Osmo

Head of IT

Osmo$124K — $138K *
Information Technology
5 - 7 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 7+ years in IT roles with progressive responsibility; 3+ years leading IT teams or owning IT for a scaling company.
  • Proven track record at Series-B or similarly fast-growing startups (or vendor side supporting startups).
  • Hands-on experience with SSO/IdP (Okta or similar), MDM (Jamf, Intune, Kandji), endpoint security/EDR, device provisioning, and lifecycle.
  • Familiarity with cloud provider platforms (AWS/GCP/Azure), networking fundamentals, and secure access patterns.
  • Strong vendor management and contract negotiation experience.
  • Demonstrated ability to deliver consistent, high-quality work and documentation under tight timelines.
  • Excellent written and verbal communication - able to explain technical risk and project status to executives.

Responsibilities

  • Own day-to-day IT operations including identity and access management, device lifecycle and MDM, endpoint security, and remote-work tooling.
  • Maintain and improve an employee-facing IT service model incorporating ticketing, SLAs, and knowledge base.
  • Implement and maintain baseline security controls and lead incident response for forensics and remediation.
  • Own vendor relationships and contracts, negotiate pricing, and manage outsourced IT partners.
  • Coordinate with engineering on cloud identity and secure access, and oversee on-prem or hybrid infrastructure as necessary.
  • Build and enforce IT policies and deliver clear, up-to-date documentation on processes and governance.
  • Communicate effectively with executives and non-technical staff, producing concise status reports and updates.

Benefits

  • Opportunity to build and lead a team as the company scales.
  • Engagement in high-impact, hands-on IT leadership roles at a growing startup.
  • Chance to shape and implement IT processes from the ground up in a fast-paced environment.
Full Job Description
Osmo is scaling rapidly and needs a hands-on, operationally excellent IT leader to own infrastructure, security, endpoint management, identity, vendor management and employee IT experience. We're looking for a manager or director-level candidate who can bring startup-grade speed and a Series-B level of discipline: clear deliverables, strong documentation, reliable execution, and measurable SLAs.

Role summary

You will be the owner for Osmo's workplace IT and security operations. You'll own the IT roadmap, vendor relationships (SaaS, MDM, identity, security), incident response, asset lifecycle, and a high-quality employee support experience. You will be expected to be both strategic (roadmaps, budgeting, compliance) and tactical (hands-on implementation, troubleshooting), and to communicate clearly with the executive team.

Core responsibilities
  • Operational ownership
    • Own day-to-day IT operations: identity and access management (SSO/MFA), device lifecycle and MDM, endpoint security, network, backups, and remote-work tooling.
    • Maintain and improve an employee-facing IT service model (ticketing, SLAs, knowledge base, onboarding/offboarding).
  • Security & compliance
    • Implement and maintain baseline security controls (MFA, patching, least privilege, phishing defenses, logging/monitoring).
    • Lead incident response, forensics and remediation; create runbooks and playbooks.
    • Prepare the company for audits or investor / partner security reviews; implement risk reduction projects.
    • Serve as the primary guardian of the organization's digital assets, responsible for developing, implementing, and maintaining a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy
  • Vendor & contract management
    • Own relationships and contracts with critical vendors (Okta/SSO, MDM, endpoint/EDR, cloud providers, SaaS procurement), negotiate pricing, drive cost optimization and vendor SLAs.
    • Manage outsourced IT partners and contractors. Ensure high quality of deliverables and transparency.
  • Infrastructure & cloud
    • Coordinate with engineering on cloud identity, network segmentation and secure access patterns; partner effectively with engineering/devops teams where responsibilities overlap.
    • Own on-prem or hybrid infrastructure if present (or cloud spend & lifecycle if fully cloud).
  • Process, documentation & governance
    • Build and enforce IT policies (acceptable use, device policy, BYOD, password/credential standards).
    • Deliver clear, up-to-date documentation: asset inventory, runbooks, onboarding/offboarding checklists, project plans.
    • Establish measurable KPIs: ticket response/resolution times, patch compliance, uptime SLAs, time to onboard, incident MTTR.
  • People & communication
    • This role will initially be an individual contributor with a path to building a team as Osmo scales.
    • Communicate clearly to executives and non-technical staff; produce concise status reports, risk summaries, and roadmap updates.

Success criteria (first 90 days)
  • Deliver a 30/60/90 day plan including top 10 critical risks and remediations.
  • Implement an authoritative IT asset & identity inventory.
  • Establish ticketing SLAs and reduce ticket backlog by measurable amount (e.g., 50%).
  • Implement or improve an MDM + SSO baseline and resolve high-risk issues (unpatched endpoints, overly permissive access).
  • Provide a security & continuity roadmap, including vendor consolidation or cost reductions.

Required qualifications
  • 7+ years in IT roles with progressive responsibility; 3+ years leading IT teams or owning IT for a scaling company.
  • Proven track record at Series-B or similarly fast-growing startups (or vendor side supporting startups).
  • Hands-on experience with SSO/IdP (Okta or similar), MDM (Jamf, Intune, Kandji), endpoint security/EDR, device provisioning and lifecycle.
  • Familiarity with cloud provider platforms (AWS/GCP/Azure), networking fundamentals and secure access patterns.
  • Strong vendor management and contract negotiation experience.
  • Demonstrated ability to deliver consistent, high-quality work and documentation under tight timelines.
  • Excellent written and verbal communication - able to explain technical risk and project status to executives.
  • Experience with incident response, security controls and risk reduction.
  • Comfortable being both strategic and deeply technical; willing to do hands-on work when needed.

Preferred / nice-to-have
  • Prior experience building IT processes and playbooks at Series B startups.
  • Experience managing outsourced/contract IT partners and driving improved work product from vendors.
  • Familiar with compliance frameworks (SOC 2, ISO 27001) or audit readiness.
  • Located in New Jersey or willing to be onsite periodically for team meetings and hardware needs.
  • Familiarity with Notion/Atlassian service management or modern ticketing & knowledge-base tools.

Salary: $124k-138k

If this role inspires you we'd encourage you to apply.

About Osmo

Osmo is an educational technology company that produces interactive learning games for children. The company was founded in 2013 by Pramod Sharma and Jerome Scholler and is headquartered in Palo Alto, California. Osmo's games use a combination of physical objects and digital technology to create a unique learning experience. The company's products have won numerous awards, including the Toy of the Year Award in 2015 and 2017. Osmo has partnerships with educational institutions and schools around the world and has been used in over 30,000 classrooms.
Learn more about Osmo
Size
100 employees
Industry
Founded
2013

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