Customer Support Manager - Aerospace & Defense, MRO (6 month contract)

IFS•Itasca, IL

1h•$85,000 - $95,000•Hybrid

About The Position

IFS is seeking a Customer Support Manager to lead EMX customer support operations through the IFS Service Centre process. This temporary role provides maternity leave coverage and ensures customer cases are handled professionally, consistently, and in line with global IFS support standards. The manager oversees day-to-day EMX Support Team activities, including case management, prioritization, escalations, service-level expectations, and customer communication. The role includes supporting and developing team members and coordinating with R&D, QA, DB, Consulting, and other internal groups to resolve customer issues. It also supports alignment of EMX support operations with IFS standards for processes, governance, customer communication, documentation, and knowledge sharing. The role may involve shift, coverage, or on-call participation according to business and customer support requirements. IFS describes its working model as a balance of remote and in-office work.

Requirements

Experience in application support, technical support, service operations, or a similar customer-facing support role.
Strong understanding of case ownership, incident handling, customer communication, escalation paths, and SLA/KPI-driven service delivery.
Ability to investigate, reproduce, and analyze customer issues, including application-level troubleshooting and evidence gathering.
Ability to understand customer operational impacts and translate business issues into technical support activities.
Clear, professional written communication and strong discipline around case notes, customer updates, and audit-ready documentation.
Ability to work effectively with Consulting, R&D, QA, DB, and other internal stakeholder groups.
Experience with ServiceNow, Jira, or similar work-tracking tools.
Customer-focused, structured, and quality-oriented approach, with strong ownership, prioritization, and a continuous-improvement mindset.
Willingness to work within agreed support coverage, shift, or on-call arrangements when required by the operating model.

Nice To Haves

Experience supporting airlines, MRO providers, business aviation operators, or defense aviation organizations.
Knowledge of aircraft maintenance planning, engineering records, maintenance control, or continuing airworthiness processes.
Experience working in a regulated or compliance-driven operational environment.
Experience working in an SLA/KPI-driven support environment.
Knowledge of EMX/Empower MX or comparable aviation maintenance management systems.
Knowledge of ITIL or similar practice.
Experience contributing to knowledge management, process improvement, or operational standardization.
Knowledge of aviation operations, including airline, MRO, business aviation, or defense aviation environments, and awareness of aviation maintenance planning, engineering, technical records, or support processes.

Responsibilities

Lead day-to-day EMX Support Team activities, including workload management, case ownership, prioritization, escalations, and customer communication.
Oversee customer support cases, incidents, and service requests to ensure they are prioritized, documented, and progressed according to support processes, service-level expectations, and quality standards.
Manage customer escalations and complex support situations, coordinating ownership, next steps, and communication with customers and internal teams.
Ensure clear, timely, and professional customer communication through designated support tools, email, and phone.
Collaborate with R&D, QA, DB, Consulting, and other internal teams to progress customer issues, manage dependencies, and remove blockers.
Support and develop team members through coaching, knowledge sharing, workload planning, and skills and capability development.
Ensure customer requests are appropriately classified and routed, distinguishing standard support from consulting, implementation, enhancement, or product-development activities.
Align EMX support operations with global IFS standards for case handling, prioritization, escalation, documentation, knowledge sharing, and processes.
Identify process gaps, recurring issues, and opportunities to improve support workflows, documentation, knowledge content, and operational practices.