SR. IT MANAGER / ONSITE (Illinois)
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WORK LOCATION: 700 Phoenix Lake Ave, Streamwood, IL 60107, United States.
POSITION SUMMARY:
Lead the technology environment behind a specialized manufacturing and technology business.
The IT Manager is a senior technology leader at Rydin, accountable for the day-to-day operation, security, and continuous improvement of all technology used across the business. This is a hands-on role for an experienced manager who is equally comfortable troubleshooting a Cisco firewall, leading a vendor renewal, mentoring a help desk technician, and presenting a roadmap to executive leadership. Technology at Rydin is deeply integrated into manufacturing operations, customer-facing systems, business workflows, and operational scalability.
You will own all three pillars of our environment — on-premise infrastructure, cloud platforms, and corporate IT — supported by an existing infrastructure contractor, a part-time help desk engineer and a part-time cloud engineer. Daily presence in the server room and on the print floor is an important part of the role; this is a hybrid position. You will also partner with leadership to identify where modern automation and AI-enabled tools can practically improve operations.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:
- Own day-to-day operations of the on-premise environment: virtualization clusters, server hardware and storage, backup and recovery systems, Active Directory and domain services, file services, and print workflow servers.
- Oversee the network environment alongside our infrastructure contractor: enterprise switching, redundant ISP routing, perimeter firewall, VPN, and wireless infrastructure.
- Lead hardware and software lifecycle planning across virtualization, networking, server, and storage platforms; develop replacement roadmaps and budget proposals ahead of end-of-support timelines.
- Maintain a complete inventory of certificates, licenses, and renewal schedules across infrastructure and application platforms.
- Own disaster recovery and business continuity planning: maintain documented recovery procedures, validate backup integrity, run periodic restore tests, and define recovery time and recovery point objectives for critical systems.
SECURITY & COMPLIANCE:
- Manage the relationship with our managed security service provider (Arctic Wolf), including alert triage workflow, escalation procedures, scheduled service reviews, and tuning of monitoring scope.
- Coordinate day-to-day security operations across endpoint protection, email security, MFA, and patching workflows; ensure issues identified through monitoring are addressed and documented.
- Coordinate annual PCI compliance scanning in partnership with our QSA, ensuring scope covers both on-premise and cloud environments where cardholder data transits.
- Maintain documented security incident response procedures and participate in periodic tabletop exercises with the MSSP and leadership.
CLOUD & CORPORATE IT:
- Administer Microsoft 365 (Exchange Online, SharePoint, Teams, OneDrive), Duo MFA, KnowBe4, Barracuda, and other corporate SaaS platforms.
- Oversee the AWS environment hosting customer-facing applications, working with our cloud engineer to maintain security, cost, and architecture standards.
- Support print operations applications including Cloud Flow, Onyx, Caldera, HP Print OS, PrintVIS on Microsoft Business Central, and Adobe Creative Cloud — coordinating with the Director of Print Operations and creative department leads.
- Partner with business owners on Salesforce administration and integrations.
- Help establish practical governance and best practices around the use of AI-enabled tools, automation platforms, and business data security.
VENDOR, LICENSE & LIFECYCLE MANAGEMENT
- Maintain a complete vendor inventory and renewal calendar across all IT contracts: virtualization and infrastructure software, networking support, backup and recovery, hardware warranties, ISP circuits, certificates, and cloud and SaaS subscriptions.
- Build and maintain a multi-year hardware and software lifecycle plan tied to the annual budgeting cycle.
- Own the annual IT operating and capital budget: forecast spend, track against plan, identify cost-savings opportunities, and present financial performance to executive leadership.
- Negotiate renewals and new vendor agreements; benchmark pricing and challenge auto-renewals.
Documentation & Knowledge Management:
- Own the IT documentation framework on SharePoint, including server room runbooks, network diagrams, application inventory, vendor contacts, change logs, and disaster recovery procedures.
- Capture institutional knowledge from existing contractors and ensure no critical operational knowledge sits with a single individual.
- Establish change management practices appropriate to the size and risk profile of the environment.
Team Leadership & Help Desk:
- Mentor and lead the IT Support / Help Desk team member; support career development and expand on-premise capability over time.
- Coordinate with our part-time infrastructure contractor and part-time cloud engineer as part of a hybrid team model.
- Be the calm, on-site face of IT for executive meetings, all-hands events, and day-to-day employee support.
Required Qualifications:
- 7–10+ years of progressive IT experience, including at least 3 years of IT management or senior-level ownership in a small-to-mid-sized environment.
- Hands-on expertise across on-premise infrastructure: VMware vSphere, Windows Server, Active Directory, enterprise storage, and backup/DR (Veeam preferred).
- Strong working knowledge of Cisco networking (routing, switching, ASA/Firepower) with the ability to read configurations and troubleshoot effectively.
- Proven security practitioner: PCI DSS familiarity, firewall and endpoint management, MFA administration, log review, and incident response basics.
- Working knowledge of IT security at a manager level: experience managing MSSP relationships, familiarity with PCI DSS, endpoint protection, MFA, and incident response coordination.
- Microsoft 365 administration experience: Exchange Online, SharePoint, Teams, identity, and conditional access.
- Track record of building or improving IT documentation, vendor management, and lifecycle planning in environments where these have been informal or undocumented.
- Strong business and operational mindset with the ability to identify opportunities for process improvement, automation, and practical use of modern technology platforms.
- Excellent written and verbal communication; comfortable presenting to executive leadership and translating technical risk into business language.
- Experience managing a cloud-based infrastructure such as AWS.
- Ability to travel to the corporate office in Streamwood, IL at least 2 days a week.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Experience in print operations, manufacturing, or production-floor environments.
- Familiarity with print workflow systems such as Onyx, Caldera, Print OS, EFI/Cloud Flow, PrintVIS, or Adobe Creative Cloud at scale.
- Experience leading a hypervisor migration off VMware (to KVM-based platforms, Hyper-V, Nutanix AHV, or similar).
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or related field.
- Industry certifications: CCNA/CCNP, VMware VCP, AWS Solutions Architect, Microsoft Certified: Identity and Access Administrator, CISSP, or CompTIA Security+.
- Experience using AI-enabled business tools, workflow automation platforms, or system integrations to improve operational efficiency and business processes.
- Familiarity with tools such as Microsoft Copilot, ChatGPT, Claude, Power Automate, or related productivity and automation platforms is a plus.
- Experience deploying or governing AI-enabled business tools or workflow automation (e.g., Microsoft Copilot, Power Automate, or similar).
- Experience managing hybrid teams that include part-time contractors and remote engineers.
Compensation & Benefits:
- Base salary: $120,000 – $140,000, commensurate with experience.
- 401K
- Medical/Vision/Dental/Life Insurance
- Short and Long Term Disability
- Profit Sharing
- Paid Holidays
- Paid Vacations
- Meaningful ownership and direct visibility to executive leadership.
Education:
Experience:
- progressive IT : 10 years (Preferred)
- IT management or sr.-level ownership in a small-to-mid-sized: 3 years (Preferred)
- VMware vSphere, Windows Server, Active Directory: 10 years (Preferred)
- enterprise storage, and backup/DR (Veeam preferred).: 10 years (Preferred)
- Strong working knowledge of Cisco networking : 10 years (Preferred)
- managing MSSP relationships, familiarity with PCI DSS, : 10 years (Preferred)
- endpoint protection, MFA, and incident response : 10 years (Preferred)
- Microsoft 365 administration : 10 years (Preferred)
- IT documentation, vendor management, and lifecycle planning : 10 years (Preferred)
- managing a cloud-based infrastructure such as AWS.: 10 years (Preferred)
License/Certification:
- CCNA/CCNP, VMware VCP, AWS Solutions Architect (Preferred)
- Microsoft Certified: Identity and Access Administrator (Preferred)
- CISSP, or CompTIA Security+. (Preferred)
Work Location: In person
