How to Stop Your Engineers From Becoming IT Support
Why technical employees end up running IT at growing startups, what it really costs, and how to move that work off their plate.
By Benicio Hernandez · September 27, 2026 · 5 min read
It happens at almost every startup. Someone needs a laptop set up, a password reset or access to a tool, and the most technical person nearby helps. Then it happens again. A year later, a senior engineer is the company's unofficial IT department.
Why it happens
- Early on, there's no one else, and each individual request is small.
- Engineers are capable and helpful, so people ask them.
- Nobody decides who owns IT, so it defaults to whoever is most technical.
- Without central management, every fix has to be done by hand, on the device.
What it actually costs
The obvious cost is time, but the bigger cost is interruption. Engineering work depends on long stretches of focus, and a steady stream of small IT requests breaks that up. There's also risk: IT done informally tends to mean shared admin accounts, inconsistent device security and access that never gets removed.
How to move it off their plate
- Decide who owns IT, whether that's an internal hire or an external partner. Make it explicit.
- Centralise identity: one account per person in Entra ID, with single sign-on to your SaaS tools.
- Manage devices centrally with Intune so setup and fixes don't require someone's hands on the laptop.
- Standardise onboarding and offboarding, then automate the repetitive parts.
- Give employees one clear place to request help that isn't an engineer's DMs.