options
  • Stock Options
  • 4 Months Parental Leave
  • STD/LTD LIfe insurance
  • Employee Assistance Programs
  • Fitness Reimbursement
  • Provided Daily Lunch
  • Free Snacks / Beverages
  • Work Schedule flexibility
  • Cell phone / internet reimbursement
  • Employee bonus programs

The pay range for this position is $134,000 - $164,000 in Addison, TX and $158,000 - $193,000 in Redwood City, CA. Pay is dependent on the applicant's relevant experience.

Bear Robotics, Inc. is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion or religious creed, mental or physical disability, medical condition, genetic information, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, military or veteran status, citizenship, or other characteristics protected by state or federal law or local ordinance.