Manager, Information Technology

The Role

The Manager, IT will play a critical role in stabilizing and growing goop kitchen's business as we scale. As a digital-first restaurant brand, every order, guest interaction, and kitchen workflow runs over a network and through an IT system, making stability, security, and compliance critical to our business. You will architect and operate the infrastructure that keeps gk running and ensures our guests' and company's data stay protected. Further, given gk’s growth trajectory a meaningful portion of this role will be dedicated to designing IT infrastructure for new locations and coordinating opening execution with development and operations partners.

This role reports to the Sr. Director of Technology & Insights, serving as a key decision maker on all network, compliance, and IT support topics. This person will work closely across operations, finance, HR, and development teams to keep the day-to-day running and evaluate and plan for future IT needs as we scale, ultimately project managing these initiatives to completion.

Your Responsibilities

Network

• Architect the design of gk's network: segmentation, wireless, SD-WAN, ISP selection, redundancy, and configuration standards, covering both restaurants and corporate, in service of stability and security across the business
• Own gk's PCI-DSS posture end-to-end, advising on the support model needed to maintain compliance and leveraging external experts as needed
• Design IT infrastructure for new restaurants in partnership with operations and development, writing the playbook for opening to our network standards, and project managing execution for each opening
• Establish SLAs, escalation procedures, and incident response practices for network outages and issues
• Manage day-to-day relationships with IT vendors and contractors, including escalating problems and recommending when partners, scopes, or agreements need to change

Hardware

• Determine and implement hardware standards and lifecycle for networking gear, servers, and AV in restaurants and at HQ
• Build end-to-end lifecycle for corporate hardware including procurement, deployment, asset tracking, refresh, and end-of-life
• Own installation, replacement, network connectivity, and onsite troubleshooting for restaurant hardware (POS/KDS screens and printers, cameras, digital displays, etc.)

Support

• Act as the primary help desk resource for HQ corporate staff, covering troubleshooting and system administration for IT systems and hardware
• Serve as the on-the-ground responder for onsite restaurant issues (network problems and device troubleshooting) potentially requiring substantial time on the road and in our restaurants
• Own onboarding/offboarding, account provisioning for corporate and restaurant accounts
• Lead relationships with IT support partners and agency resources, defining and evolving the IT support model as we scale

Policy & Security

• Own the security and protection of gk's company and consumer data within our systems, staying current on the threat and compliance landscape (NY SHIELD, security provisions of CCPA, evolving threats, best practices), leading vulnerability management, incident response, and DR/BC planning
• Architect the security program across stores and HQ (IAM, endpoint, MDM, password management, security awareness) and project manage the rollout of all security systems and initiatives
• In partnership with HR, write acceptable use and security policies for corporate applications and company devices and operationalize these standards

What You Bring

Required

• 5+ years in IT, with 2+ years owning network architecture and operations for a multi-site environment
• Hands-on experience designing and operating modern enterprise networks (Meraki, UniFi, or equivalent) at scale, including segmentation, wireless, SD-WAN, and ISP/circuit management
• Demonstrated ownership of PCI-DSS compliance, plus working knowledge of NY SHIELD, the security provisions of CCPA, or comparable data protection frameworks
• Experience designing IT infrastructure for new site buildouts and coordinating with construction, operations, and development partners
• Experience leading or substantially contributing to security architecture decisions, vulnerability management, and incident response including hands-on work with MDM, identity, and endpoint security tooling
• Track record managing MSPs, agency partners, and vendors: pushing for performance, escalating issues, and defining when capacity needs to change
• Comfortable with onsite, hands-on work including troubleshooting hardware and network issues in person at restaurant locations, with willingness to travel to do so
• Strong communication skills, including with non-technical stakeholders
• Bias toward operational excellence and pragmatic execution

Strongly preferred

• Restaurant, retail, or distributed brick-and-mortar experience, including supporting new store openings end-to-end
• Familiarity with platforms in gk's stack or close equivalents: Google Workspace, Slack, MDM/identity tools, UniFi/Meraki
• Experience operationalizing security and compliance programs at a high-growth, brand-sensitive company
• Relevant certifications: CISSP, Security+, CCNP, CCNA, or equivalent
• Experience writing acceptable use and security policies in partnership with HR or legal

Nice to have

• Comfort using dashboards and data to inform IT and security decisions
• Experience with Toast POS, Bite Kiosk, and other restaurant specific technologies 
• Exposure to celebrity-brand or public-facing consumer companies where reputational risk shapes the security posture
• Cloud platform exposure (GCP, AWS, or Azure)