Engineering Manager - IT

CloudFirst is a fast-growing cloud and infrastructure services provider supporting clients across multiple industries with secure, scalable, and innovative cloud solutions. We are expanding our leadership team and seeking a highly capable IT Engineering Manager to oversee engineering operations and major infrastructure projects. This role blends hands-on technical leadership, project delivery oversight, cloud architecture guidance, and engineering team management., The IT Engineering Manager serves as CloudFirst’s technical and operational anchor-leading global engineering teams, ensuring high-quality execution, and driving complex infrastructure initiatives including cloud tenant migrations, network redesigns, enterprise architecture improvements, and cybersecurity projects.

Key ResponsibilitiesEngineering Leadership & Team Operations

• Manage and coordinate a global team of engineers across multiple time zones.
• Assign and prioritize tasks based on skillset and workload.
• Validate escalations and ensure proper engineering involvement.
• Drive accountability through KPIs, performance metrics, and consistent coaching.
• Collaborate with multidisciplinary teams to implement solutions and support cross-functional initiatives.

Ticketing Oversight & Quality Assurance

• Review and audit engineering tickets for accurate categorization, documentation, and time tracking.
• Enforce ticketing best practices to ensure workflow consistency and SLA alignment.
• Monitor quality control and ensure compliance with applicable standards, including IT security best practices and regulatory requirements.

Technical & Architectural Collaboration

• Partner with Sales Engineering to ensure proposed solutions meet CloudFirst’s architecture standards for security, scalability, and performance.
• Participate in cloud design reviews and provide technical guidance.
• Oversee SharePoint, Azure, M365, VPN, and network-related architectural decisions.
• Conduct risk assessments, pre-testing, and proactive technical evaluations to ensure solutions meet safety, quality, and performance standards.

Infrastructure Project Management

• Lead complex migration and modernization initiatives such as:
• Microsoft 365 tenant migrations (GovCloud/CMMC experience helpful but not mandatory)
• Network and VPN redesigns (Fortinet, Azure Gateway)
• Endpoint security and hardening
• Enterprise application SSO transitions (Salesforce, Jira, GitLab, etc.)
• Build detailed project plans, resource maps, and cutover strategies.
• Collaborate across engineering, helpdesk, client success, and vendors for smooth execution.
• Perform pre-test validations and preemptive technical assessments to identify risks prior to deployment.

Compliance, Security & Readiness

• Support security best practices across systems and infrastructure.
• Experience with CMMC, ITAR, or compliance-driven environments is a nice-to-have, but not required.
• Oversee policies such as encryption enforcement, MAM, DLP, and mobile compliance depending on project needs.

Risk, Issue & Governance Management

• Maintain a risk register and identify technical or operational constraints early.
• Escalate critical issues and maintain transparent communication with leadership.
• Provide weekly executive updates on progress, dependencies, and risks.

Process Improvement & SOP Development

• Identify operational gaps and drive process improvements.
• Develop and maintain SOPs for engineering tasks, escalations, and recurring workflows.
• Strengthen cross-team communication and collaboration.

Customer Impact & SLA Awareness

• Align engineering efforts with customer commitments.
• Minimize downtime and ensure reliable service for high-visibility clients.
• Incorporate lessons from incidents into future project planning.

Operations & Systems Reliability

• Supervise production and deployment processes to ensure system stability and performance.
• Oversee maintenance of infrastructure, systems, and engineering tools to ensure operational reliability.
• Ensure solutions are tested, refined, and meet performance, safety, and quality standards prior to release.

Do you have experience in VPN management?, * 5-8+ years in IT engineering leadership or infrastructure project management (MSP experience strongly preferred).

• Hands-on expertise in cloud infrastructure (Azure, AWS, M365), networking, VPN technologies, and endpoint management.
• Proven experience with Microsoft 365 tenant migrations, Intune, SharePoint architecture, and Azure networking.
• Strong familiarity with ticketing platforms (ConnectWise, Zendesk, Jira) and billing workflows.
• MSP or high-growth startup background.
• PMP or equivalent certification.
• Excellent communication, documentation, and organizational skills.
• Ability to lead remote teams independently.
• Bachelor’s degree in IT, Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent experience.
• Experience with CMMC L2, DLP, ITAR, or other compliance frameworks-helpful but not a requirement.
• Experience with ConnectWise, Auvik, Intune, Fortinet, Azure Gateway.
• Ability to overlap working hours with global teams.

Desired Attributes / Traits

• Strong analytical and problem-solving mindset with high attention to detail and quality.
• Proactive, adaptable, and able to anticipate risks and take initiative in complex environments.
• Strong collaboration and communication skills, with the ability to work effectively across multidisciplinary teams.

Pulled from the full job description

• Health insurance
• Paid time off