Full-Time

IT & Cybersecurity Manager

Nooks

Nooks

51-200 employees

Platform enabling classified government–private collaboration

Compensation Overview

$175k - $205k/yr

No H1B Sponsorship

El Segundo, CA, USA

In Person

US Top Secret Clearance Required

Bachelor's

Category
Cybersecurity (1)
Required Skills
Incident Response
Computer Networking
Cybersecurity

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Requirements
  • At least 8 years of experience in information technology and/or cybersecurity operations, including at least 3 years managing technical teams.
  • Ability to implement and enforce IT and security policy in classified or otherwise regulated environments.
  • Working knowledge of the Risk Management Framework, NIST SP 800-53, Intelligence Community Directive 503, Joint Special Access Program Implementation Guide, and Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency Assessment and Authorization Process Manual.
  • Broad technical grounding across networking, virtualization, identity and access management, and endpoint security, with the ability to perform hands-on work.
  • Experience owning budgets, vendors, and technology lifecycles within a governance model.
  • Active Department of Defense 8140.03/8570.01 Information Assurance Manager Level II certification, such as CISSP, CISM, or GSLC.
  • Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Cybersecurity, or Computer Science, or equivalent experience.
  • Eligibility to work in the United States and ability to maintain eligibility up to the Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information level within 45 days of hire.
Responsibilities
  • Own the lifecycle of the site's IT infrastructure, including hardware, software, and networks, to maintain uptime, rigorous configuration management, and minimal downtime.
  • Manage the site IT/Cyber budget and third-party vendors, prioritizing investments that reduce risk.
  • Perform hands-on troubleshooting during outages, migrations, and peak demand.
  • Establish and enforce the site's security protocols and incident response plans in alignment with Nooks' cyber program and federal frameworks.
  • Lead local responses to security events and outages, communicating with corporate and network cyber leadership.
  • Own the site's accreditation posture, keeping systems inspection-ready and authorizations current with the cyber team.
  • Directly manage the site's IT and Cyber personnel by setting priorities, holding accountability, and conducting performance management.
  • Develop technical and leadership depth across the team to support new systems as the site scales.
  • Enable customer integration into the site's classified infrastructure and securely onboard tenants into the CIaaS model.
  • Brief executive leadership and customers on site risk, readiness, and remediation.
  • Localize and enforce corporate IT and security policy at the site without weakening it.
  • Work with the network cyber program, corporate IT, Operations, Security, Growth, and Solutions to align local execution, protect classified environments, and onboard customers.
  • Brief executive leadership directly on site risk and readiness.
Desired Qualifications
  • IAM Level III certification.
  • Experience delivering IT and security for customer-integration or managed-service environments.
  • Familiarity with IT service management and security-monitoring tools for reporting operational health and compliance metrics.
  • Experience standing up IT and cybersecurity functions for new classified sites.

Nooks offers a platform-as-a-service that enables government agencies and private defense/space firms to collaborate on classified projects. It accelerates tech adoption in national security by handling facility clearance sponsorship and personnel clearances, simplifying compliance and onboarding. The platform provides secure workflows and vendor-access controls, expanding options for vendors while managing the complexities of clearance processes. Its veteran-led team focuses on moving faster, reducing costs, and letting clients concentrate on their core work within the government–private sector ecosystem.

Company Size

51-200

Company Stage

Series A

Total Funding

$32.7M

Headquarters

San Francisco, California

Founded

2021

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Simplify Jobs

Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

  • June 2025 Series A gave Nooks $25M for expansion into Arlington and Colorado Springs.
  • 2026 job postings show hiring in Colorado Springs and El Segundo, indicating active scaling.
  • MDA SHIELD award opens access to a $151 billion vehicle through 2035.

What critics are saying

  • Nooks depends on defense contracting cycles; SHIELD task orders arrive only after competition.
  • July 2026 CEO switch from Sean Blackman to David Willard signals execution pressure.
  • If classified-space demand stalls, Nooks’s SCIF-heavy model becomes a capital-intensive niche.

What makes Nooks unique

  • Nooks sells CIaaS for SCIFs, simplifying classified access without facility buildouts.
  • Lockheed Martin, SAIC, Zigg Capital, and Upper90 back Nooks’s June 2025 Series A.
  • MDA selected Nooks for SHIELD IDIQ, validating its classified-infrastructure credibility.

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Benefits

Stock Options

Company Equity

Growth & Insights and Company News

Headcount

6 month growth

3%

1 year growth

11%

2 year growth

0%
FinSMEs
Jun 9th, 2025
Nooks Closes $25M Series A Funding

Nooks, a Crystal City, VA-based classified-infrastructure-as-a-service (CIaaS) model company for workspaces, raised $25M in Series A funding.

Nooks
Jun 9th, 2025
Nooks Closes $25M Series A Funding Round with Unmatched Team of Industry Leaders

Nooks raises $25M Series A to expand its subscription-access classified workspaces. Backed by Zigg Capital, Upper90, SAIC, and Lockheed Martin, Nooks is redefining access to secure, flexible classified workspaces for government and defense.

MB News
Jun 9th, 2025
Nooks Raises $25M in Series A Funding

Nooks has closed a $25M Series A funding round, partnering with Zigg Capital, Upper90, SAIC, and Lockheed Martin. The funding will enhance Nooks' Classified-Infrastructure-as-a-Service (CIaaS) model, aiming to improve secure collaboration for government and industry. The investment will support Nooks' growth in key markets and its integration of advanced technologies, with a focus on transforming classified infrastructure access.

Forbes
Aug 3rd, 2023
Small Companies Can’T Access Classified Work Without A Secure Space To Work In

A modular SCIF facility designed by Maryland-based builder, Modular Genius. Modular GeniusIf your small defense business has desirable technology that the government considers classified, you’ll need a secure workspace before you can secure government work. It’s a Catch-22 that Congress wants to alleviate.The 2024 National Defense Authorization Act includes language from both the House and Senate meant to open up existing classified work-spaces to small businesses.Building or gaining access to a government-approved secure workspace is a costly burden that adds to the already thorny problems defense startups face in getting security clearances for their employees and in getting their companies as a whole “covered” or cleared to work on classified projects.Such hurdles curb or prevent innovative, potentially war-winning technologies and ideas from being embraced and applied by the Pentagon says Andrew “Scar” Van Timmeren, vice president of government solutions for Blue Force Technologies, a small North Carolina-based business which recently secured a contract to build prototype unmanned adversary training aircraft for the Air Force.A former USAF F-22 pilot, Van Timmeren has seen the problem surface repeatedly among the cohort of defense startups traveling in the same circles as Blue Force, shutting them out of potentially meaningful contracts and contributions to national security.“It’s remarkably easy for continued contracts to go to incumbents within the cleared [classified] space because of the time and effort it takes to increase the number of new businesses that have access to cleared [workspace].”Van Timmeren cites an example wherein defense program managers are evaluating candidates to perform radar cross section survivability analysis of an aircraft. There’s already a cleared company with its own approved secure workspace. Another new firm may want to enter into that mix. But for DoD, “the easy button is to just go to the incumbent which may not be a small business.”Setting up a secure workspace isn’t easy

Intelligence360 News
Jul 19th, 2022
San Francisco California based Nooks is raising $5,000,000.00 in New Equity Investment.

San Francisco, CA - According to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Nooks is raising $5,000,000.00 in new funding. Sources indicate as part of senior management Chief Executive Officer, Sean Blackman played a