Director of Information Security

About Varda

Low Earth orbit is open for business. Varda is accelerating the development of commercial space infrastructure from in-orbit pharmaceutical processing to reliable and economical reentry capsules.

From life-saving pharmaceuticals to more powerful fiber optics there is a world of products used on Earth today that can only be manufactured in space. Varda is accelerating innovation in the orbital economy by creating both the products and infrastructure needed so space can directly benefit life on Earth. Our mission is to expand the economic bounds of humankind.

Our team is uniquely suited to accomplishing this goal with leadership and staff comprised of veterans from SpaceX Blue Origin major pharmaceutical companies and Silicon Valley. Varda was founded in January 2021 by Will Bruey and Delian Asparouhov with significant backing from world class investors including Khosla Ventures Lux Capital Founders Fund Caffeinated Capital General Catalyst and Also Capital.

Varda is headquartered in El Segundo California where we have offices and a production facility where our vehicles equipment and materials are built integrated and tested. Varda also has offices in Washington DC and Huntsville AL.

Join Varda and work to create a bustling in-space ecosystem.

About This Role

As the Head of Information Technology you will be responsible for managing Vardas IT systems processes and controls. You will manage a highly skilled team of folks with expertise in information technology enterprise applications information security and spacecraft mission operations. You will be responsible either directly or through your team for an array of critical functions including overseeing critical IT infrastructure managing sophisticated IT services and designing and managing highly availability networks and applications. You and your team will also be asked to provide a technology strategy for the company with the help of the engineering teams spacecraft operations teams and the vehicle production organization.

This is a full-time exempt position located in our El Segundo headquarters.

Responsibilities
Recruit retain and empower a diverse team of engineers to design and build next-generation information technology infrastructure for the Varda corporation and the Winnebago spacecraft
Scope projects including requirements capture and initial design trades to open-ended problems
End-to-end ownership of IT system including provider relationships testing networking mission control and ground station design/build/maintenance
Provide day-to-day support and administration for our portfolio of enterprise software applications
Manage the Site Reliability IT Information Security and Software Application teams to define business processes and identify areas of improvements/automation Lead development implementation and reporting of high-availability and disaster recovery strategies.
Partner with Avionics Software and Mission Operations teams to develop mission critical hardware software and networking support for space missions
Work closely with Varda engineers to gather requirements research evaluate design plan deploy and support software platforms and related technologies in a world-class environment
Build highly-resilient high-performance scalable and flexible systems
Support proposal and business development activities
Drive scripting and automation to develop solutions to common problems and software integrations
Implement best practices and controls across all information technology functions
Prepare schedules and supporting documentation related to information security audit requirements and interact with external auditors as required

Preferred Skills And Qualifications
17 years in the IT industry with demonstrated leadership experience as a team manager or a comparable role within the startup ecosystem
Experience leading multiple production deployment and test programs with varied timelines
Demonstrated experience building and growing lean teams in a fast-paced environment
Demonstrated strengths in organizational attention-to-detail follow-through reasoning critical thinking and problem-solving skills


Basic Qualifications
Bachelors degree in computer science engineering math physics information systems or similar technical discipline and 5 years of systems engineering experience or 8 years of systems engineering experience in lieu of a degree
Direct experience as a people manager
Ability to receive Top Secret or TS/SCI clearance
Strong written and verbal communication
Independently motivated with a demonstrated track record of delivering complex technical projects
Experience with Linux servers in physical and virtualized environments.
Experience with Python or other scripting and automation languages.
U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident of the U.S. to conform with U.S Government space technology export regulations under ITAR

Compensation

Department Head: $175000 - $223600 /per year
Leveling and base salary is determined by job-related skills education level experience level and job performance
You will be eligible for long-term incentives in the form of stock options and/or long-term cash awards

• Varda like all employers must ensure that its employees working in the United States are lawfully authorized to work in the U.S. Additionally our employees are exposed to and have access to certain export-controlled items. At present some of our technology to which employees have access requires a license to be exported to individuals other than U.S. Persons as defined in U.S. export regulations. Because our employees are provided access to export-controlled items our current policy is to only hire U.S. persons who are permitted to have access to our technology without an export license.

  US person means: U.S. citizen U.S. lawful permanent resident or protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3) (i.e. individual admitted to the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum in the U.S.)

  Learn more about the ITAR here.

Benefits