We are seeking a dynamic and hands-on leader to head up our client's infrastructure function. This role will play a crucial role in both the strategy and execution of their growing technical operations. This is a hybrid leadership role that balances strategic oversight with active technical contribution (25–50% hands-on). You'll be the point person for all infrastructure initiatives and serve as a key decision-maker on the technology leadership team. This role is built for someone who thrives in a fast-paced, high-growth environment and can think big while rolling up their sleeves when needed.

Worksite Location: On-site position in East St. Paul, MN

Salary Range:

• $140-150K per year + bonus
• No work visa sponsorship available; no C2C please

Benefits:

• 401(k) with 4% Company Match
• Medical, Dental, Vision, HSA/FSA, Fitness Reimbursement
• Company-paid life insurance, short-term/long-term disability
• Generous PTO, paid holidays
• Tech-first company: Innovation is central—significant investments in progressive technology as we scale.
• Autonomy & Influence: Reports to a seasoned, hands-off CIO who values independence and strategic thinking—this role is expected to own infrastructure decisions.
• Elite team: Work alongside talented engineers and IT professionals who value collaboration, excellence, and innovation.

Roles & Responsibilities: 

• Serve as the lead and primary escalation point for the infrastructure team, acting as both strategist and hands-on contributor.
• Delegate responsibilities while also directly supporting critical technical efforts.
• Mentor and coach team members, fostering a culture of accountability, skill development, and operational excellence.
• Partner closely with executive leadership, bringing technical insight to the table and helping shape company-wide IT strategy.
• Develop and implement infrastructure plans aligned with the company's aggressive growth trajectory.
• Lead and manage projects involving systems upgrades, expansions, and cloud integration.
• Execute on capacity planning and resource scaling to ensure systems meet present and future business demands.
• Proactively identify technical and operational risks and drive initiatives to mitigate them.
• Oversee system monitoring, performance tuning, and incident response to maintain high availability and reliability.
• Evaluate and implement redundancy, failover, and high-availability strategies.
• Lead root cause analysis and preventative action planning for performance degradation or outages.
• Act as a key infrastructure liaison to the security team, ensuring policies, practices, and threat mitigation alignment.
• Participate in audit readiness, compliance initiatives, and proactive security hardening.
• Work with the security team to interpret and act on SIEM data, audit findings, and vulnerability assessments.
• Establish enterprise-grade infrastructure practices and standards to support scalability, efficiency, and sustainability.
• Contribute technical insight to M&A activities, system transitions, and integration efforts as the company grows through acquisition.
• Guide best-in-class tooling and infrastructure decision-making, ensuring compatibility with the company's future-state architecture.

Required Skills & Experience:

• Proven experience with people management and leading technical teams
• Strong background as a player-coach – hands-on 25–50% of the time, with the ability to execute while also leading others.
• Demonstrated success in infrastructure strategy, planning, and delivery at the enterprise level.
• Deep experience with system administration in both Windows and Linux environments - Linux is a must-have hard requirement (90% Linux environment)
• Expertise in networking hardware and concepts, ideally with Cisco, Juniper, or similar systems.
• Strong planning, problem-solving, follow-through, and organizational skills.
• Experience with cloud infrastructure and migration is a strong plus.
• Security-conscious mindset and the ability to collaborate with dedicated security teams.
• Experience supporting or executing a data center to cloud transition (nice to have)

About Versique

Versique: /ver-seek/ adj. being both versatile and unique; n. a high-performance recruiting firm specializing in executive leadership search, direct hire, and interim hiring solutions. 

Versique Executive, Professional, & Interim Recruiting is a locally owned and operated hiring and placement firm based in the Twin Cities of Minnesota. With specialized practice areas across our three divisions, Versique delivers tailored expertise to a wide range of industries. What sets us apart is our team of recruiters—seasoned professionals who have worked in the very fields they now hire for, providing unmatched industry insight and connections.

We believe people are more than just resumes—they are transformative, unlocking the potential for organizational growth and success.

Versique is proud to be award-winning, earning recognition on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing private companies and the Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal's Fast 50 list for 2023. We are also consistently recognized as a Star Tribune Top Workplace and were named a Best Place to Work in 2022 by the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal.

Let's find your people, together.

Versique is an equal opportunity employer committed to creating a diverse workforce. We consider all qualified applicants regardless of race, religion, color, sex, national origin, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or veteran status.

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