Incident & Escalation Manager

Selector Software•Santa Clara, CA

3d•$165,000 - $200,000•Onsite

About The Position

Selector AI is building a dedicated Incident & Escalation function to strengthen how we manage critical incidents and customer escalations as we scale. We are looking for an experienced leader who can define the vision, build the operating model, and drive execution. You will bring together existing practices across NOC, SRE, Solution Engineering, Engineering, Product, Support, and Account teams and establish a consistent, scalable approach to incident and escalation management. This is not simply an incident coordination role. You will build the function—from vision and process through execution, training, metrics, and continuous improvement.

Requirements

8–12+ years in incident management, escalation management, SRE operations, technical support escalation, or technical program management.
Experience building or transforming an incident/escalation program, not simply operating within one.
Strong ability to turn an ambiguous vision into process, ownership, tooling, training, and measurable outcomes.
Experience building and developing Incident Commanders.
Strong technical understanding of distributed systems, cloud, networking, observability, or enterprise platforms.
Calm under pressure, decisive with incomplete information, and willing to challenge unclear ownership or stalled execution.
Strong written and verbal communication, including executive updates and customer-facing RCAs.
Familiarity with PagerDuty, Jira, Slack, and incident management workflows.
Willingness to participate in the Incident Commander rotation, including off-hours coverage while the function is being established.

Nice To Haves

AIOps, NOC, networking, telecom, or AI-assisted operations experience is a strong plus.

Responsibilities

Define the model: Establish what is an incident vs. escalation, severity levels, entry/exit criteria, roles, decision rights, and escalation paths.
Build the process: Turn the model into practical workflows across NOC, SRE, Solution Engineering, Engineering, Product, Support, and Account teams.
Run the response: Own the pager and participate in the Incident Commander rotation, driving clear owners, actions, decisions, communication, and resolution.
Build the IC bench: Train, coach, and certify Incident Commanders so the organization does not depend on a few individuals.
Establish customer communication: Define communication cadence, executive updates, customer RCAs, and post-incident follow-through.
Drive accountability: Every escalation has an owner, next action, and date. Challenge stalled work and escalate when commitments are missed.
Close the loop: Ensure post-incident actions have owners and deadlines and are driven to completion.
Build the feedback loop: Identify recurring customer and operational issues and drive them into Engineering and Product priorities.
Measure the function: Establish meaningful metrics around response, resolution, escalations, RCA SLAs, repeat incidents, and corrective-action closure.
Evolve the model: Use automation and AI where appropriate to improve detection, triage, investigation, and incident response while maintaining clear human accountability.