IT Operations Leader · Bothell / Seattle

Robert
Casto

I build IT operations people can rely on, and teams that can grow with the business.

I’m an IT operations leader based in the Seattle area. Over sixteen years, I’ve led service delivery, infrastructure, identity, security and endpoint operations through company growth and technology change. My work connects the technical details with the people, processes and budgets that keep an organization moving.

I’ve grown a help desk from one person to fifteen, raised service-level agreement (SLA) compliance from 76% to 96%, and managed $5M in IT procurement. My approach is practical: give people clear ownership, make performance visible, document what matters, and build tools that help the team do its work.

Leadership
Teams of up to 15
Operating scope
Service, systems, security and spend
Experience
Since 2010
Scroll
01Selected results

Operational change
you can measure.

The work ranges from stabilizing daily service to scaling global operations. The common thread is a clear baseline, a system people can follow, and an outcome the business can see.

1→15
Help desk team · Nextiva · 2016 to 2022

Grew the help desk from 1 to 15 people.

Built the team, processes and reporting needed as the company expanded from 200 to 2,800 employees across multiple countries.

$5MIT spend managed
10People led across the US and Mexico
150+SaaS apps in the onboarding and offboarding stack
9Domains operated
02Featured work

Tools and sites
I’ve built.

Two operations tools I built on my own, and three public sites I build and run in my spare time.

03Connected operations

The systems I lead, and how they connect.

Select a domain to explore an illustrative dependency model and see which operations rely on it. This is not live service health.

Select a domain

Network and connectivity is the deepest dependency on the platform. A failure there degrades seven of the other eight domains. Only vendor, asset and spend is unaffected. Select any domain to model its failure.

Network & connectivity

I keep the network available across primary service, backup service and failover, including name resolution and addressing for the platform.

Selected evidenceZscaler deployment and AV infrastructure refresh across 1,000+ users in the US and Mexico. Tessenderlo Kerley, 2023
Cloud firewall and MPLS rollout. StateServ, 2011

Vendor, asset & spend

I manage purchasing, vendor relationships and asset lifecycles, working with Finance to plan budgets and equip new and existing locations.

Selected evidence$5M IT procurement across CapEx and OpEx, with vendor negotiation and forecasting alongside Finance. Tessenderlo Kerley, 2023

Identity & access

I manage accounts, permissions and access changes so employees have what they need as they join, change roles and leave.

Selected evidenceOkta and Microsoft 365 identity through growth from 200 to 2,800 employees. Nextiva, 2016
IAM policy set with Infrastructure Security. Aircall, 2025

Endpoint fleet

I manage servers, workstations and peripherals from build and configuration through monitoring and retirement.

Selected evidenceHardware lifecycle for 1,000+ global endpoints. Aircall, 2025
Windows 11 migration for 1,000+ users. Tessenderlo Kerley, 2023

Productivity platform

I run the Microsoft 365 tenant, licensing, mail, files and collaboration tools people use every day.

Selected evidenceMicrosoft 365, Google Workspace, Atlassian, Okta and Mimecast administration. Nextiva, 2016

Security & compliance

I own the platform’s security and compliance work, including patching, endpoint protection, system health and audit readiness.

Selected evidenceZscaler zero trust deployment. Tessenderlo Kerley, 2023
Least privilege provisioning and audit readiness. SiteLock, 2016

Employee lifecycle

I coordinate onboarding, role changes and offboarding with hiring managers and vendors so access and equipment stay aligned.

Selected evidenceOnboarding and offboarding across Google Workspace, Okta, Zoom and 150+ SaaS applications. Aircall, 2025

Service delivery

I lead the incident and request queue across phone, portal and email, with clear priorities and service-level agreements.

Selected evidenceSLA compliance raised from 76% to 96% within the first year. Tessenderlo Kerley, 2023
Help desk grown from 1 to 15 staff, with ownership of every P1 and P2. Nextiva, 2016

Documentation & tooling

I build runbooks, procedures and internal tools that give the team a clear, shared way to operate.

Selected evidenceITIL-organized SOP library and runbooks for the Eastside platform. Eastside, 2026
04Experience

From frontline support
to leading IT operations.

The chart shows the full progression from frontline support to platform ownership. Four recent roles follow; the complete résumé carries every position and detail.

Eastside Exterminators

IT Leader
Jun 2026 to present
Bothell, WA
  • Sole IT owner for Eastside Exterminators, part of the Anticimex group, covering service delivery, infrastructure, security and compliance to Anticimex regional standards.
  • Corrected manager assignments for 91 employees in Microsoft Entra ID against Workday, so the org chart, approvals and access reviews run on accurate reporting lines.

Aircall

IT Operations Manager (Contract)
Aug 2025 to May 2026
Seattle, WA · Hybrid
  • Owned the full onboarding and offboarding stack across Google Workspace, Okta, Zoom and 150+ SaaS tools. New hires were provisioned and ready on day one regardless of time zone or office.
  • Managed hardware lifecycle for 1,000+ global endpoints, covering procurement, configuration, shipping to remote employees and asset tracking. Worked directly with Finance and Procurement on budget forecasting and vendor decisions.

Tessenderlo Kerley

Service Management Office Lead, ICT
Apr 2023 to Sep 2025
Phoenix, AZ · On-site
  • Raised SLA compliance from 76% to 96% in the first year, primarily by rebuilding triage and escalation workflows that had run on informal processes for years.
  • Managed $5M in IT procurement across CapEx and OpEx, including vendor negotiations, contract renewals and annual budget forecasting with the Finance team.

Also held: ICT Procurement Management, Jul 2023 to Sep 2025

Nextiva

Help Desk Manager
Aug 2016 to Dec 2022
Scottsdale, AZ
  • Grew the help desk from 1 to 15 people. Built the team, processes and reporting to support company growth from 200 to 2,800 employees across multiple countries.
  • Served as primary escalation owner for all P1 and P2 incidents, leading response, coordinating across engineering and operations, and driving resolution across time zones.
See the complete 16-year résumé

What I work in

Leadership & service

  • ITSM
  • Incident Management
  • SLA Management
  • KPI Reporting
  • Help Desk Leadership
  • Vendor Management
  • IT Budgeting

Platforms & security

  • Microsoft Entra ID
  • Okta
  • Microsoft 365
  • Google Workspace
  • Intune
  • Active Directory
  • Zscaler
  • Mimecast
  • Zendesk
  • Jira

Automation & engineering

  • PowerShell
  • TypeScript
  • React
  • Python
  • Microsoft Graph API
  • GitHub Actions

Certifications

05Contact

Let’s talk
IT operations.

If you’re growing a team, improving service delivery or modernizing the systems behind your business, I’d be glad to connect.