What are the responsibilities and job description for the Information Technology Specialist position at Trailhead Biosystems?
Responsibilities
End-User Support & IT Operations
- Primary internal point of contact for all hardware, software, connectivity, and access issues across on-site and remote employees
- Manage the MSP relationship: define what goes to them, hold them to SLAs, and escalate appropriately
- Manage the full device lifecycle: procurement, imaging, deployment, and decommissioning
- Administer Microsoft 365: Entra ID, Exchange Online, SharePoint, Teams, OneDrive, and associated licenses
- Own IT onboarding and offboarding workflows, account provisioning, device assignment, access revocation, and litigation hold procedures; this process must be airtight and documented
- Maintain a current IT asset inventory
Cybersecurity & Information Security
- Handle the organization's day-to-day security posture; engage the MSP for complex security projects and escalations
- Administer endpoint protection, patch management, MFA enforcement, and conditional access policies
- Monitor M365 security and compliance tooling: Purview, Defender for Business, audit logs
- Conduct periodic access reviews and permission audits; produce findings reports for management
- Lead first-response on security incidents: containment first, investigation second and coordinate MSP escalation where needed; this includes employee departure scenarios involving potential data exfiltration
- Manage email authentication controls (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) and anti-phishing policies
- Manage security and access governance for AI/LLM tools in use across the org, enforce least-privilege access, MFA, and conditional access on AI service accounts, app registrations, and admin roles
- Gate and process access requests for AI infrastructure (Azure OpenAI, Entra app registrations, Key Vault, etc.) submitted by AI/data engineering staff, approve or deny per policy, and escalate architecture or capability decisions to the appropriate technical owner
- Support enforcement of the company's AI usage policy, approved tools, data classification for AI inputs, and prohibition of unsanctioned "shadow AI" tools in coordination with outside AI policy/training vendors
Lab & Instrument IT
- Maintain network connectivity for laboratory instruments and manage isolated VLANs where required
- Serve as the IT interface for lab instrument vendors and cloud-connected instrument platforms (e.g., SaaS-connected analytical instruments, vendor cloud dashboards)
- Administer and secure internally hosted lab/process data systems including server-level access control, patching, and credential lifecycle management, with access revoked immediately upon staff or contractor departure
- Keep instrument computing hardware and software licenses
Access & Device Governance
- Deploy and administer an MDM solution across the full device fleet
- Handle permissions governance for end-user systems: M365, SharePoint, shared drives, and SaaS applications
- Manage data lifecycle for off-boarded employees including legal preservation requirements
Cloud Cost & Vendor Management
- Monitor cloud and SaaS spend; surface optimization opportunities and eliminate unused licenses
- Manage all software subscriptions across office and lab environments licenses, renewals, utilization tracking, and vendor relationships for both business software and laboratory-specific applications
- Coordinate with the Data Infrastructure Engineer on cloud access provisioning
- Track IT vendor contracts and MSP deliverables; flag renewal dates and surface consolidation opportunities
IT Policy & Documentation
- Maintain core IT policies: Acceptable Use, Data Classification, Password Policy
- Document processes and configurations well enough that someone else could operate them
Qualifications
- 3–5 years of hands-on IT experience in a generalist role
- Microsoft 365 administration: Entra ID, Exchange Online, SharePoint, Intune/MDM
- Endpoint security: patch management, MFA/conditional access, Defender for Business or equivalent
- Experience managing network hardware: switches, enterprise Wi-Fi, firewall rules
- MDM deployment and administration experience (Intune, Jamf, or Kandji)
- Strong documentation discipline
- Clear communicator with both non-technical staff and external technical partners
- Preferred: exposure to securing AI/LLM tooling and cloud AI services access governance and conditional access, not AI/ML development
- Preferred: experience with networked lab/scientific instrumentation and vendor-managed cloud platforms