Chainguard - Customer Support Manager
Requirements
• 4+ years managing technical support engineers or software engineers in a production-facing environment • Demonstrated ability to design and operate an escalation process: not just follow one • 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 • 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 • How This Role Is Measured: • Your success will be evaluated on outcomes that require both technical judgment and operational discipline: • L3 escalation score (quality and completeness of escalations reaching engineering) • Mean time to resolution on P0 and P1 tickets • L2 deflection rate with explicit accounting for customer time-to-resolution, not raw deflection volume • Coverage model reliability: no dropped handoffs, no SLA misses due to scheduling gaps
Responsibilities
• 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 • 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
Benefits
• $140,000—$165,000 USD • We live and breathe our company values: • We are customer obsessed — We focus on delivering solutions to our customers that create value and make their lives better. • We have a bias for intentional action — We prioritize, plan, try things, and fail fast. • We don't take ourselves too seriously (but we do serious work) — We are solving an important problem which takes focus, but we also like to enjoy the journey. • We trust each other and assume good intentions — We're transparent with decisions to empower team members to make well informed decisions. • Flexible & Remote-First Culture: Work remotely with team meetup opportunities, bi-annual destination summits, and a monthly stipend for coworking spaces, phone and internet costs. • Flexible & Remote-First Culture: • Our Approach to Equity: Receive stock options upon hire and promotion. Plus, you can participate in secondary offerings and have 10 years to exercise your options (yes, you read that correctly: 10 years!). • Our Approach to Equity: • 100% Covered Health Insurance: We cover 100% of your health, vision and dental insurance premiums for you and your dependents. Nothing comes out of your paycheck. • 100% Covered Health Insurance: • ∞ Flexible Time Off: Take the time you need – to do our best work, we need to recharge and reset. • ∞ Flexible Time Off: • 18 Weeks Paid Parental Leave: We offer 18 weeks for birthing parents and 12 weeks for non-birthing parents, with the option to use it all at once or throughout your child's first year. • 18 Weeks Paid Parental Leave: • If your experience is close but doesn't fulfill all requirements, please apply. We're building the best team in technology and are focused on hiring "Chainguardians" with unique backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences.
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