IT Manager - Infrastructure, Systems & Integrations

Company Overview

Moore & Giles is a leading leather goods company headquartered in Forest, VA with roughly 120 employees. Known for premium, American-made and sourced leather products, the company blends craftsmanship with a growing investment in modern data, systems, and technology infrastructure to support its next stage of growth.

Position Summary

Moore & Giles is hiring a Senior IT Manager (for the right candidate, Director) to lead the day-to-day infrastructure, network, and support functions of the IT department, while also building and maintaining the system integrations and internal applications that increasingly run the business — reporting directly to and working alongside the CTO.

This is a hands-on leadership role, not a purely administrative one. The person in this seat will manage two direct reports — a Network & Systems Administrator and an IT Specialist — while personally staying close enough to the technical work to coach, troubleshoot, and step in when needed. Beyond infrastructure and support, this role is expected to build real technical capability in the way modern integrations and internal tools actually get built today: connecting business systems (ERP, e-commerce, CRM) through cloud pipelines, and using AI-assisted development tools to design, build, and maintain lightweight internal applications — the same kind of hands-on, AI-augmented build work the CTO does today. The role is designed to complement the company's Director of Business Systems, who owns NetSuite and core business-systems strategy; this role instead owns infrastructure, integrations, and applied technical delivery, giving the department two strong leaders under the CTO.

Key Responsibilities

Team Leadership & Development

• Directly manage and mentor the Network & Systems Administrator and IT Specialist, providing coaching, performance feedback, and career development.
• Establish clear operating processes: ticketing discipline, on-call coverage, change management, and documentation standards.
• Help capture and formalize tribal knowledge currently concentrated in senior team members, reducing key-person risk.
• Partner with the CTO on overall technology strategy, workload planning, staffing decisions, and team growth as the department scales.

Infrastructure & Operations Ownership

• Own day-to-day reliability of network, endpoint, cloud infrastructure (Google Cloud Platform), and Microsoft 365/Entra ID environments.
• Oversee vendor relationships for infrastructure, telecom, and security tooling.
• Drive proactive monitoring and alerting practices across infrastructure and business-critical systems, reducing reactive firefighting.
• Maintain strong security and access-control hygiene across endpoints, credentials, and third-party system access.
• Support company-wide technology initiatives such as endpoint modernization and platform consolidation.

Integrations & Applied Development (AI-Augmented)

• Build and maintain integrations between core business systems (ERP, e-commerce, CRM, and similar platforms) using modern cloud pipelines.
• Use AI-assisted development tools (e.g., Claude, Copilot) to design, build, and maintain internal tools, automations, and lightweight business applications — the same hands-on, AI-augmented approach the CTO uses to deliver production integrations and internal apps.
• Take ownership of select existing integrations and internal applications over time, reducing single-person dependency on the CTO for day-to-day maintenance and evolving direction.
• Develop working fluency in the company's core technical stack (cloud infrastructure, data pipelines, basic scripting) sufficient to build, debug, and extend real integrations — not just consume them.
• Bring a builder's mindset: comfortable learning new tools and platforms quickly, and willing to prototype solutions rather than waiting for a specialist.

Cross-Functional Partnership

• Work closely with the Director of Business Systems to ensure infrastructure and business-systems priorities stay aligned.
• Serve as a day-to-day point of contact for department heads on infrastructure and support needs.
• Contribute to IT budgeting and technology roadmap discussions as scope grows.
• Take on progressively larger strategic and cross-functional responsibility over the first 18 months, in partnership with the CTO.

Required Qualifications

• 8–12 years of IT experience with demonstrated technical depth in networking, systems administration, and endpoint/cloud management.
• Some prior experience leading, mentoring, or informally guiding other IT staff — formal management title not required, but clear leadership potential is.
• Comfort operating in a cloud environment (Google Cloud Platform or equivalent — AWS/Azure experience also relevant).
• Ability to build process and structure in a small, high-leverage IT team where documentation and discipline are still maturing.
• Working comfort with at least one scripting or programming language (Python, JavaScript, or similar) and basic SQL — enough to read, modify, and extend existing integration code.
• Genuine curiosity about AI-assisted development tools and a willingness to build with them as a core part of the job, not a side experiment.
• Strong communication skills and the judgment to know when to lead from the front versus delegate.
• Must reside in, or be willing to relocate to, the Lynchburg, Virginia area.

Preferred Qualifications

• Direct experience building or maintaining API integrations, ETL pipelines, or lightweight internal applications.
• Hands-on experience with AI-assisted coding tools (e.g., Claude, GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT) for real development work, not just occasional use.
• Exposure to ERP or business-systems environments (NetSuite a plus) sufficient to partner effectively with the Business Systems function.
• Familiarity with modern cloud data/BI concepts (GCP, BigQuery, Looker) even without direct ownership of them.
• Background in manufacturing, consumer goods, retail, or e-commerce environments.
• A degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

Cultural Fit

Moore & Giles values craftsmanship, ownership, and directness. The ideal candidate takes real pride in getting the details right, communicates candidly, and is motivated by building durable systems and durable people. This person should be excited by the growth trajectory of the role — eager to prove themselves hands-on early, both in infrastructure and in real integration/application build work, while building the leadership habits and business judgment that support a leadership growth path.

Growth Path: Manager → Director → Broader Technology Leadership

This role is intentionally structured as a multi-stage development track. In partnership with the CTO, the person in this seat will be expected to progressively take on:

• Greater autonomy over infrastructure strategy and budget, not just execution.
• Real ownership of specific integrations and internal applications — building new ones and maintaining existing ones with AI-assisted development, rather than only supporting what others build.
• Broader cross-functional influence, including direct engagement with department heads and executive stakeholders.
• Expanded scope potentially including business-systems collaboration alongside the Director of Business Systems.
• A formal promotion review at approximately the 18-month mark, targeting a next level leadership role, contingent on demonstrated readiness.
• Beyond the initial 18 months, continued growth toward broader CTO/CIO-level scope is possible for the right person, as the role's technical range and business judgment expand.

What Success Looks Like in the First Year

• Current team members have a clear, engaged manager providing regular coaching and development, not just task assignment.
• Infrastructure runs with proactive monitoring, documented processes, and reduced reliance on any single person's institutional knowledge.
• The CTO can delegate day-to-day infrastructure and support leadership with confidence, freeing time for architecture and strategic work.
• The manager has taken real ownership of existing integrations and internal applications, built or maintained using AI-assisted development.
• The manager has begun taking on stretch responsibilities that build the case for promotion.

Pay: $124,000.00 - $150,000.00 per year

Work Location: In person

Salary : $124,000 - $150,000