Head of IT

Head of IT

Location: London (preferred) or San Francisco - ability to go to the office at least 3 times per week
Reports to: SVP of Engineering
Team: You'll manage an IT Operations Engineer, with scope to grow the team as needs scale

The Opportunity

We're looking for a Head of IT to build and lead IT Operations as a strategic function at Sanity. This isn't a keep-the-lights-on role. We need someone who sees IT, compliance, and procurement as levers for competitive advantage—someone who will proactively drive initiatives that help the entire company move faster.

You'll own the systems and processes that enable our team members in Oslo, London, San Francisco, and across North America and Europe to do their best work. You'll turn compliance from a necessary burden into a genuine asset that accelerates enterprise sales. You'll approach procurement not as cost management, but as a way to level up every team by getting them the right tools and partnerships.

The right person will be obsessed with using AI and automation to build operations that scale. We're a 240-person company that should feel like it has world-class operational infrastructure while staying stage-appropriate. Manual processes should keep you up at night.

What You'll Own

IT Operations

• Build AI-powered workflows that make onboarding, offboarding, and day-to-day IT support nearly invisible

• Design self-service systems that scale with the company without requiring proportional headcount growth

• Own the device lifecycle with automation-first thinking: provisioning, deployment, recovery, and secure disposal

• Manage identity and access across our SaaS stack with security and usability in balance

• Create operational infrastructure that makes a 240-person company feel like it has Fortune 500 support

Procurement & Vendor Management

• Act as a sparring partner to teams in selecting tools—a center of excellence that helps identify, evaluate, and adopt the right solutions

• Multiply procurement effectiveness across the company: structured processes, faster decisions, better vendor outcomes, reduced friction

• Build vendor relationships that give us startup agility with enterprise-grade capabilities

• Own AI tool strategy and spending (OpenAI, Anthropic, etc.), moving us from credit card chaos to strategic partnerships

Compliance & Security

• Transform compliance from a checkbox exercise into a sales accelerator that wins enterprise deals

• Own and execute our SOC 2 certification end-to-end with efficient, automated evidence gathering

• Turn RFI and security questionnaire responses into a competitive advantage—fast, thorough, repeatable

• Proactively manage sub-processor documentation, particularly for AI tools, so new capabilities don't create sales friction

• Build a security posture that enterprise customers trust and that doesn't slow down internal teams

Strategic Leadership

• Define and drive the IT Operations roadmap as a peer to other company leaders

• Build an IT operations strategy that scales from 200 to 500+ employees without linear headcount growth

• Partner with SRE and Engineering to create a cohesive infrastructure and tooling experience

• Measure and communicate the impact of operational improvements on company velocity

What We're Looking For

Experience

• 7+ years in IT, with at least 3 years in a senior or leadership role

• Hands-on experience managing IT for a distributed, global team (200-500 people)

• Able to manage and procure upwards of 50+ vendors, owning a budget in the 7 digits

• Track record implementing and maintaining compliance frameworks (SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR)

• Experience with enterprise sales support in a B2B SaaS company—you've answered RFIs and security questionnaires

• Proven ability to reduce IT operational burden through automation

Technical Skills

• Deep knowledge of modern SaaS administration (Google Workspace, Okta/SSO, MDM solutions)

• Experience with IT service management and ticketing systems

• Understanding of cloud infrastructure basics (GCP strongly preferred, AWS/Azure an asset)

• Familiarity with security tools: endpoint protection, vulnerability management, SIEM

• Comfort with scripting and automation (Python, Bash, or similar)

Nice to Have

• Experience with AI tooling administration (API key management, spending controls, sub-processor documentation)

• Familiarity with service catalog tools like Backstage

• Experience supporting engineering-heavy organizations

What Success Looks Like

First 30 days:

• Map the current operational landscape, tooling, and pain points across all departments

• Review and improve onboarding/offboarding processes for employees and consultants

• Build relationships with stakeholders in Engineering, Sales, Finance, and People

• Prepare and execute on SOC 2 Type 2 audit

First 90 days:

• Establish enterprise agreements with key AI vendors, ending ad-hoc spending

• Deliver quick automation wins that demonstrate what's possible

• Audit compliance posture and create a roadmap for turning it into a sales asset

First year:

• Operational infrastructure scales efficiently, with automation handling growth

• Clear metrics show how Operations contributes to company velocity

• Compliance is a competitive advantage: RFI responses are fast, thorough, and help close deals

• Execution plan for expanding SOC 2 Type 2 audit period from 3 to 6-12 months

What we can offer

• Competitive salary and equity in a high-growth Series C company

• Flexible remote work environment

• Comprehensive health plans and perks

• A positive, trust-based culture that encourages long-term professional and personal growth

• A highly-skilled, inspiring, and supportive team

• A global, multi-culturally diverse group of colleagues and customers

Our Commitment to Inclusion

We're building a team that reflects the diversity of content creators worldwide. We evaluate candidates on demonstrated skills and experience rather than credentials alone. If you need accommodations at any stage of the hiring process, let us know—we're committed to removing barriers and creating an equitable experience for all candidates.

How to Apply

Submit your resume. No cover letter required. We'll review applications on a rolling basis and reach out to schedule an initial conversation.

Who we are

Sanity.io is a modern, flexible content operating system that replaces rigid legacy content management systems. One of our big differentiators is treating content as data so that it can be stored in a single source of truth, but seamlessly adapted and personalized for any channel without extra effort. Forward-thinking companies choose Sanity because they can create tailored content authoring experiences, customized workflows, and content models that reflect their business.

Sanity recently raised a $85m Series C led by GP Bullhound and is also backed by leading investors like ICONIQ Growth, Threshold Ventures, Heavybit and Shopify, as well as founders of companies like Vercel, WPEngine, Twitter, Mux, Netlify and Heroku. This funding round has put Sanity in a strong position for accelerated growth in the coming years.

You can only build a great company with a great culture. Sanity is a 200+ person company with highly committed and ambitious people. We are pioneers, we exist for our customers, we are hel ved, and we love type two fun! Read more about our values here!

Sanity.io pledges to be an organization that reflects the globally diverse audience that our product serves. We believe that in addition to hiring the best talent, a diversity of perspectives, ideas, and cultures leads to the creation of better products and services. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, or gender identity.