Senior IT Systems Engineer

ABOUT xAI xAI’s mission is to create AI systems that can accurately understand the universe and aid humanity in its pursuit of knowledge. Our team is small, highly motivated, and focused on engineering excellence. This organization is for individuals who appreciate challenging themselves and thrive on curiosity. We operate with a flat organizational structure. All employees are expected to be hands-on and to contribute directly to the company’s mission. Leadership is given to those who show initiative and consistently deliver excellence. Work ethic and strong prioritization skills are important. All employees are expected to have strong communication skills. They should be able to concisely and accurately share knowledge with their teammates. ABOUT THE ROLE: Are you a strategic thinker and proven problem-solver with deep expertise in modern IT ecosystems? We're seeking a Sr. IT Systems Engineer passionate about driving automation, maturing enterprise workforce identity and access management (IAM), and architecting scalable, secure SaaS integrations. This senior individual contributor role serves as a key technical resource, partnering closely with IT Services, Information Security, HR, Finance, and Engineering teams. You'll own the deployment and integration of mission-critical IT systems, act as the primary escalation point for complex IT outages and architectural challenges, and guide the evolution of our hybrid infrastructure to support rapid business growth. RESPONSIBILITIES: Lead the design, implementation, administration, and optimization of core SaaS platforms including Okta, Google Workspace, Slack, Atlassian, and other IT tools. Own end-to-end support, monitoring, troubleshooting, and performance tuning of applications, systems, and their complex interconnections—ensuring high availability, security, and seamless user experience. Help architect and advance our workforce Identity and Access Management program, including configuration of Single Sign-On (SSO), lifecycle management, provisioning/deprovisioning, access governance, and policy enforcement. Serve as the subject matter expert (SME) providing strategic technical guidance to support business expansion, system scalability, and infrastructure maturity. Drive cross-functional knowledge sharing by authoring, maintaining, and evolving comprehensive IT documentation, runbooks, and architecture diagrams. Proactively identify gaps, risks, and opportunities in the environment; lead initiatives to enhance security posture, operational efficiency, and resilience—prioritizing automation of manual/repetitive processes. Evaluate emerging technologies, IAM trends, and automation platforms; develop business cases and lead proof-of-concepts or adoption recommendations. Mentor junior engineers and collaborate with cross-functional teams to align IT capabilities with organizational goals. BASIC QUALIFICATIONS: 8+ years of hands-on experience administering and optimizing a broad portfolio of SaaS applications in a hybrid and high-growth environment—with advanced proficiency in our core stack: Okta (including Advanced Server Access & Workflows), Google Workspace, Slack Enterprise, Atlassian, etc. 4+ years of deep experience with n8n, Okta Workflows and/or other leading iPaaS/automation platforms (e.g., Workato, Zapier, BetterCloud, custom integrations). Expert-level knowledge of IAM principles and protocols: SSO, SAML, OIDC, OAuth 2.0, SCIM, JIT provisioning, SWA, RBAC, ABAC, and access governance best practices. Strong experience designing and working with APIs for custom integrations, data flows, and automation. Proficiency in scripting and automation for monitoring, alerting, and operational efficiency (e.g., Google Apps Manager (GAM), Python, Bash, PowerShell, Terraform, or similar); experience building custom solutions is highly valued. Solid working knowledge and administrative experience in Azure, AWS, and/or GCP cloud platforms. Exceptional analytical and troubleshooting ski