Customer Reliability Engineering Manager

Phaidra • ,

4d • $125,395 - $236,038 • Remote

About The Position

Phaidra is a remote company that builds AI agents to help data center operators understand infrastructure, troubleshoot issues, and optimize facility performance, reliability, and efficiency. The Customer Reliability Engineering Manager is a player-coach leading a small team of Customer Reliability Engineers (CREs), splitting time approximately evenly between managing the team and owning a portfolio of deployed customer sites.

For assigned accounts, the manager monitors Prism Insights, diagnoses facility anomalies, and follows up with customers. As team lead, they coach CREs, provide direct feedback, establish repeatable and scalable processes, and serve as the first escalation point for technical and customer issues. They collaborate with Customer Success Managers, Technical Program Managers, Solutions Engineers, Data Scientists, Account Executives, and Product. The role also involves improving CRE workflows and documentation, coordinating implementation handoffs, and traveling to customer sites when warranted for training or escalations.

The position is remote. Phaidra hires internationally in specified countries and does not provide visa sponsorship. The role offers a location-dependent base salary, equity, and benefits that may vary by region.

Requirements

• Experience leading, coaching, or mentoring engineers in a customer-facing or operations role, formally or informally.
• Experience turning a messy, recurring problem into a process others follow.
• Experience owning customer escalations from detection through resolution.
• Ability to give candid, constructive feedback and hold oneself and others to a high standard.
• Experience helping interview, onboard, or train new team members.
• Working knowledge of chiller plant fundamentals, configurations, and sequence of operations.
• Understanding of electrical power distribution systems.
• Understanding of applied thermodynamics for cooling systems, refrigeration systems, and hydronics.
• Working knowledge of industrial and commercial control systems and protocols such as BACnet and Modbus.
• Understanding of data center cooling methodologies and controls, including chilled water and direct expansion systems.
• Comfort working with data center operations teams in the field.
• Ability to translate customer-stated and customer-implied needs into clear requirements for the software development team.
• Excellent communication skills, including the ability to explain complex domain concepts and AI and ML concepts to non-experts.
• Degree in Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, Control Theory, Applied Mathematics, or a related field, or equivalent experience.

Nice To Haves

• Experience in mission-critical facilities, industrial controls, field service, or reliability engineering.
• Prior experience as a team lead or first-line manager.
• Experience scaling a support function through rapid customer growth.
• Experience defining team metrics, SLAs, or customer health scoring.
• Experience working with services within cloud platforms.
• Experience applying AI, ML, and LLMs in controls applications.
• Experience with statistics, analytics, and domain-relevant optimization problems.

Responsibilities

• Manage and develop a team of Customer Reliability Engineers.
• Hold regular one-on-ones with CREs, set goals, track growth, and contribute to performance reviews.
• Attend some CRE customer meetings and provide direct, actionable feedback afterward.
• Act as the first escalation point for technical and customer issues across the team’s portfolio, escalating to Customer Success leadership when broader involvement is needed.
• Support hiring by interviewing candidates, helping shape interview plans, and onboarding new hires.
• Standardize and productionize team workflows, including Insights triage, weekly findings reports, account reviews, and customer communications.
• Maintain and improve the CRE playbook, Hypercare Weekly template, and team documentation.
• Coordinate handoffs from implementation teams at CX4.3, CX5.2, and CX6.
• Promote consistent use of the ticketing system, time tracking, and other business systems across the team.
• Contribute to team resource planning and account assignments.
• Own a portfolio of named accounts, monitor Prism Insights, and triage and diagnose facility issues.
• Identify patterns across team accounts and partner with Product to turn them into requirements, automated checks, or tooling.
• Travel to customer sites when warranted for training or escalations.

Benefits

• Competitive compensation and meaningful equity.
• Professional development and functional, customer-immersion, and development training.
• Medical, dental, and vision insurance, with exact benefits varying by region.
• Unlimited paid time off, with a required minimum of 20 days per year.
• Paid parental leave, with exact benefits varying by region.
• Flexible stipends to support workspace, well-being, and continued professional development.
• Company MacBook.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Manager