Head of IT (Aerospace)

Location: Byron, California, United States. Hybrid on-site role requiring regular presence and close collaboration with engineering and lab environments.

Company

Advanced aerospace and logistics technology company scaling the Chaparral aircraft from flight testing into full-rate production.

What you will do

• Own corporate IT infrastructure, including physical and cloud networks, endpoints, identity systems, SaaS, and web hosting/DNS.
• Architect and defend office, laboratory, production, and cloud network environments through logging, detection, and incident response.
• Build and maintain CMMC and related NIST 800-171/800-53 compliance frameworks, serving as the primary stakeholder for audits and regulatory inspections.
• Deploy and operate MDM, EDR, device-trust, conditional-access, and least-privilege identity workflows.
• Automate onboarding and offboarding while supporting cloud computing, lab systems, and specialized engineering environments.
• Define IT policies and access controls aligned with defense-sector and export-controlled environment requirements.

Requirements

• 8+ years of experience in IT infrastructure, operations, or systems engineering, including solo or small-team ownership.
• Strong experience with AWS and GCP, plus hands-on MDM and EDR implementation.
• Experience automating identity systems such as Okta or Azure AD in regulated environments.
• Deep network security expertise covering VPNs, firewalls, routing, segmentation, and threat defense.
• Direct experience building or maintaining CMMC and/or NIST 800-171 compliance frameworks.
• Must be eligible to work in the United States and hold ITAR/EAR access; regular on-site work is required.

Nice to have

• Experience in ITAR/EAR or other export-controlled environments.
• Background in aerospace, defense, energy, or deep technology.
• Experience supporting hardware laboratories or secure manufacturing facilities.
• Experience as the first IT hire at an early-stage company and scaling the function over time.

Culture & Benefits

• High-impact startup environment with significant ownership and autonomy.
• Competitive salary and equity ownership.
• Comprehensive medical benefits, 401(k) with company contribution, and Roth IRA.
• Flexible time-off policy and three months of paid parental leave.
• Free daily lunch onsite and an employee assistance program with 24/7 support.
• Opportunities for rapid career growth and internal advancement.