Director of IT Operations Visa Sponsorship Jobs in California

At Amyris, we value that everyone's career journey is unique and authentic to who they are. If this role excites you, we encourage you to apply and grow alongside us! You may be just the right candidate for this or other open roles.

About Amyris

Amyris uses its biomanufacturing platform to transform industries to renewable biological chemistry, with operations in the United States and Brazil. Its Computing organization empowers, improves, and innovates computational, data, and technology systems across Amyris to achieve operational excellence, supporting a unique mix of SaaS, custom software, and AI capabilities powering enterprise, R&D pipeline, and manufacturing operations.

Position Overview

The IT Director is a technical leader accountable for the engineering, reliability, and operation of Amyris's global IT infrastructure across networks, servers, endpoints, cybersecurity, knowledge management, and the service desk. The role combines hands-on technical leadership with leadership of internal IT teams and MSPs in the United States and Brazil, partnering across Computing and the enterprise to maintain and advance the infrastructure upon which our SaaS and custom platforms rely.

The ideal candidate is a hands-on DevOps leader (CI/CD, infrastructure-as-code, containerization, observability) with enterprise architecture experience across networking, identity, security, databases, and infrastructure. They turn ambiguous demands into well-defined, automated, and documented solutions. The role keeps regular overlap with both US Pacific and Brazil working hours.

Location: Hybrid in Emeryville, CA.

Key Responsibilities

IT Operations

• Own reliable, secure, and responsive IT operations delivered by internal teams and MSPs, with clear service ownership, escalation paths, and accountability for service levels and outcomes.
• Oversee service desk, endpoint, network, server, identity, collaboration, and knowledge-management operations, with disciplined incident, request, problem, and change management.
• Drive continuous improvement via a data-driven approach, using operational data to identify systemic issues and apply preventive or corrective actions.
• Lead major-incident response, including technical diagnosis and root-cause investigation, and partner with Computing peers during outages affecting pipeline, manufacturing, and enterprise systems; ensure root-cause investigations drive lasting improvements.
• Maintain authoritative architecture, configuration, asset, licensing, and operational documentation to control costs and risk, and support lifecycle and provider transitions.
• Serve as Amyris's designated escalation contact and technical approver for MSP work, including change-advisory approval, security operations review, invoice validation against contracted scope, and confirmation that automated alerts and reports are acted on are appropriately triaged.

Infrastructure Project Delivery & Technical Leadership

• Lead complex infrastructure and security programs from business case and technical design through adoption, including network modernization, CIS Controls implementation, endpoint refreshes, data and SharePoint migrations, and cloud migrations.
• Define project scope, milestones, resources, risks, budgets, and success criteria; maintain transparent governance through delivery and transition to operations.
• Provide hands-on technical leadership across infrastructure, cloud, endpoints, identity, security, and service-management platforms, including troubleshooting, validation, and automation when needed.
• Challenge designs, statements of work, and change plans to ensure solutions are secure, supportable, cost-effective, and standards-aligned.
• Coordinate internal staff, MSP engineers, vendors, and business stakeholders to remove blockers, make timely decisions, and deliver measurable outcomes.

Strategy, Security & Continuous Improvement

• Own the IT roadmap and lifecycle plan to improve reliability, security, scalability, user experience, and cost effectiveness, including tested business continuity and disaster recovery capabilities.
• Own the IT budget and communicate roadmap progress, service health, project risks, security posture, and investment decisions to executive leadership.
• Supervise the Cybersecurity Lead to improve Amyris's security posture, advance CIS Controls compliance, strengthen identity and access, improve recovery readiness, and adapt security strategy as AI reshapes threats and technology use.
• Support pilots of emerging technologies, including AI (LLM/ML), and translation of successful experiments into secure, scalable, and well-governed enterprise services.

Team, Vendor & Business Leadership

• Lead and develop internal technical staff; set clear priorities and performance expectations while fostering collaboration across employees, contractors, regional teams, and providers.
• Own relationships with US- and Brazil-based MSPs and key vendors, including selection, scope, commercial performance, and contract governance.
• Partner across all functions and with Computing peers to clarify requirements, manage tradeoffs, lead change, and ensure technology delivers intended value.

Basic Qualifications

• 10+ years of progressive IT infrastructure and operations experience, including 5+ years leading technical teams and complex enterprise programs.
• Proven leadership in a global co-managed services model is required. This includes creating shared ownership across internal teams and external providers in multiple countries.
• Proven success leading complex infrastructure, cloud, endpoint, collaboration, and security programs across internal teams and external providers, with strong command of delivery, risk, budgets, and stakeholder communication.
• Deep, current expertise across enterprise networking, cloud and virtualized infrastructure, Microsoft 365 and Azure, endpoint management, identity and privileged access, cybersecurity controls, backup and recovery, IT service management, and knowledge-management platforms.
• Hands-on experience with hybrid Microsoft identity, including Active Directory, domain controllers, Group Policy, Entra ID and Entra Connect, Exchange hybrid, Conditional Access, MFA, and SAML/OIDC single sign-on and role-based access across cloud and SaaS platforms, and the capability to audit MSP changes, detect configuration drift, and govern privileged access.
• Hands-on experience with co-managed Windows and macOS endpoint management, including Intune, Configuration Manager, Autopilot, patching, application packaging, Microsoft Defender, and iOS and Android mobile device management, and the capability to verify MSP compliance, patching, and deployment reporting.
• Hands-on experience with PKI and certificate services, VPN and remote access, internal and external DNS and email authentication, Google Workspace, and HR-to-directory provisioning, and the capability to assume ownership of critical systems from departing staff and eliminate single points of failure.
• Continuous-improvement mindset with measurable results in service quality, automation, process maturity, security, or cost effectiveness.
• Excellent written, verbal, and executive communication skills; able to explain technical tradeoffs clearly, make decisions with incomplete information, and maintain credibility with engineers and business leaders.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience leading network modernization, CIS Controls implementation, enterprise endpoint refreshes, SharePoint migrations, cloud migrations, or comparable large-scale infrastructure programs.
• Experience operating a Microsoft-centered enterprise environment, including Microsoft 365, Azure, Entra ID, Intune, SharePoint, enterprise networking, cloud infrastructure, security, and IT service management.
• Experience using PowerShell, Bash, and shell scripting to automate infrastructure and operational tasks, together with Jira Service Management and Jira Assets (CMDB) administration following ITIL practices.
• Relevant certifications such as PMP, ITIL 4, CISSP, CCNP, Microsoft Azure, or equivalent demonstrated expertise.
• Bachelor's degree in information technology, computer science, engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• Understanding of how AI is reshaping cybersecurity threats, controls, governance, and enterprise technology strategy.
• Portuguese language proficiency.

The salary range for this role is: $176,000 to $237,000.

As a VEVRAA Federal Contractor, Amyris is an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, sex, color, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. Amyris complies with applicable state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment.

Amyris is committed to fair and equitable compensation practices. Salary offers are made based on internal equity and market analysis, and will vary based on the candidate's skills, depth of experience and specific work location.

Amyris is committed to providing a diverse array of inclusive benefits and perks to support employees and their families' wellbeing including access to robust healthcare, mental wellness benefits, family leave, discounted fitness memberships, education reimbursement, flexible paid time off, 17 paid holidays, 10 paid sick days, and additional paid time off including 3 volunteer days, and bereavement.

What may Candidates Expect from Amyris?

At Amyris, we strive to provide a transparent and professional hiring experience. Our interview process typically includes a combination of in-person meetings and phone conversations. Genuine job offers are always communicated by an authorized member of our Human Resources team before being sent via email. Please note that all official communication from Amyris employees will come from an email address ending in "amyris.com" or from "no-reply@greenhouse.io."

Fraudulent Employment Offers: Amyris has experienced a recent increase in fraudulent Amyris job listings on third-party sites, as well as fraudulent interview requests and job offers sent to candidates. In addition, people impersonating employees of Amyris have been sending fraudulent job screening or new-hire screening communications requesting candidates to provide personal information. Please be advised that these offers, communications, and impersonations are illegitimate and fraudulent. If You Receive a Suspicious or Fraudulent Communication or Employment Offer, please contact hr@amyris.com

We hold deep regard in the power of representation and cultivation of a diverse work environment. Join us at Amyris, where you can find a sense of belonging and know that your voice is centered. At Amyris, we believe that diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) is essential to our core values. We embrace and encourage an equity-minded work culture, knowing that it is the driving force of innovation that positively impacts our employees, consumers, and communities. For Amyris, a sense of belonging is what drives our mission forward and is the foundation of everything we do, ensuring a healthier, more sustainable future for us all.

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As a VEVRAA Federal Contractor, Amyris is an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, sex, color, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. Amyris complies with applicable state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment.

If you are a recruiter or placement agency, please do not submit resumes to any person or email address at Amyris, Inc. prior to having a signed agreement. Amyris is not liable for and will not pay placement fees for candidates submitted by any agency other than its approved recruitment partners. Furthermore, any resumes sent to us without an agreement in place will be considered your company's gift to Amyris and may be forwarded to our recruiters for their attention.