IT Support Specialist - Freelance

JOIN THE SAWHORSE TEAM

Sawhorse Productions is a Los Angeles based, Award winning full-service creative studio turning ideas into unforgettable experiences through captivating branded content, viral social moments, and groundbreaking interactive experiences. We partner with industry-leading brands, artists, and studios such as Walmart, Google, NBCUniversal, Fanatics, Toyota, Pepsi and Alo to deliver industry leading, innovative multi-platform content. At Sawhorse, we believe in fostering a culture of collaboration, creativity, and relentless excellence while shaping the future of digital storytelling.
Our projects include:

• Branded content
• Social/Digital Content
• Broadcast commercials 
• UGC Gaming platform experiences
• Interactive/Web3 activations (AR, VR, MR, AI)

We are seeking a freelance sharp, solution orientated IT Support Specialist to provide on-site coverage for our LA studio during a short-term absence of our IT Manager. This is a reactive support role focused on keeping the studio running smoothly: handling emergency onboards and offboards, responding to last minute requests from the team, and serving as the on the ground point of contact for anything that cannot wait. You will be working from a detailed playbook prepared specifically for this engagement, with our IT Manager reachable for escalations.

Our office is located in Los Angeles. While we are a remote-first company, hybrid in-office presence will be required in emergency situations or where critical tasks are required.

• Identity & Access Management: Execute onboards, offboards, and access changes through Okta, Airtable, and Microsoft accounts, following documented procedures for our standard provisioning workflows.
• Reactive Helpdesk Support: Field incoming tickets and requests from staff and partners, triaging and resolving issues within agreed response windows.
• Mac & PC Troubleshooting: Troubleshoot hardware and software issues across our primarily Mac environment, with PC support for our editorial workstations.
• Emergency Response: Respond to time-sensitive infrastructure issues using documented escalation paths, including server downtime scenarios and partner-facing access incidents.
• Studio Security Compliance: Maintain studio-grade security practices in line with major entertainment partner requirements while working within the systems and policies already in place.
• Documentation Adherence: Follow the detailed runbook prepared for this engagement and log all actions taken so the IT Manager has a clear handover when coverage ends.
• Stakeholder Communication: Communicate clearly with internal team members, producers, and external partners about issue status, expected resolution times, and any escalations.

• Experience: 3+ years of experience in IT support roles, ideally at Level 2 or above, within a creative studio, production company, agency, or post-production environment.
• Okta Expertise: Hands-on experience administering Okta for user provisioning, deprovisioning, and access management. This is the most critical technical skill for the role.
• Cross-Platform Support: Strong working knowledge of both macOS and Windows in a mixed creative studio environment, including troubleshooting for editorial and creative workstations.
• Studio Tooling: Working familiarity with Airtable, Google Workspace, Slack, and the core platforms used to run a modern creative studio.
• Procedural Discipline: Demonstrated ability to follow documented procedures precisely and operate within clearly defined boundaries of responsibility.
• Composure Under Pressure: Track record of staying calm and methodical when handling time-sensitive issues in high-stakes production environments.
• Responsiveness: Ability to respond to support requests quickly during core working hours and meet tight SLAs for emergency situations.
• Trust & Discretion: Comfortable handling elevated administrative access responsibly, including familiarity with sensitive partner data and studio security requirements.
• Communication: Clear, professional written and verbal communication with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

• Prior experience covering for an absent IT lead or short-term contract coverage assignments
• Familiarity with studio-grade security compliance frameworks used by major entertainment partners (TPN, MPA best practices)
• Experience supporting editorial, VFX, or post-production teams on Mac & Windows based workstations
• Exposure to Microsoft security tooling and entertainment studio audit processes
• Network and server troubleshooting fundamentals beyond identity management

$45 - $60 per hour depending on experience

EEO Statement

Sawhorse Productions is an equal employment opportunity employer. All employees and applicants are evaluated on the basis of their qualifications, consistent with applicable state and federal laws. In addition, Sawhorse Productions will provide reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities. Sawhorse Productions will consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with the requirements of applicable state and federal law.