IT Manager

What do we do? Paddle offers digital product companies a completely different approach to their payments infrastructure. Instead of assembling and maintaining a complex stack of payments-related apps and services, we’re a Merchant of Record for our customers. That means we take away 100% of the pain of payments fragmentation. It’s faster, safer, cheaper, and, above all, way better. We’re backed by investors including KKR, FTV Capital, Kindred, Notion, and 83North and serve over 10,000 software sellers in 245 territories globally. The role Paddle’s IT team is looking for an IT Manager to lead and develop the team that keeps every Paddler equipped, connected, and secure. This is a role for someone who can operate at two altitudes at once: setting IT strategy, managing budget and vendor relationships, and leading people, while also being willing to get hands-on. You’ll lead a lean team of IT engineers, own the systems that underpin how the business works day to day (identity, devices, service delivery), and be the person who pushes the function forward – using data and automation, including AI, to change how IT operates rather than just keeping the lights on. What you’ll do • Lead, coach, and develop a lean team of IT engineers – setting priorities, unblocking their hardest problems, and stepping in hands-on for complex or escalated issues. • Own Okta identity and access management for the business: the lifecycle, integrations, and day-to-day administration that keep joiners, movers, and leavers secure and frictionless. • Own macOS and Apple device management and endpoint tooling across the business, in a way that’s secure by default and low-friction for Paddlers. • Drive the adoption of data, automation, and AI across IT operations – identifying where tooling and agents can remove manual toil, speed up support, and evolve how the team operates. • Set and own IT’s operating rhythm: support tooling, SLAs, and the metrics that show whether the function is improving. • Manage the IT budget and vendor portfolio – evaluating spend, negotiating commercial terms, ensuring that we’re operating efficiently and running a SaaS estate that spans across multiple departments. • Implement and maintain baseline security and resilience practices for IT-owned systems (CIS Benchmarks, patching, disaster recovery), partnering closely with the wider Security team on anything that crosses into security engineering. • Act as the conduit between IT and the rest of the business – translating department needs into IT capabilities. Skills & Experience At Paddle we value a growth mindset and a willingness to learn, so if you’re confident in most of these skills (not necessarily all) and you’re excited to grow, we encourage you to apply. We’d love to hear from you if you: • Have led or managed a technical IT team before, with a track record of developing people as well as delivering outcomes. • Are technically credible: strong systems administration and infrastructure fundamentals, and comfortable being the escalation point when something’s genuinely hard. • Have hands-on experience running an IAM platform in production, ideally Okta, including lifecycle automation and integrations. • Have in-depth knowledge of macOS and Apple hardware, ideally managing it in a corporate/enterprise environment (Iru or equivalent). • Are excited about AI and automation as tools for operational leverage, with examples of using them – or data and workflows more broadly – to change how a team works. • Can manage a budget and vendor relationships commercially: evaluating cost, negotiating terms, and knowing how to get the most out of a tool or platform. • Have experience running IT projects end-to-end, from scoping through delivery and stakeholder reporting. • Understand core security and compliance fundamentals well enough to implement and maintain them. • Communicate clearly and adapt your message for technical peers and non-technical senior stakeholders alike. • Are a strong leader who can hold a calm, clear line under pressure (incidents, competing priorities, escalations). Everyone is welcome at Paddle At Paddle, we’re committed to removing invisible barriers, both for our customers and within our own teams. We recognise and celebrate that every Paddler is unique and we welcome every individual perspective. As an inclusive employer we don’t care if, or where, you studied, what you look like or where you’re from. We’re more interested in your craft, curiosity, passion for learning and what you’ll add to our culture. We encourage you to apply even if you don’t match every part of the job ad, especially if you’re part of an underrepresented group. Please let us know if there’s anything we can do to better support you through the application process and in the workplace. We will do everything we can to support any accommodations needed. We’re committed to building a diverse team where everyone feels safe to be their authentic self. Let’s grow together. Why you’ll love working at Paddle We are a diverse, growing group of Paddlers across the globe who pride ourselves on our transparent, collaborative and respectful culture. We live and breathe our values, which are: Paddle for others Paddle together Paddle simply We offer a full suite of benefits, including attractive salaries, stock options, retirement plans, private healthcare and wellbeing initiatives. We invest in learning and will help you with your personal development via constant exposure to new challenges, an annual learning fund, and regular internal and external training. Connecting at Paddle We’re a ‘digital-first’ company, which means our Paddlers always have the freedom to choose where, when and how they work within our hub locations. We recognize that where our Paddlers do their best work is unique to them and we provide trust and autonomy for everyone to work in a way which fits them best. We also value the power of connection and have invested in global hubs which help local communities flourish and bring us together for focused collaboration. Our Paddle hubs: • In Europe: UK (London headquarters), Portugal (Lisbon hub), Netherlands and Ireland (Dublin hub) • In North America: Austin, TX (USA) and Toronto (Canada) Our hub philosophy creates an engaging experience for all Paddlers, wherever, whenever and however we choose to work. To support this, we focus hiring within our hubs and will always openly share the available locations for each open position on our job description.