Zak Winnick

Résumé

A career spent making the systems behind growing teams, guest experiences, and essential operations more dependable.

zak@winnick.io

Experience

June 2025–Present

San Francisco Bay Area

Rangeway

Chief Executive Officer

Building America’s first hospitality-driven premium EV charging network. Rangeway pairs ultra-fast DC charging with climate-controlled driver lounges, quality food and beverage, and hospitality-grade amenities across Waystations, Basecamps, and Summits along underserved U.S. travel corridors.

  • Developed a robust site development pipeline, including sites in California, Missouri, and Montana.
  • Built utility interconnection and permitting strategy for DC fast-charging sites.
  • Designed operations for remote, hospitality-driven charging locations.
  • Developed hardware, energy, and real estate partnerships.

January 2025–Present

San Francisco Bay Area

NorCal EVs

Executive Director

Founding Board Member and Executive Director of NorCal EVs, a 501(c)(7) nonprofit building Northern California’s largest cross-brand EV owner community.

  • Established nonprofit structure, membership programs, and digital presence from the ground up.
  • Lead community strategy, event programming, and marque partnerships across Rivian, Tesla, Ford, Polestar, and others.

January 2024–January 2025

San Francisco, California

Curai Health

Information Technology Manager

Led IT operations for a Series B healthtech company, driving security, compliance, and scalability improvements across a distributed workforce of 150+.

  • Migrated the HR, IAM, and MDM stack from Rippling to BambooHR, Okta, and Kandji, strengthening security and cutting device provisioning time from one hour to 15 minutes.
  • Built automated onboarding and offboarding workflows integrating HR, identity, and device systems, eliminating eight hours per week of manual work.
  • Established an internal IT documentation library supporting cross-functional knowledge sharing.

May 2022–January 2024

New York, New York

Octane

Senior Identity Services Engineer

Owned identity and access management for 800+ users at a fintech lender, directly supporting SOC 2 compliance and SaaS access governance.

  • Administered Okta across 20+ SaaS integrations, reducing access-request turnaround from two to three days to approximately two hours.
  • Built audit workflows supporting SOC 2 certification and annual audits.
  • Partnered with engineering and security on IAM architecture for a rapidly scaling organization.

January 2021–June 2022

Huntsville, Alabama

CommentSold

Information Technology Administrator

Owned end-to-end IT operations at a high-growth social-commerce SaaS company during rapid team expansion.

  • Supported IT operations as headcount scaled from 100 to 300+ across distributed and on-site teams.
  • Designed onboarding workflows that reduced new-hire IT provisioning time from one day to two hours.
  • Built asset-management protocols tracking 200+ devices across remote and headquarters locations, improving inventory accuracy and renewal cycles.
  • Served as primary internal IT support across SaaS, identity, hardware, and network issues, maintaining 98% resolution metrics.

January 2022–May 2022

Santa Monica, California

Sensei

Corporate Information Technology Manager

Led corporate IT for a premium wellness hospitality brand operating destination retreats and urban locations in a short-term engagement focused on operational maturity during a growth phase.

  • Owned Mac and Windows environments supporting 50 corporate employees and 200 property-based staff.
  • Led vendor integrations unifying HR, identity, and compliance systems into a single operational stack.
  • Executed network upgrades supporting new property openings and corporate expansion.
  • Partnered with security and compliance on frameworks supporting guest-data handling and corporate governance.

September 2017–July 2020

Nashville, Tennessee

Castlerock Asset Management, LLC.

Information Technology Manager

Led IT across a hospitality portfolio that included The Westin Nashville and The Bobby Hotel (now The Nash), covering guest-facing systems, infrastructure, and corporate operations.

  • Owned IT strategy and operations across three properties totaling 1,000+ guest rooms and 500 team members.
  • Deployed and maintained PMS, POS, networking, and security systems, achieving 99% uptime across the portfolio.
  • Negotiated vendor contracts and consolidated overlapping tools, saving approximately $50,000 annually.
  • Established network segmentation, firewall policies, and backup protocols supporting PCI posture and business continuity.
  • Led the IT work stream for new property openings, renovations, and acquisitions across the portfolio.

September 2015–August 2017

Brentwood, Tennessee

GEODIS

Tier II IT Support Analyst

Provided Tier II technical support for one of the world’s largest third-party logistics providers, covering corporate facilities and distribution centers critical to global supply-chain operations.

  • Resolved escalated tickets across hardware, networking, and enterprise software while exceeding targeted CSAT and SLA metrics on 200+ tickets annually.
  • Configured and deployed RF scanners and mobile-computing equipment essential to warehouse throughput across 150+ distribution centers.
  • Administered Active Directory and managed system configurations enterprise-wide.
  • Led the IT work stream for site rollouts and technology implementation projects.
  • Authored SOPs and technical documentation that strengthened Tier I-to-Tier II handoffs and reduced escalation volume.
  • Covered a 24/7 on-call rotation supporting round-the-clock supply-chain operations.

Education

College of the Canyons

Broadcast Journalism

Skills

Community & Nonprofit Leadership Device Lifecycle Management EV Charging Infrastructure Event & Program Development Identity & Access Management IT Operations Network & Property Technology Operational Leadership SaaS Administration Security & Compliance Site Development & Utility Coordination Systems Integration Vendor & Partner Management Workflow Automation

Certifications

  • Creating EV Charging Hubs: Innovative Design
  • FastTrack EV Charging Certification
  • Master Electric Vehicle Tech: Software Skills
  • Plug Into The Future — EV Charging Essentials
  • Fora Certified Travel Advisor

Publications