IT Manager

Sawhorse Productions • Full-time • Los Angeles, CA, US • $100k - $120k / year • 19h ago

Sawhorse Productions is a Los Angeles based, Award winning full-service creative studio turning ideas into unforgettable experiences through captivating branded content, viral social moments, and groundbreaking interactive experiences. We partner with industry-leading brands, artists, and studios such as Walmart, Google, NBCUniversal, Fanatics, Toyota, Pepsi and Alo to deliver industry leading, innovative multi-platform content. At Sawhorse, we believe in fostering a culture of collaboration, creativity, and relentless excellence while shaping the future of digital storytelling.

Our projects include:

Branded content
Social/Digital Content
Broadcast commercials
UGC Gaming platform experiences
Interactive/Web3 activations (AR, VR, MR, AI)

We're seeking a smart, solution-oriented, and hands-on IT Manager to oversee Sawhorse's infrastructure, servers, and cybersecurity while keeping our fast-paced creative studio running at full speed. This role blends technical expertise with problem-solving agility. You will manage onboarding, security systems, and day-to-day IT operations while ensuring our workflows meet top-tier entertainment industry security standards.

Our office is located in Los Angeles. While we are a remote-first company, hybrid in-office presence will be required to maintain servers, oversee infrastructure, and support production teams on-site.

Requirements

Infrastructure & Server Management: Maintain and upgrade in-house servers, LTO machines, secured Mac Studio racks, PCs and IT room infrastructure and networking. Ensure uptime, redundancy, and performance across all environments
System Administration & Security: Manage onboarding and offboarding for staff, including Okta, Airtable, and Microsoft accounts. Oversee access rights for high-security projects and maintain strict data controls
Cybersecurity & Compliance: Implement and enforce best-in-class security protocols. Monitor and safeguard against breaches, ensuring compliance with entertainment industry standards. Must have extensive experience working with major entertainment studios (Universal, Warner Bros., Netflix, Disney, etc.) and their IT security requirements. This includes handling audits, responding to client security flags, and ensuring that Sawhorse's infrastructure aligns with studio-mandated policies and protocols
Office IT & Support: Oversee daily office IT operations including internet, workstations, networked machines, and printers. Provide rapid response to outages or technical issues to minimize downtime
Workflows & Scaling: Build secure, efficient workflows for both in-office and remote teams. Support scaling as the company grows, ensuring speed and reliability
Purchasing & Vendor Relations: Evaluate, recommend, and procure new hardware, servers, and software licenses. Manage vendor contracts and service agreements
Data Security & Access Management: Oversee secure data transfer, asset protection, and access controls for confidential projects. Ensure access is limited based on need-to-know
Disaster Recovery & Continuity: Develop and maintain backup, archival, and disaster recovery plans to ensure business continuity
Licensing & Asset Management: Oversee software licensing, renewals, and compliance across the company
Documentation & Training: Maintain IT policies, onboarding/offboarding guides, and provide occasional training for staff on best practices for security and workflows

Qualifications

Experience: 8+ years in IT management roles supporting creative studios, production companies, or post houses, with a mix of startup and enterprise workflows
Server & Infrastructure Expertise: Strong knowledge of server management, Mac Studio + PC setups, rack management, network administration, and troubleshooting
Security Expertise: Proficiency with Okta, Microsoft security agreements, and data/asset protection for high-security projects. Familiarity with MPAA/TPN, SOC2, or ISO 27001 standards
Disaster Recovery: Experience with backup and archival tools (e.g., Veeam, AWS Glacier, Backblaze) and continuity planning
Cross-Platform Knowledge: Skilled in both MacOS and Windows environments, with an ability to support hybrid creative/production workflows
Network Engineering: Knowledge of VPNs, VLANs, firewalls, and enterprise-level network configurations
Software & Workflow Tools: Strong knowledge of Airtable (company-wide workflow tool), G Suite, Slack, and other core studio platforms
Problem Solving: Solution-oriented and capable of delivering fast, pragmatic fixes under pressure when systems go down

Nice To Have's

Familiarity with cloud and hybrid storage workflows (AWS, GCP, Azure)
Certifications such as CompTIA Security+, CISSP, or Microsoft Certified Security Engineer
Experience liaising directly with major studios to handle IT/security audits
Participation in entertainment industry security networks (e.g., Trusted Partner Network)
Experience with API integrations or lightweight automation tools (Zapier, Make, n8n, custom scripts) to connect platforms like Airtable, Slack, Frame.io, and servers
Background in system monitoring and observability (dashboards, alerts, and proactive reporting)
General awareness of AI-enabled creative workflows and a sense of how to adopt new tech securely

Benefits