Senior IT Operations Specialist

Summary

The Senior IT Operations Specialist serves as Rewriting the Code's (RTC) first line of defense for technology support. This is a hands-on, high-volume role for a senior individual contributor: the person is the first responder for nearly every support request that comes in from staff, students, and company partners, and resolves the large majority of them directly, quickly, and well. Approximately half of the role is front-line support. The remainder is the advanced, independent work that makes this a senior position, including security operations, SOC 2 and compliance execution, identity and platform administration, and building automations that keep the whole environment running with fewer hands.

This is a senior role because the person can dive deep on complex, undocumented, cross-system problems and own advanced security, compliance, and platform work without hand-holding. It is a senior doer rather than a people manager or a strategist: someone who is fast and reliable on a heavy queue and confident on the complex work behind it. The role collaborates closely with the Partnership, Community, Programs, and Data teams, supports a variety of technology projects and initiatives led by the Director of Technology and Innovation, and provides technical and administrative support for annual events.

RTC operates an AI-first, agentic model. Rather than clicking through admin interfaces, the technology team drives AI agents and AI-enabled tooling to triage tickets, troubleshoot and reproduce issues, audit and remediate security configuration across the SaaS stack, and build durable automations. The successful candidate operates this model every day, with the judgment to know when to trust it and when to step in, and plays a vital part in maintaining a secure and efficient technology environment while supporting RTC's broader technological needs.

While this role lives on a tech-forward team and operates deep in the technical stack, success depends just as much on how the person shows up for the people they support. Staff, students, and partners come to RTC with a wide range of technical comfort and vocabulary, and this role is expected to meet each person where they are. We are looking for someone who can translate technical concepts into plain language, adjust pace and detail to the person in front of them, and make support feel approachable rather than intimidating. The best candidate can move fluidly between troubleshooting a complex, undocumented system issue and patiently walking a non-technical staff member through a basic fix, without ever making the latter feel like a lesser use of their expertise.

Essential Functions

User and Technical Support (primary focus):

• Act as the first responder for the full support queue in RTC's help desk, covering internal IT requests, member support, and platform issues across email, Slack, and web-form intake. Volume is high, so speed, accuracy, and follow-through are essential.
• Resolve the large majority of incoming issues directly, including login and access problems, accounts and permissions, member data, and common application issues, escalating only true bugs or genuine edge cases with a clean, reproducible hand-off.
• Own service level agreements and responsiveness from start to finish, providing fast first responses, clear status updates, and consistent follow-through so requesters and leadership never have to chase an update.
• Personally handle the complex, undocumented, cross-system issues that a junior could not, serving as the go-to resolver when others are stuck.

Platform Support:

• Field and resolve technical support questions from students, staff, and company partners across Slack, Airmeet, the custom member platform, and legacy systems during the transition.
• Serve as the first line of support and defense for RTC's custom member platform, reproducing and routing true bugs using session-replay and analytics tooling and resolving known issues directly.
• Handle platform configuration and administration such as member approvals, user type and subtype changes, mass promotions, onboarding-flow configuration, and admin elevation, with careful attention to the permissions model so access is never incorrectly granted.

AI-Accelerated and Agentic Operations:

• Use RTC's AI-enabled tooling to troubleshoot, reproduce, resolve, and remediate issues through project context and APIs rather than manual interface work.
• Build, test, and maintain automations and skills (for example auto-tagging, spam and hold sweeps, reporting, and recurring scans) that reduce manual work and repeat volume, following strict security hygiene by never exposing secrets to AI tools and by using a secrets manager and least-privilege tokens.

Onboarding, Offboarding, and Access Management:

• Collaborate with the Partnership team on efficient onboarding of company partners, including setup and technical requirements.
• Own onboarding and offboarding for staff, contractors, and student leaders, provisioning and deactivating all accounts, access, and devices, and removing access within the 24-hour requirement for SOC 2.
• Administer RTC's identity and access stack, including Okta (single sign-on, provisioning, app groups, and multifactor authentication), Google Workspace, Slack, and JumpCloud, and drive least-privilege access.

Device and Endpoint Security:

• Manage endpoint and device compliance, including MDM enrollment, full-disk encryption, antivirus, and device inventory, and provision and ship laptops.
• Troubleshoot email security and deliverability (Mimecast) and keep devices current with security protocols.

Event and Program Support:

• Work closely with the Community team to provide technical support for the platforms and tools required for events, programs, and community engagement.
• Offer technical assistance during live events to ensure smooth execution.

Security Operations (Agentic SecOps):

• Support RTC's agentic security operations, driving security audits system by system across the SaaS stack against security baselines.
• Triage findings by severity and carry out staged remediation, addressing simple fixes first and sequencing changes that require testing or communication, then re-running audits to confirm clean results.
• Manage web and email security controls, support log monitoring and penetration-test remediation.

SOC 2 and Compliance Management (Vanta):

• Work in Vanta daily to monitor automated tests, remediate failures, keep nothing overdue, assign test owners and remediation timelines, and keep evidence current during continuous SOC 2 Type II observation.
• Carry out quarterly access reviews across SaaS applications, maintain the risk register and vendor risk reviews, draft policies for approval, and keep the Trust Center current.
• Handle security questionnaires in both directions, answering inbound partner questionnaires and vetting outbound contractor and vendor security reviews at onboarding, and support the auditor relationship by packaging evidence and making sound applicability calls.

Security Awareness and Training:

• Run RTC's security awareness program (phishing simulations and training) and author recurring staff security communications.
• Conduct user training on security best practices and support responsible AI adoption across teams so staff follow security protocols and use tools safely.

Technical Project Support:

• Support a variety of technology projects and initiatives led by the Director of Technology and Innovation, contributing to the successful implementation and maintenance of new systems.
• Provide technical and administrative support for annual events, ensuring all technology-related aspects run smoothly.

Continuous Improvement:

• Identify recurring issues, determine root cause, and implement durable solutions, documentation, and automations that measurably reduce support volume and prevent future incidents.
• Build and maintain the knowledge base, macros, and self-service resources that deflect repeat questions.

This role will require the individual to be proactive, communicative, and collaborative, with a focus on resolving technical issues efficiently and independently while supporting the company's broader technical initiatives.

Required Qualifications + Key Competencies

Education + Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Cybersecurity, or a related field, or equivalent experience in technical support, IT, or security operations roles.
• Relevant certifications, such as Okta, CompTIA Security+ or A+, ITIL, or similar, are a plus.
• At least 4 years of experience in technical support, IT helpdesk, or systems and security operations, including proven success owning a high-volume support queue as an individual contributor with strong throughput, responsiveness, and follow-through.
• Demonstrated ability to resolve complex, undocumented, cross-system issues independently, without escalating routine or moderately difficult problems.
• Hands-on experience administering cloud and SaaS platforms and an identity provider (Okta strongly preferred), along with Google Workspace, Slack, and device management.
• Direct experience with security and compliance operations, including SOC 2 (ideally via Vanta or a comparable tool), access reviews, vendor risk, security questionnaires, and endpoint compliance.
• Demonstrated adoption of AI and agentic tooling in real work (Claude or other language models, or AI-enabled support and operations), and comfort, or clear aptitude and appetite to ramp quickly, with a terminal, GitHub, and code editor workflow, APIs, and basic scripting.
• Experience supporting remote teams, external partners, and virtual and live events, along with proprietary internal platforms.
• Experience working in a fast-paced, dynamic environment, managing multiple tasks and priorities efficiently.

Knowledge + Skills 

Technical Skills:

• Proficiency troubleshooting hardware and software issues across internal IT systems, including laptops, operating systems (Windows and macOS), and common software applications.
• Strong ability to manage a high-volume support queue with effective triage, prioritization, and throughput, keeping users unblocked.
• Advanced troubleshooting across a broad and evolving digital ecosystem, with the ability to reason about integrations, permissions, automations, and workflow failures.

AI and Agentic Tooling:

• Fluency with AI and agentic tools, including strong prompting and context building, and the ability to read, validate, and tune AI agent output.
• Sound judgment about when to automate and when to keep a human in the loop, and the ability to build automations and skills that durably reduce support volume.

Security and Compliance Knowledge:

• Familiarity with security best practices for accounts, devices, and data, including encryption, device management, multifactor authentication, and access control.
• Working knowledge of SOC 2 and compliance tooling such as Vanta, including access reviews, vendor risk, evidence, and questionnaires, with security-first instincts around least-privilege access, secrets management, and change risk.

Communication & Customer Service:

• Strong written and verbal communication, with the ability to provide clear technical support to users with varying levels of technical expertise.
• Excellent customer service skills, resolving inquiries quickly and efficiently while maintaining a positive and professional demeanor.

Project Support & Collaboration:

• Ability to support technology projects and initiatives, working closely with the Director of Technology and Innovation and other departments.
• Experience working with cross-functional teams (Partnership, Community, Programs, Data, and Technology) to support business initiatives and technical requirements.

Problem-Solving & Troubleshooting:

• Strong analytical and troubleshooting skills, with a focus on quickly identifying root cause and resolving technical issues.
• Ability to think critically and prioritize issues based on impact, ensuring that critical technical problems are addressed promptly.

Adaptability & Learning:

• Ability to quickly adapt to new technologies, platforms, and tools, with a willingness to stay current on industry trends and advancements.
• Strong learning mindset, with the capacity to acquire new skills across IT, security, and support tools, including AI-driven ways of working.

This role requires an individual with strong technical abilities, effective communication skills, and a proactive, independent approach to resolving issues in a dynamic environment. The successful candidate balances technical depth with customer service, keeping a high-volume queue moving while owning advanced security, compliance, and platform work for both internal teams and external partners.

Key Competencies + Attributes

• Organizational Advocate.  Believes in RTC's mission and demonstrates this by upholding our purpose, culture, policies, and values with integrity and professionalism.
• Service-Oriented.  Treats every requester's problem as important and delivers fast, clear, dependable support on a high-volume queue, owning service level agreements and following through without being chased.
• Results-Driven.  Focuses on intended outcomes and delivers results that drive business growth while advancing our mission, impact, and reach.
• Self-Directed.  Manages, coordinates, and properly prioritizes competing demands; works independently with minimal supervision; resolves both routine and complex issues, brings problems and proposed solutions, and follows work through to completion.
• Security-Minded.  Consistently applies security and compliance best practices, understands and manages risk, and weighs the consequences of every change.
• Builder and Automator.  Instinctively improves systems, turning recurring manual work into automations, skills, and documentation that scale.
• Analytical.  Collects, analyzes, and interprets data, including ticket trends, audit findings, and agent output, to identify patterns and inform durable solutions.
• Accountable.  Owns actions, decisions, and both positive and negative outcomes; reliable, meets commitments, and acknowledges and learns from mistakes to continually improve performance.
• Communicator.  Conveys information clearly, confidently, and persuasively through various channels demonstrating active listening, articulate speaking, coherent writing; able to work collaboratively across the organization.
• Detail-Oriented.  Consistently exhibits a high standard for excellence and attention to detail; keen focus on accuracy, thoroughness, and relevancy when executing against technology objectives.
• Adaptable.  Quickly learns new tools, platforms, and AI-driven ways of working, and stays current as the environment evolves.

Working Conditions

The following characteristics are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable qualified individuals with disabilities to perform the essential job functions. 

Schedule + Travel

• Monday-Friday, standard business hours, with the flexibility to accommodate and coordinate with the standard business hours of team members across various time zones.
• Limited US-based travel may be required for in-person meetings and team collaboration retreats, as requested.

Work Environment 

• Work is conducted remotely (i.e., from a home office) with virtual team collaboration sessions and meetings as needed. 
• Due to the remote work environment, this position requires a significant portion of the work to be managed and communicated through digital platforms. Employees are required to maintain a private, safe, and professional office space equipped with the necessary technology (i.e., computer, webcam, phone, high-speed internet) to effectively perform their duties. This includes a quiet space conducive to conducting business-related conversations that is free from noise and other distractions. 

Physical Demands

• Remain in a stationary position for continuous periods of time while performing office work or traveling for work-related purposes. 
• Regularly operate a computer, phone, and other office productivity equipment or technology.
• Regularly communicate with CEO, team members, Board members, current or prospective members, and other external parties by written, verbal, electronic demonstration, or other media to accurately and effectively obtain/exchange information, coordinate activities, and/or resolve issues and concerns.
• Occasionally move about inside or outside the usual workspace to perform typical office-related duties.  
• Occasionally navigate travel to company headquarters and other in-person meetings/events, or conferences.
• Regularly review work for accuracy, neatness, and thoroughness and adjust or make corrections as needed.