Lead IT Engineer (Linux)

Location: Full-time onsite in Austin, Texas or Sunnyvale, California; willingness to travel between both sites is required.

Salary: $180,000–$235,000 annually, plus equity opportunities.

Company

hirify.global is an AI hardware startup developing silicon photonics and programmable metasurface technology for energy-efficient large-scale AI inference.

What you will do

• Own IT infrastructure, engineering compute, and the MSP relationship across the Austin and Sunnyvale sites.
• Build and operate on-premises Linux servers, clusters, shared storage, backups, batch scheduling, license servers, and simulation infrastructure for EDA/CAD workloads.
• Design identity and developer platforms, including Okta SSO, SAML, SCIM, MFA, GitHub Enterprise, Google Workspace, Dropbox, and Atlassian administration.
• Administer public cloud environments, IAM, networking, storage, machine images, cloud cost controls, and hybrid connectivity.
• Own wired and wireless networks, VLANs, firewalls, VPN, remote access, ISP services, site build-outs, and endpoint management across macOS, Windows, and Linux.
• Define the roadmap for bringing IT and security operations in-house, including recruiting and mentoring future internal IT staff.

Requirements

• 8+ years of experience in IT engineering, systems administration, or infrastructure operations, including primary IT ownership at a company with fewer than 200 people.
• Strong hands-on Linux administration, including storage, networking, package and configuration management, and troubleshooting below the application layer.
• Experience administering SSO and identity providers, preferably Okta, with SCIM provisioning and verified deprovisioning.
• Practical network engineering experience with switching, VLANs, enterprise Wi-Fi, firewalls, VPN, DNS, and DHCP.
• Experience managing macOS and Windows endpoints, public cloud infrastructure, scripting, automation, and infrastructure as code.
• Experience managing an MSP or outsourced IT function and willingness to travel between Sunnyvale and Austin.

Nice to have

• Experience supporting semiconductor or hardware engineering organizations, including EDA/CAD environments, license servers, simulation farms, and lab networks.
• GitHub Enterprise administration and developer platform operations.
• Experience building IT operations from near-zero, establishing internal help desk or MDM programs, or transitioning outsourced operations in-house.
• Familiarity with SOC 2, NIST Cybersecurity Framework, or ISO 27001 infrastructure evidence.
• Experience with RoCE, InfiniBand, or rack-scale hardware bring-up.

Culture & Benefits

• Onsite work with a two-site engineering organization focused on photonics and AI hardware.
• 100% coverage of base health plan premiums for employees and dependents, plus HSA contributions.
• Unlimited PTO and a flexible benefits program.
• 401(k) matching and stock option opportunities.
• Dental, vision, life, hospital, critical illness, and accident insurance options.