# Customer Support Manager

**Company:** [Chainguard](https://hotfix.jobs/companies/chainguard)
**Location:** Remote
**Role:** Support Engineering
**Salary:** $140k – $165k/yr
**Experience:** 4+ years
**Skills:** Linux, Kubernetes, Container Security, Zendesk, Llm-Assisted Workflows, Ticketing Systems, Ai-Assisted Triage, Escalation Management, Team Management, Metrics Reporting
**Posted:** 2026-06-16

> Manage the AMER Technical Support Engineering team, owning L2/L3 escalation quality, team development, tooling/automation, and cross-functional coordination with engineering. Requires 4+ years managing technical support or software engineers plus strong Linux/container technical credibility.

## Job Description

## Escalation Operations
- Own the L2/L3 escalation boundary: define routing criteria, review escalation quality, and drive down unnecessary L3 load without increasing customer time-to-resolution
- Maintain and improve escalation intake workflows including triage standards, ticket hygiene, and handoff artifacts for engineering partners
- Track escalation health metrics and report on trends to engineering leadership; identify capacity risks in eng teams before they become bottlenecks
- Run escalation retrospectives to close the loop on resolution patterns and feed signal back into product and documentation

## Team Development
- Manage, coach, support and develop the AMER Technical Support Engineering team, with direct attention to technical depth and debugging rigor
- Operate career leveling frameworks for IC growth (L1 through L6); hold bar on promotions and ensure growth plans are actionable
- Coordinate AMER handoffs with APAC and EMEA peer managers to maintain follow-the-sun coverage quality: clear ownership at every handoff, with uninterrupted SLA performance
- Identify and close skill gaps proactively, particularly in Linux fundamentals, container security, and Kubernetes ecosystems

## Tooling and Automation
- Own the support tooling stack including ticketing systems, AI-assisted triage, and deflection tooling
- Partner with engineering to build and maintain LLM-assisted workflows for escalation intake, ticket quality review, and knowledge retrieval
- Drive adoption of AI tooling across the team; know where automation adds leverage and where it introduces risk
- Use support data to surface product quality signals and operational trends to engineering and product leadership

## Cross-Functional Execution
- Serve as the primary interface between Technical Support Engineering and product engineering teams for escalated issues
- Maintain a functional relationship with Customer Success and GTM without allowing those teams to define support quality standards or escalation criteria
- Contribute to product feedback loops through reproducible, well-scoped bug reports and actionable pattern analysis

## Requirements
- 4+ years managing technical support engineers or software engineers in a production-facing environment
- Demonstrated ability to design and operate an escalation process
- Technical credibility in the Linux ecosystem; comfortable reading logs, understanding container runtimes, and engaging with engineering teams as an active peer
- Strong written communication; capable of writing clear escalation summaries, retrospective reports, and leadership-facing metrics briefs
- Track record of developing engineers through real feedback, structured growth plans, and calibrated performance conversations
- Comfort operating in a globally distributed support org with peer managers in other regions; strong handoff discipline

## Nice to Have
- Experience with container security, DevSecOps tooling, Kubernetes, or open source software ecosystems
- Familiarity with Zendesk or similar ticketing platforms at an operational level (workflows, configuration, reporting)
- Exposure to AI-assisted support tooling, LLM-based triage, or knowledge retrieval systems

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