Support Engineering Manager (Software Product)

Full-time · Remote-Friendly · Engineering-facing The opportunity Istari is a self-hosted engineering platform with deep API surface area, a rich integration ecosystem, and demanding operational requirements. We're building the support function from the ground up — and we need a manager who can own it end to end. This isn't a ticket queue management role. You'll lead a small, high-caliber team of two Technical Support Engineers, own the support tooling and customer experience, drive the product feedback loop, and serve as the connective tissue between engineering customers and Istari's product and engineering teams. About the role Support at Istari is a quality gate, not a buffer. Engineering teams receive reproducible, severity-assessed bugs — not noise. In return, they commit to confirming bug reports within SLA, notifying support of releases and regressions, and joining monthly review sessions. You'll be expected to hold that standard and build the systems that make it sustainable.

Core Responsibilities

• Team operations — Hire, develop, and manage two TSEs. Own triage rotation, specialty coverage, and escalation paths.

• Support tooling — Configure and optimize Pylon: case routing, SLA rules, intake workflows, and customer-facing comms.

• Metrics & reporting — Track SLAs, bug triage accuracy, CSAT, and recurring issue rate. Report monthly to stakeholders.

• Knowledge base — Drive runbook creation and KB expansion. Every issue resolved more than twice should produce a runbook.

• Product feedback — Deliver quarterly support digests to the product team covering top issues, documentation gaps, and usability patterns. Participate in initial testing of releases.

• Engineering relationships — Maintain the quality gate between customers and engineering: route well-documented, severity-assessed bugs, not raw complaints.

Qualifications

• Required — software infrastructure & DevOps:  Kubernetes, Docker, relational databases (PostgreSQL or similar), observability tooling (Prometheus, Grafana, log aggregation), REST and GraphQL APIs, Linux administration, networking and TLS basics.
• Preferred — mechanical engineering & simulation:  Familiarity with CAD platforms (CATIA, SolidWorks, NX), FEA or structural simulation, CFD concepts, PLM/PDM workflows, or digital thread concepts. You don't need to be a mechanical engineer, but you should be comfortable talking to ones who use Istari every day.
• Leadership & support experience:  7+ years in a technical support or solutions engineering role; prior experience managing a team; demonstrated skill in SLA design, bug triage methodology, and written technical communication. Strong drive to get results for customer issues.