Remote IT Manager (Remote Employee Experience & Operations)

IT Manager Remote Employee Experience & Operations About Players Health At Players Health, we are on a mission to create the safest and most accessible environment for an athlete to play the sports that they love. There are over 50 million youth athletes playing sports in the U.S., and they are counting on us to ensure that the environment that they are coming into not only accepts them for who they are, but fills them with encouragement, love, and inspiration. Players Health is a PE-backed, mission-driven, remote-first, sports insurance company providing digital risk management services, reporting tools and insurance products to sports organizations to comply with the changing athletic environment and responsibilities. Our Core Values We cannot achieve our mission without having a strong culture. We believe that at the core of a strong culture is a shared set of values. The values that we hold true and look for our employees to embrace are as follows: Lead with Mission : Our mission always comes first. If we stay on mission as an organization, then we believe we will be successful in our professional and personal lives. Go Beyond : We're not satisfied with just "good enough" - we go above and beyond to achieve awesome results that impress and inspire. Operate like Owners : We believe in operational excellence. We take ownership of our work and approach every task with a sense of pride, responsibility, and commitment to excellence. We don't just rent our roles - we own them and strive to make a lasting impact. Virtue First : From the big decisions to the small details; honesty, integrity, and transparency are the bedrock of our culture and the foundation for everything we do. Service : We live to serve others with humility, empathy, and kindness. We put our customers, colleagues and community first, and always strive to exceed their expectations with a smile. About the Role At Players Health, IT isn't just infrastructure, it's the first impression every employee has of the company, from the moment their laptop arrives to the day-to-day speed of getting a problem solved. You'll own that experience end to end. You'll lead IT strategy execution, infrastructure, and security for a fully remote, distributed team, and you'll own the relationship with our offshore and U.S.-based help desk vendor partners, holding them accountable for the service quality for our employees. This isn't a role buried in tickets, it's a role building the systems, vendor accountability, and processes that make sure problems get solved fast, accounts get provisioned on day one, and technology budget is spent well. You'll bring recommendations and ideas to the table on where IT strategy should go and will be someone who can think a step ahead. The successful candidate will have real room to grow over time. This role reports to the Chief People Officer. You'll also work closely with our fractional Head of Product & Technology, who provides technical strategy input and mentorship as you build and modernize how IT runs here, and you'll partner with our fractional CISO on security priorities and execution so you're never carrying security decisions alone. This role is fully remote, with a preference for candidates in states where Players Health already has employee presence - Minnesota in particular, where our People, Executive Assistant, and IT functions have historically been based given the occasional physical/logistics component of these roles The compensation range for this role is $90,000–$130,000, depending on skills and experience. Perks, Benefits & Culture Remote-First : Work from any approved location (home) in the U.S. (Preference to candidates in states which we already have employee presence, CT/ET time zone required for this role) Time Off : Flexible PTO policy, and 10 company-paid holidays Benefits : Medical, Dental, Vision, Life (Basic & Supplemental), LTD, STD, 401k, Hospital Confinement, Accident, Critical Illness, Enhanced Employee Assistance Program Professional Development & Tools : Access to The Institutes Knowledge Group platform for ongoing insurance education and continued professional development in the industry. Additionally, this role will have access to Claude Team. Our Tech Stack You'll work across Microsoft 365 (E3), Azure, Claude (Team Plan), Slack, Jira, and SharePoint, supporting a mixed PC and Mac environment. Mac devices are managed via Mosyle & Jamf; Windows device management via Intune. This stack isn't static. You'll partner with the CPO and our fractional Head of Technology to evaluate and evolve our tools over time, streamlining the employee experience and our budget along the way, so if you have opinions on what a great remote tech stack should look like, there's real room to shape it. Responsibilities (Inclusive of but not limited to): Help Desk & Vendor Management Own the relationship with our offshore and U.S.-based help desk vendor partners, serving as the primary escalation point and accountability owner for service quality. Set and monitor SLAs and KPIs for vendor-delivered support (response time, resolution time, backlog, CSAT), holding vendors accountable to contracted terms. Manage vendor contracts, invoicing cycles, and renewals, partnering with Finance on procurement. Run regular service reviews with vendor partners, using ticket trend data to drive accountability and improvement plans. Build clear escalation paths so issues vendor tiers can't resolve reach the right internal owner quickly. Employee Technology Experience & Lifecycle Own end-to-end IT onboarding and offboarding: account provisioning/deprovisioning, device setup, access assignment, and timely deactivation in close partnership with HR, identifying and building automation to reduce manual steps, increase consistency and minimize errors. Design and maintain scalable, well-documented onboarding/offboarding workflows for a fully remote workforce. Build and maintain a well-organized IT resource hub on our SharePoint intranet including branded guides, quick links, FAQs, and how-tos so employees can solve common issues and find what they need without waiting on a ticket. Own the lifecycle of IT hardware and assets, including inventory, deployment, maintenance, refresh cycles, recovery, and secure disposal. Keep internal SOPs and employee-facing documentation both current and clearly distinguished (internal process docs for how IT operates vs. simple, friendly guides for what employees need to know). Be the internal owner of employee IT experience quality. The person employees can count on when vendor-tier support isn't enough, and the person making sure a remote team can keep working without disruption. Track and report on metrics that reflect real employee productivity impact, not just ticket volume and close rates, but things like average time-to-resolution, employee downtime avoided, and where automation or process improvements are measurably helping people get back to work faster. IT Budget & Vendor Spend Build, monitor, and report on the IT budget, including vendor spend, software licensing, and hardware/device costs. Track actuals against budget and flag variances proactively. Maintain an inventory and lifecycle-management process for critical SaaS applications, including ownership, access, licensing, renewals, utilization, and retirement. Evaluate vendor and tool costs on a regular cadence to ensure Players Health is getting value; identify opportunities to consolidate overlapping tools, including compliance, security-training, and policy-tracking platforms, to reduce cost and give employees one consistent place to go rather than several scattered systems. Infrastructure, Systems & Security Oversee core IT systems and infrastructure (cloud applications, SaaS stack, identity/access management, remote connectivity and network services), ensuring reliability and security for a fully remote workforce – coordinating with internal teams and vendors to resolve availability and performance issues. Conduct periodic identity and access reviews and ensure appropriate provisioning, modification, and deprovisioning of user access based on job responsibilities and least-privilege principles Own cybersecurity fundamentals including access controls, SSO, MFA, endpoint security policy compliance, in partnership with our fractional CISO on strategy and execution. Partner with the CPO to build out and continuously improve company-wide compliance training on IT and cybersecurity topics such as phishing, malware, data security, and safe AI use, ensuring content stays current and lives in one consolidated platform rather than scattered across tools. Maintain and periodically test IT business continuity and disaster recovery plans for critical systems, services, and employee technology. Establish and maintain a lightweight change-management process for significant changes to IT systems, configurations, security controls, and employee-facing technology. Maintain IT policies and standards, and keep them consistently documented and accessible in one place rather than siloed in a single compliance tool. Support the CISO, General Counsel, and business stakeholders with IT-related audits and compliance requirements, including periodic risk assessments, security questionnaires, evidence collection, and remediation of identified findings. AI Enablement & Digital Skills Own the operational rollout of AI tools across the company, including Claude adoption, ensuring smart and responsible usage. Build and maintain well-designed Claude skills and AI agents to create efficiencies across teams over time. Partner with the CPO on employee communications and training around AI to make AI adoption feel exciting and accessible, not intimidating. Run proactive IT learning labs and just-in-time guidance so employees build real comfort with the tools they're given, not just a one-time onboarding mention. Stay current on state-level AI and technology regulations relevant to employee use, flagging anything that needs legal or compliance review. Visibility, Culture & Team Engagement Own the technical and AV logistics for company all-hands meetings, ensuring a smooth, reliable virtual experience for a fully remote team (this meeting is highly visible, and consistent execution matters). Actively participate in company culture and engagement activities such as virtual events, and less frequently hub-location gatherings, and volunteer/service activities, showing up in person when able. Embody Players Health's core values day-to-day; this role interacts with the whole company regularly, and how you show up sets a visible example for others. Lead by example, not just by title. Even without direct reports, this is a highly visible role, and the way you communicate, follow through, and treat people matters as much as the technical work. IT Strategy & Continuous Improvement Bring recommendations to leadership on technology priorities, tooling decisions, and where automation or AI can improve efficiency. Execute against agreed IT strategy and identify process improvements across service delivery. Other duties & projects as assigned. Minimum Qualifications 7+ years of progressive IT experience, including vendor/outsourced-support management. Proven experience in cybersecurity, compliance, and risk management fundamentals. Proficiency with Microsoft Office 365 and general digital-tool fluency, including comfort adopting new/AI-enabled tools. Demonstrated experience designing or building out a remote/distributed work experience. A builder and owner mentality, someone who takes initiative, sees gaps, and builds solutions rather than waiting to be told what's broken. A genuine team player who enjoys working directly with people, this role interacts with employees constantly, and colleagues should be glad to see them show up, not dread it. Demonstrated ability to work productively and asynchronously in a remote environment, with proactive, clear communication across email, IM, and virtual meetings. Proficient with Microsoft 365, Azure, and supporting a mixed PC/Mac environment; familiarity with Slack and SharePoint administration. Strong written communication, including the ability to translate technical information into clear, easy-to-follow documentation and employee-facing guides (SharePoint resources, SOPs, how-tos). Physical Requirements May require limited home storage space for a small amount of IT hardware/equipment used for testing and quality assurance ahead of company-wide rollouts (most inventory is stored with our help desk vendor; this is a smaller working set). May require occasional local trips (e.g., to FedEx or a similar shipping carrier) to send or receive physical IT hardware. Desired Qualifications Experience managing IT budgets and vendor spend/contracts. Comfort with AI tools (e.g., Claude or similar) and genuine interest in driving smart, responsible AI adoption across a team. Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, or a related field, a plus. Experience partnering with a fractional or outsourced CISO/security function. Experience building internal documentation hubs or knowledge bases (SharePoint or similar). Excellent leadership, communication, and negotiation/conflict-resolution skills, with the ability to hold external vendors accountable diplomatically but firmly. Strong emotional intelligence and cross-departmental relationship-building, especially with HR given shared ownership of onboarding/offboarding. Comfortable driving vendor accountability and IT process improvement with minimal oversight in a remote environment. A genuine desire to create an outstanding employee experience across a remote and distributed team. This role sees IT as a service to people, not just a set of systems to maintain. Builder and growth mindset: resourceful, solutions-oriented, and energized by solving problems and improving workflows and organization, not just maintaining the status quo. Additional Requirements Ability to travel occasionally for team events, collaboration, or conferences. Must have a dedicated, safe, and secure remote work environment. Must have the ability to work and be productive in a remote setting. Exceptionally self-motivated with the ability to work autonomously. Proactive communicator across email, verbal, and instant messaging. Willingness to attend virtual meetings, primarily with camera on (we value connection and culture). Located in or willing to work Central or Eastern Time Zone (see About this Role section for requirements specific to this posting) Must be 18 years or older and work location must be in the United States. Must have unrestricted work authorization to work in the United States. Players Health is committed to building a diverse and inclusive work environment. We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer and welcome all applicants regardless of race, color, religion, creed, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, gender identity, national origin or ancestry, age, citizenship, disability, pregnancy, veteran status, or any other basis protected by applicable law. A note on our hiring process: Players Health may use AI tools to assist in organizing and summarizing candidate information during the review process. All hiring decisions are made by humans. AI assistance is never the sole basis for advancing or declining any candidate.