Senior Technical Support Manager

2 мес. назад

United KingdomEuropeSeniorHybrid

zendesk

Lead and manage global technical customer support teams ensuring operational performance and strategic contribution to the business.

О компании

Our mission is to empower every business to eliminate financial crime. 
By harnessing AI, a unified platform, and an extensive partner ecosystem, we help customers turn compliance into a catalyst for growth, operational resilience, and enduring regulatory trust.
More than 3,000 enterprises across 75 countries rely on our end-to-end platform and the world’s most comprehensive financial crime risk intelligence. With full-stack agentic automation, we help organizations automate up to 95% of KYC, AML, and sanctions reviews, cut onboarding times by 50%, reduce false positives by 70%, and handle 7x more work with the same staff.
is headquartered in London and has global hubs in New York, Lisbon, Singapore, and Cluj-Napoca. It is backed by Balderton Capital, Index Ventures, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, Goldman Sachs, and Andreessen Horowitz. Learn more about compliance re-engineered for the age of AI at  .com .

Требования

We are looking for someone who combines operational rigour with genuine passion for customer outcomes and team development. You have operated at a senior manager level — with real accountability for performance, development, and operational decisions across multiple teams or tiers — not someone stepping into a multi-team leadership role for the first time.

Другое

We are looking for a Senior Manager, Technical Support to lead our global customer support function across two distinct teams: an L1 team of 6 analysts based in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, and a remote L2 team. You will own the operational performance, quality, and development of both teams, and you will be responsible for ensuring that the right work lands at the right level — with L1 handling high-volume, well-defined requests, and L2 owning complex, technical, and escalated cases.
This is a senior people leadership role. You will be close to the data and close to your teams, but your primary job is to raise the bar — on quality, on accountability, and on the strategic contribution that support makes to the business. You will set the direction for how both teams operate, how performance is measured, and how support insight is used to drive product and process improvement.
We have recently migrated from Zendesk to Pylon as our customer ticketing platform. We do not expect you to have Pylon experience — but we do expect you to be the kind of person who picks up a new system quickly, configures it to work well, and continuously optimises it as the teams’ needs evolve.
Four qualities matter most in this hire. They are called out here because they are non-negotiable, and because we want to be transparent about what success looks like.
Proven senior people leadership.  You have managed managers or led multiple teams, not just individual contributors. You are comfortable holding people accountable, having difficult conversations early, and building a culture where the team knows where it stands and feels supported to grow. This is not a first management role.
Using data and AI to drive decisions and accountability.  You use data as a matter of habit — to spot trends, quantify problems, and hold others accountable across both teams. You are genuinely curious about AI tools and how they can make the function smarter and faster. You can translate support insight into commercial language — CSAT, churn risk, ARR exposure — and use it to influence Product and Engineering prioritisation, not just report it upward.
Structural thinking about L1/L2 operations.  You understand how to design the boundary between L1 and L2 — what belongs at each tier, how escalations should flow, and how to prevent L2 from becoming a dumping ground for tickets that L1 should own. You can define and enforce that structure, and you use it to drive efficiency and quality across both teams.
Meticulous attention to detail and an uncompromising commitment to world-class customer service.  You hold yourself and your team to the highest standard — and that includes the interactions where you fall short. You treat service failures as learning opportunities, not noise to be managed away. You take personal responsibility for quality at every level: you own the post-mortems, you ensure the training follows, and you create an environment where continuous improvement is the expectation, not the exception. You are direct about underperformance and consistent in following through.
Lead, coach, and develop both teams: a 6-person L1 team based in Cluj, and a remote L2 team. Each team has distinct operational rhythms and development needs; you will set direction for both.
Define and maintain the operational boundary between L1 and L2: what each tier owns, how escalations are triggered and tracked, and how to continuously improve the split as ticket patterns evolve.
Set clear performance expectations and hold regular, structured 1:1s — not just check-ins, but genuine conversations about quality of work, individual development, and progression.
Actively performance-manage underperformance across both teams: give direct, constructive feedback early, set improvement goals, and follow through. Both teams should always know where they stand.
Create structured development paths so analysts and engineers at both levels can grow in capability and take on greater ownership over time, including preparing the strongest performers for step-up opportunities.
Take ownership of service failures: when the team falls short of the standard, ensure that root cause is understood, feedback is given directly, and the lesson is embedded — not absorbed quietly.
Maintain a continuous training programme for both teams: identify knowledge gaps proactively through ticket QA, CSAT data, and 1:1s, and ensure targeted training is in place to close them. Training is a standing operational responsibility, not an occasional event.
Build a culture of accountability, curiosity, and customer empathy across both teams, where quality of work is taken personally and ownership of outcomes is the norm.
Partner with Singapore-based coverage to ensure genuine follow-the-sun continuity for our global customer base.
In addition to handling complex and escalated cases, the L2 team owns a distinct and forward-looking remit:
Design and implement automations that reduce manual effort and improve throughput across the support function — at both L1 and L2.
Build and maintain AI skills to accelerate resolution of repetitive or high-volume query types, continuously refining them as ticket patterns evolve.
Share automation and AI tooling with the L1 team where appropriate — L2 should be an engine for capability uplift across the whole function, not just their own queue.
Document automation logic, decision rules, and AI skill parameters clearly so that improvements are sustainable and not dependent on individual knowledge.
Own day-to-day ticket operations across both tiers: triage, prioritisation, escalation, and resolution.
Manage the L1/L2 escalation pathway: ensure escalations are well-documented, clearly prioritised, and tracked to resolution without falling into a backlog at L2.
Oversee shift operations for the Cluj L1 team and ensure remote L2 coverage is structured and accountable.
Own shift handovers and ensure nothing falls through the gap between coverage windows or between tiers.
Maintain and improve team playbooks, escalation procedures, and standard operating procedures for both teams.
Monitor queue health in real time across both tiers and intervene early when volume, backlog, or SLA trends deteriorate.
Set and own measurable targets for reducing Response Time and Resolution Time across both tiers; track progress rigorously and report to leadership on a regular cadence.
Own the configuration, reporting, and continuous optimisation of Pylon as the primary ticketing platform for both teams.
Build and maintain dashboards that give both teams — and leadership — clear visibility of performance, backlog, and trends at each tier.
Identify manual or repetitive workflows and drive automation where tools allow, including Pylon’s integration with Slack, Linear, and Jira.
Evaluate and pilot new tooling as the support stack evolves, including AI-assisted capabilities for ticket routing, deflection, and workflow guidance.
Use data to drive decisions: analyse ticket trends across both tiers, identify recurring issues, and surface product or process gaps to Engineering and Product.
Leverage AI tools to identify patterns in support volume, predict demand, and proactively address issues before they escalate.
Champion root cause analysis over recurring workarounds — push for systemic fixes at the appropriate tier.
Track KPIs including CSAT, first reply time, resolution time, backlog ageing, escalation rates, and L1–L2 deflection rates; report regularly to senior stakeholders.
Use L2 insight to improve L1 tooling, playbooks, and self-service resources — the two tiers should make each other better.
Act as the voice of the customer internally, representing support trends — from both tiers — in cross-functional discussions with Product, Engineering, and Customer Success.
Hold Product accountable for recurring pain points: quantify the business impact of unresolved issues in terms of CSAT trends, churn risk, and ARR exposure. Support insight should carry commercial weight in product prioritisation discussions.
Ensure seamless escalation coordination with the Customer Success team during complex or high-priority customer situations.
Champion a self-serve mindset across the function: continuously enhance the online knowledge base, track KB usage and deflection rates alongside ticket trends, and move quickly to address gaps. The goal is fewer avoidable contacts, not just faster responses.
Instil a culture of proactive customer communication — over-communication, not radio silence. When customers are waiting, they should hear from us. When issues recur, we should be ahead of them. Set the standard and hold the team to it.
Contribute to QBRs and executive updates with data-backed insight on support performance and customer health across both tiers.
has a formal, well-established incident response plan for major service disruptions. Customer-facing communications during incidents are owned separately. The Senior Manager’s responsibility is process adherence and measurement across both teams.
Ensure both teams follow established incident response procedures consistently and without delay when disruptions occur.
Act as the support-side point of contact during incidents, coordinating with the responsible individual for customer communications and with Engineering for resolution updates.
Maintain clear visibility of incident-related ticket volume, SLA impact, and team response times across both tiers throughout.
Contribute to post-incident reviews from the support perspective; ensure any process gaps or training needs identified are addressed.
Use incident data to monitor recurring disruption patterns and surface systemic risks to Product and Engineering.
4+ years of experience in technical or customer support, with at least 2–3 years in a management role with direct accountability for multiple teams or a tiered support function (L1/L2 experience strongly preferred).
Demonstrated track record of performance managing individuals and, ideally, team leads: setting expectations, delivering feedback, running improvement processes, and making difficult calls.
Proven experience managing distributed or remote teams, ideally across time zones.
Hands-on experience defining and operating a tiered support model — including ownership of the L1/L2 boundary, escalation design, and cross-tier quality standards.
Hands-on experience configuring, reporting on, and optimising ticketing or CRM platforms (Zendesk, Freshdesk, Intercom, Salesforce Service Cloud, or similar — Pylon experience not required but fast learning is essential).
Experience working in a B2B SaaS environment, preferably supporting technical or compliance-adjacent products.
Sharp eye for detail — you notice when something is off before it becomes a problem, and you hold the line on quality even when it’s inconvenient.
Data-driven: comfortable pulling reports, spotting trends across tiers, and using insight to guide decisions rather than gut feel alone.
Genuine enthusiasm for AI tools and automation — you actively look for ways to work smarter, not just harder.
Able to translate support data into commercial language: CSAT, churn risk, ARR impact — and use it to influence stakeholders beyond the support function.