About the role
Who We Are Serval is an AI-native automation platform transforming how enterprises operate. We build intelligent agents that understand real-world workflows and execute them end-to-end — replacing manual processes and rigid legacy systems with adaptive, learning software. Founded in early 2024, Serval is already trusted by companies like Fox, Notion, Perplexity, Vercel, Mercor, LangChain, and Verkada to automate high-volume, high-friction operational work across their organizations. At the core of Serval is an agentic AI platform that turns natural language into production-grade workflows. Our agents don’t just respond to requests — they reason, take action across systems, and continuously improve with usage. What began with operational use cases has quickly evolved into a horizontal AI automation layer used across IT, HR, Finance, Security, Legal, and Engineering. Our mission is to eliminate repetitive, manual work across the enterprise and give teams leverage through intelligent automation. Long term, we’re building the universal AI operations layer — a system of agents that sits across business functions and runs the workflows that keep modern companies moving. We’re backed by leading investors including Sequoia Capital, Redpoint Ventures, Meritech, First Round, General Catalyst, Elad Gil, and others, and founded by product and engineering leaders from Verkada. Role Overview Serval is building the future of ITSM, and we're looking for a Head of IT. This is someone that not only leads our internal IT function but also serves as a Product Partner to our Product team. This is a hybrid leadership role unlike any other in IT today: half of your week, you're running and scaling Serval's IT organization as our most senior practitioner. The other half, you're in the market — meeting customers, speaking at events, shaping the product roadmap, and translating real-world IT operator pain into product direction. You'll be Serval's most credible voice in the IT community: someone who has actually run IT at scale, can speak peer-to-peer with Heads of IT at our customers, and uses Serval daily as their primary toolset. What you build internally becomes the proof point. What you learn from customers becomes the roadmap. This role reports to the executive team and is onsite in San Francisco. What You'll Do Lead Serval's IT Function: Own the strategy, architecture, and execution of Serval's internal IT — identity and access infrastructure (SSO consolidation, RBAC, SAML/SCIM provisioning, zero-touch onboarding/offboarding), endpoint management, SaaS governance, and security/compliance posture. Set the multi-year roadmap and deliver it. As we scale, build out and lead the IT team, mentoring engineers and establishing the operating model that supports a rapidly growing, AI-first company. Run Serval on Serval: Use our own ITSM platform as the primary system of record for every IT workflow you design — access requests, provisioning, lifecycle automation, recurring operations. You are our most demanding internal customer, and your daily use is a continuous pressure test that surfaces gaps, edge cases, and opportunities the product team would never see otherwise. Partner Deeply with Product & Engineering: Sit at the intersection of IT operations and product development. Translate operational insights into clear product feedback, prioritized feature requests, and design input. Work directly with PMs and engineers on roadmap shaping, spec reviews, and beta testing. You won't just file tickets — you'll help define what Serval becomes. Engage the IT Community: Represent Serval externally: meet with prospective and current customers as a peer, join sales conversations where senior IT credibility matters, speak on panels and at conferences, host roundtables, and build relationships across the IT leadership community. Bring that intelligence back to inform product, GTM, and positioning. Drive Security & Compliance: Lead access reviews, device controls, tooling rollouts, and audit evidence collection. Own Serval's IT-side compliance posture (SOC 2 and beyond) and partner with Security on broader programs. What You'll Need Senior IT leadership experience. 10+ years in IT engineering and operations, with at least 3+ years in a Director, Head of IT, or equivalent leadership role at a high-growth technology company. Built and scaled, not just maintained. You've stood up IT organizations from early scale through significant growth — designing the systems, hiring the team, and establishing the operating model. Deep technical fluency. Hands-on expertise with modern identity and access (Okta, SAML, SCIM, RBAC design), endpoint management (macOS, Kandji or equivalent), SaaS administration, and ITSM platforms. You can still go deep when needed — you haven't drifted into pure management. Automation-first systems thinker. You connect SSO, RBAC, endpoint, and SaaS into scalable, zero-touch workflows. You've replaced manual toil with reliable automation and can articulate why that matters. Customer-facing presence. You're comfortable — and energized — by meeting customers, speaking at events, and representing a company externally. You can hold a room of senior IT leaders, tell a credible story, and listen well enough to extract real signal. Product instinct. Worked closely with Product and can articulate what's broken about today's IT tooling, what good looks like, and how to get there. Why This Role Is Different Most senior IT roles are operational. Most product roles are removed from the realities of running IT. This one is both — and that's the point. You'll have the authority and resources to run IT the way it should be run, and a direct line into shaping the product that thousands of IT teams will eventually use. If you've ever finished a long week of IT work thinking "there has to be a better way to build this category," this role is your chance to actually do it. What We Offer Impact : Be a key player in shaping the success of our product and company. Growth : Build a fundamentally new AI product offering with the support of our experienced team and investors. Grow rapidly with the company. Culture : Join a culture that values innovation, ownership, accountability, and fun.