Leader, Product Support

Benchling•San Francisco, CA

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Product Support Leader will lead our West Coast customer support team in close collaboration with our Global Support Leadership Team and Customer Experience Leadership Team. This is a hands-on leadership role responsible for delivering excellent technical support to Benchling's customers — including a growing portfolio of enterprise pharmaceutical companies operating in regulated, GxP environments — while developing a high-performing team and contributing to the evolution of our global support strategy. This role comes at a defining moment. Benchling is rapidly scaling its enterprise customer base and expanding into AI-powered capabilities that are changing how scientists interact with our platform. The Support team needs to evolve alongside those shifts — building enterprise-grade support practices, developing new expertise around AI product features, and deepening the trust that our largest customers place in us every day. You'll help lead that transformation. We're looking for someone who combines strong people leadership with deep customer empathy: a leader who can represent Support credibly in front of customers, account teams, and cross-functional partners, and who brings a point of view on how to continuously improve how we serve our customers.

Requirements

5+ years of experience in technical customer support, professional services, or a related customer-facing role in B2B software, ideally SaaS
2+ years of people management experience, with a demonstrated track record of building, coaching, and developing high-performing support teams
Proven ability to manage customer escalations with composure, empathy, and a bias toward resolution — including experience representing your organization in live customer conversations
Strong operational skills: experience managing ticket queues, resourcing, prioritization frameworks, and SLA-driven environments using tools like Salesforce, Zendesk, JIRA, or similar platforms
Excellent judgment in prioritizing customer issues based on urgency, severity, and business context (e.g., customer health, contract value, renewal timing)
Strong written and verbal communication skills — able to communicate clearly and credibly across functions, levels, and geographies, including with customers, account teams, and engineering partners
Experience with cross-functional collaboration in a post-sales environment, including working with Customer Success, Professional Services, and Engineering teams
Demonstrated ability to analyze complex problems, identify root causes, and drive systemic improvements
Flexible, action-oriented, and comfortable operating independently in a fast-paced, evolving environment

Nice To Haves

Bachelor's degree in a life sciences field (biology, microbiology, genetics, biotechnology, etc.) — direct research or lab experience is a significant plus
Experience supporting enterprise customers, particularly in regulated industries (pharma, biotech, GxP environments) where platform reliability and compliance have direct business and patient-safety implications
Experience supporting products through major capability expansions, such as AI/ML feature launches or platform shifts that require building new team expertise rapidly
Experience working with outsourced or partner-delivered support teams
Familiarity with knowledge management practices and help center content strategy

Responsibilities

Team Leadership & Development
Develop, coach, and grow a team of support professionals — setting clear expectations, providing regular feedback, managing performance, and investing in career development aligned with Benchling's "Recruit and develop the best" principle
Build team capabilities to support Benchling's expanding product surface, including AI agents, predictive models, and new automation features that are rapidly becoming part of scientists' daily workflows
Ensure the team continuously documents and updates product knowledge in help articles and internal knowledge bases, including emerging AI product capabilities
Operations & Service Delivery
Own the daily operations of West Coast customer support, including strategic resourcing, queue management, and capacity planning to deliver consistent, high-quality service across all customer segments
Own and report on support metrics and KPIs (volume, case trending, resolution time, CSAT), using data to drive decisions and building influence through voice-of-customer insights shared with Product, Engineering, and CX leadership
Lead and drive process improvement initiatives with measurable outcomes — identifying gaps, proposing solutions, and executing changes that elevate the customer support experience
Customer & Stakeholder Engagement
Serve as the primary escalation point for West Coast customers, deeply understanding scientist pain points and ensuring timely, high-quality resolution in partnership with Engineering, Product, and CX teams
Collaborate cross-functionally with Customer Success, Professional Services, Account Management, Product, Engineering, and delivery partners (including Zifo) to coordinate on customer issues through resolution
Partner with the Head of Support to shape and execute the support strategy, contributing insights on process improvement, tooling, team structure, and enterprise readiness
Represent Support in customer visits, meetings, conferences, QBRs, and marketing events as a credible, customer-facing leader