Manager, Support Engineering
at CircleCI
San Francisco, Toronto, Canada, United States
Manager, Support Engineering
As Manager of Support Engineering, you will lead a distributed team of Support Engineers across North America and drive exceptional customer experiences for our Growth and High Touch Enterprise customer segments. This role combines traditional support leadership with modern automation and AI-driven support capabilities to efficiently scale our technical support operations.
About This Role
We're seeking a performance-driven leader who can blend deep technical expertise with modern support technologies. You'll manage a team of highly skilled Support Engineers who serve as true engineers—capable of resolving complex Tier 1-3 issues for our technical user base of developers, DevOps teams, and engineering leaders. This role emphasizes leveraging automation, AI assistance, and data-driven approaches to deliver scalable, world-class support.
Customer Segmentation Focus
- Growth Customers: Drive efficient, scalable support through automation and self-service capabilities
- High Touch Enterprise: Provide personalized, strategic technical guidance and dedicated support experiences
What You'll Do
Team Leadership & Development
- Lead and mentor a regional team of 6-8 Support Engineers across multiple time zones
- Coach team members on both technical problem-solving and modern support methodologies
- Develop career paths that emphasize AI-assisted troubleshooting and automation skills
- Foster a culture of continuous learning in emerging support technologies
AI & Automation Integration
- Implement and optimize AI-powered ticket routing, response suggestions, and resolution acceleration
- Build automated workflows for common technical issues and customer onboarding
- Leverage machine learning insights to predict and prevent customer issues
- Develop knowledge bases and self-service tools powered by AI content generation
Customer Segmentation Strategy
- Design differentiated support experiences for Growth vs. High Touch Enterprise segments
- Establish SLAs, escalation paths, and communication cadences tailored to each segment
- Implement proactive support strategies for Enterprise accounts using predictive analytics
- Balance automation efficiency for Growth customers with white-glove service for Enterprise
Process Innovation & Scaling
- Drive regional process improvements using automation and AI-assisted decision making
- Establish KPIs that measure both efficiency gains and customer satisfaction across segments
- Implement voice-of-customer programs that feed AI training and product development
- Partner with Product and Engineering teams on AI-driven product improvements
Strategic Collaboration
- Work with Customer Success to ensure seamless Growth-to-Enterprise customer transitions
- Collaborate with Sales Engineering on Enterprise pre-sales technical validation
- Represent regional customer needs and AI/automation opportunities to global leadership
- Drive adoption of new support technologies across the regional team
What We're Looking For
Leadership Experience
- 5+ years managing technical support teams of 5+ engineers in SaaS/DevTools environments
- Proven track record scaling support operations through automation and process innovation
- Experience with customer segmentation strategies and differentiated service delivery models
Technical & AI Capabilities
- Hands-on experience implementing AI/ML solutions in customer support environments
- Proficiency with support automation tools, chatbots, and workflow orchestration platforms
- Strong understanding of modern support technologies: AI-powered knowledge bases, sentiment analysis, predictive routing
- Experience with support analytics and business intelligence tools
Customer Focus
- Direct experience in technical support roles solving complex infrastructure and development issues
- Ability to translate technical problems into business impact and solutions
- Experience managing both high-volume Growth and strategic Enterprise customer relationships
Core Competencies
- Strong analytical mindset with experience using data to drive support strategy
- Excellent communication skills for both technical and executive audiences
- Ability to balance automation efficiency with personalized customer experiences
- Experience with change management in implementing new technologies and processes
Technical Bonus Skills
DevOps & Infrastructure
- CI/CD pipeline troubleshooting and optimization
- Container orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes) and cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure)
- Infrastructure as Code and configuration management tools
Development & Automation
- Scripting languages (Python, Bash, PowerShell) for support automation
- API integration and webhook development for support workflows
- Git workflows and version control best practices
Modern Support Stack
- Experience with AI support platforms (Intercom Resolution Bot, Zendesk Answer Bot, custom LLM implementations)
- Support ticketing systems with advanced automation capabilities
- Customer data platforms and support analytics tools
We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation.
About CircleCI
CircleCI is the world’s largest continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) platform, and the hub where code moves from idea to delivery. As one of the most-used DevOps tools - processing more than 3 million jobs a day - CircleCI has unique access to data on how the most effective engineering teams work, and the tools to help software companies successfully leverage the power of AI into their commercial applications. Companies like Hinge, HuggingFace, and Samsung use us to improve engineering team productivity, release better products, and get to market faster.
Founded in 2011 and headquartered in downtown San Francisco with a global, remote workforce, CircleCI is venture-backed by Base10, Greenspring Associates, Eleven Prime, IVP, Sapphire Ventures, Top Tier Capital Partners, Baseline Ventures, Threshold
Ventures, Scale Venture Partners, Owl Rock Capital, Next Equity Partners, Heavybit, and Harrison Metal Capital.
CircleCI is an Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action employer. We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, sexual stereotypes, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. We also consider qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state and local law.
