Josh Gister

Who builds Floor 2027?

The next floor isn't built yet. If you're hiring someone to build it, talk to Josh.

The company, today

A clean-energy company, now $3B+: vertically integrated, with a distributed, hybrid workforce of 750+ employees and contractors. I've been its Director of IT since January 2018.

How the elevator works

Scroll, swipe or use the arrow keys to ride down through the years. The panel jumps to any floor, and Skip the ride lists every floor as plain text.

AI adoption and governance

I led enterprise AI adoption and governance. It started in 2025 with ChatGPT for the whole organization, and covers tool evaluation, vendor management, usage policies and cost governance. Glean followed in 2026, with 94% adoption, and in January 2026 an 80–90% improvement in speed of discovery. Claude came mid-year.

Built by a team of AI agents

In 2026 a team of AI agents, OpenClaw with NemoClaw (NVIDIA agentic tooling), securely deployed with agent identities, built a bespoke, org-wide project-management app. It links all the primary enterprise SaaS platforms into one layer. The app itself is not agentic.

Passwordless, on the 2018 identity

Since 2025, authentication has been passwordless org-wide. It runs on the Microsoft 365 and Azure identity I established in 2018.

Security, a team of two

A Security Analyst joined in 2025, and security became two people: the analyst and the InfoSec Manager I hired in 2023, when the cybersecurity function started.

Contracts with an owner

I negotiate the core contracts for all technology and own enterprise IT budgeting and vendor strategy. In 2024 renegotiation, renewals and licensing audits delivered over $500,000 in savings, mostly recurring (annual run-rate).

A portfolio, not a pile

CRM (Salesforce), ERP (NetSuite), HRIS/HCM and the operational platforms Procore and Primavera P6. I led or supported deployments and optimization across them, partnering with Sales, Finance, HR and Operations leaders. Ongoing since 2018; major portfolio work in 2024.

Security, with an owner

In 2023 I hired an Information Security Manager and cybersecurity became a function. The function established a policy framework, audit readiness and cross-department workflows. A Security Analyst followed in 2025.

Leaders between the team and me

Until the 2023 leadership layers, everyone in IT reported directly to me. In 2023 IT was nine people, plus me. Support, which began with one agent in 2018, was six. IT has always reported into Technology.

The network becomes a function

A Palo Alto firewall had held the edge since 2018. In 2023 I hired a Network Engineer and the network became a function. Today its access points are Ruckus and Extreme, and its core is Cisco.

Three offices in one year

Austin, New York and Washington DC opened in 2023. New York and DC had structured cabling and building access before move-in. Austin was a pre-furnished space, so its video conferencing was intentionally light.

Joiner, mover, leaver

In 2022 I hired a Systems & Automation Engineer, and the automation function started. Its scope today: joiner/mover/leaver operations; SSO and SCIM configuration; Intune, Jamf and Zebra; workstation provisioning; integrations. It removes a leaver's sign-in access. By 2026 contractors went through the same automation as employees.

One office with servers

Lawrence, the operations site, opened in 2022 as the one office with servers and OT (operational technology), and Boston took a fourth floor the same year. Lawrence is also an office and warehouse.

Reporting to the SVP of Product & Technology

Since the second half of 2022 I've reported to the SVP of Product & Technology. I contribute to strategic planning across the company.

Built it, then handed it off, twice

In 2018 I incubated software development: three developers and a product manager, through a team-extension partner. I handed it to a dedicated lead in 2019. In 2020 I incubated product as Director of Product, and handed it off in 2021.

The meetings moved

In 2020, when everyone went home, the meetings moved without an AV project. The standard dated from the first two teleconference rooms, in Boston in 2018.

29 rooms, one standard

The first two rooms went into Boston in 2018, on one standard from the start. They multiplied through the COVID years, and the kit was unified by the time DC opened in 2023. Today: 29 rooms across Boston, Chicago, New York, DC and Lawrence.

Product had an owner

In 2020 I also took the Director of Product title, alongside Director of IT, with two product managers: the Salesforce administrator I'd hired in 2019, and an internal move. Product went to a dedicated lead in 2021.

Encrypted, wipeable, one build

In 2019 I deployed Intune for Windows and mobile devices: encrypted, remotely wipeable, on a standard build. Jamf and Zebra came later. Today the automation function's scope covers Intune, Jamf and Zebra.

Training for the whole company

In 2019, at ~150 people, annual security training began for the whole company, with a button to report suspicious email. Security got its own manager in 2023.

Chicago, on the VPN from day one

Chicago, the second office I opened, was on the VPN from day one, and so was every office after it. Sturbridge opened the same year with a full build-out, and in June 2025 folded into Lawrence. Every new office opened from one standard playbook: cabling, access, network, video conferencing.

Salesforce, with an administrator

In 2019 I hired a Salesforce administrator for the CRM. In 2020 that administrator became a product manager in the product function I was incubating.

Identity in the cloud, from day one

From day one, at ~80 people, I established cloud-first Microsoft 365 and Azure infrastructure and identity instead of building a server room: one identity per person, email in the cloud, designed for elastic scale and capex-light operations. SSO and MFA were enforced org-wide from 2018. I later hired and scaled the team that matured the platform.

A firewall in 2018, a network engineer in 2023

In 2018 a Palo Alto next-generation firewall went in at the edge, with guest Wi-Fi segmented from the start. The network had a boundary and rules before it had a network engineer; that hire came in 2023.

My first hire here: a support agent

Before I built IT, laptops were bought on credit cards. My first hire at the company, in 2018, was a support agent. I chose that role to keep staff from avoidable disruption, give a clear path for Support, and create bandwidth to start working on the systems needed for further growth. Support hires since: 2020, 2021, 2022 (two) and 2023.

Boston, the first office I opened

Boston was the first office I opened: ~9k to ~22k sq ft, cabled before move-in, with the first two teleconference rooms. A Haverhill office was already there when I joined, and later moved to Lawrence.

ip2geo.org

Registered 19 July 2017: a free IP geolocation lookup service, open source on GitHub. I run it end to end: the code, CI/CD, infrastructure and monitoring. Uptime: 99.96%+.

A new employer

Director of IT at a $200M company on a nine-building campus in Connecticut until December 2017. From January 2018, Director of IT at a clean-energy company, now $3B+, in Boston.

Nine buildings, one private network

Between 2014 and 2017 I linked all nine buildings on the campus with private fiber. That private network was separate from the 33% rise in wide-area network capacity.

Restore tested at setup

In 2015 I added Commvault for disaster recovery. The restore was tested once, at setup.

Two new facilities

From 2015 to 2017 I directed the IT infrastructure for two new 200k+ sq ft facilities: the network, telecom and access control systems.

Virtualized

In 2013 I migrated physical servers to a VMware virtual environment.

Communication costs down 33%

As Director of IT (2013 – December 2017), I led the transition to VoIP, reducing communication costs by 33% and giving remote and call-center teams more flexibility.

Company data, centralized

As Director of IT (2013 – December 2017), I centralized company data on NetApp. Before, it lived on workstations, portable drives and consumer NAS.

Promoted to Director of IT

In 2013 I was promoted from Senior Web Specialist to Director of IT. In that role, through December 2017, I led IT strategy and infrastructure for a $200M organization with 300+ employees on a nine-building campus, built a cross-functional IT team and aligned its processes with sales, marketing, creative and development.

Four to 80

I helped grow the web marketing team from four people to 80. The department's revenue reached $20M, and it supported over 500 companies.

Over 1.2 million visitors a month

I designed and maintained server infrastructure for high-traffic websites with over 1.2 million monthly visitors.

35,000+ leads a month

I guided the development of a custom content management and lead-generation platform. It generated over 35,000 leads a month.

DNS, explained

I mentored team members in DNS, email infrastructure and other technical areas.

6 new corporate offices (100k+ sq ft)

I planned and coordinated IT for 6 new corporate offices (100k+ sq ft), including structured network cabling, building access, intrusion detection and video conferencing/AV.