IT & Systems Manager

• Own a collaboration and endpoint estate that runs properly and securely.
• Identity, access, and a joiner-mover-leaver lifecycle that is timely and auditable.
• Run a reliable office network, infrastructure, and peripheral estate.
• Own a known, governed SaaS and tooling estate, with shadow IT brought into the light.
• Ensure Security operations are executed to a good standard, under vCISO-set policy.
• Own a co-managed MSP held to scope and value.
• Support and grow an IT function that matures and scales with the company.
• Develop and support an IT apprentice

Skills & KnowledgeEssential

• Hands-on administration of collaboration platforms (Google Workspace, Slack) at estate scale.
• MDM and endpoint protection across a mixed device fleet - the specific tooling matters less than the transferable skill.
• Identity and access management, SSO, and the automation & improvement of joiner-mover-leaver processes.
• Networking fundamentals: office LAN, Wi-Fi, firewalls, and connectivity troubleshooting.
• Security-operations literacy: able to operate controls, run access reviews, and work within a recognised framework (e.g. Cyber Essentials, ISO 27001).
• SaaS lifecycle and vendor/contract management, including holding third-party agencies to account.
• Documentation discipline: leaves the estate knowable by others, so that no single person is a point of failure., * Not a CISO. Security strategy, assurance, and board-level risk sit with the fractional vCISO; this role executes security operations, it does not set or independently assure its own work.
• Not a first-line support desk. First-line sits with the apprentice and the MSP; aiming this role at the ticket queue would waste the seniority the role is built for.
• Not a pure architect. Strategy is expected - but so is hands-on ownership of the estate and the physical work that comes with it.

Why This Role

• A genuine opportunity to take an IT function from reactive to strategic and own it end to end.
• Direct access to and influence with senior technology leadership.
• A growing, profitable, values-driven business with a social-impact mission in education and skills.
• The autonomy to do the role properly, and to grow an apprentice while you do it.

• A deeper security background than the essential baseline - whether through formal qualification or hands-on experience - which would let us run a lighter vCISO engagement.
• AI awareness: the judgment to assess AI access and connector requests and decide what to approve, deny, or escalate.
• Lightweight scripting or automation.
• Experience standing up or maturing an IT function from a reactive starting point.
• Exposure to regulated or audited environments (government, NHS, education, banking).

We are an education technology company that enables corporate and government organisations to achieve their business goals by educating their workforce with critical digital transformation skills to succeed in the AI era.

We deliver unique and innovative professional education that is accelerating the digital transformation of our clients, advancing the careers of their employees, helping people get into work and closing the digital skills gap. We are in a sector that is crucial to the economy and workforce, with a lot of opportunity for change and innovation. We are at the cutting edge of teaching applied data and digital skills, with our unique patented learning platform EDUKATE.AI offering our clients and learners a unique learning experience. EDUKATE.AI was developed with support from Innovate UK and provides all of our learners with 24/7 immediate feedback on their work, helping accelerate the learning process and providing a sandbox environment to experiment on real world datasets.

Since 2016, we have supported more than 15,000 learners across four continents with nearly 550,000 pieces of code submitted for feedback on EDUKATE.AI. We are trusted by some of the most recognisable brands in the world to educate their workforce, including Microsoft, the NHS, GSK, easyJet, the BBC and John Lewis. Our focus on applied learning to create business impact sets us apart - individual learners have reported applying their skills at work to generate recorded value of up to £40m. Our Values

At the centre of the way we work together and inspire each other to achieve success are these core values:

Entrepreneurial

We take initiative and show entrepreneurial spirit which fuels innovation at Cambridge Spark. This includes identifying opportunities for improvement, taking ownership for implementing solutions effectively and driving improvement by using proof of concepts to demonstrate the feasibility and value of their work.

Team Spirit

Everyone is part of building an open and transparent culture, communicating effectively to raise issues, discuss improvements and share the evidence used to make decisions.