Manager, Customer Support Engineering

Fastly•Chicago, OK

1d•Remote

About The Position

Fastly helps people stay better connected with the things they love. Fastly’s edge cloud platform enables customers to create great digital experiences quickly, securely, and reliably by processing, serving, and securing our customers’ applications as close to their end-users as possible — at the edge of the Internet. The platform is designed to take advantage of the modern internet, to be programmable, and to support agile software development. Fastly’s customers include many of the world’s most prominent companies, including GitHub, Yelp, Paramount, and JetBlue. We're building a more trustworthy Internet. Come join us. The Customer Support Engineering (CSE) team is the primary interface for Fastly customers navigating our edge cloud platform. As a Manager of CSE, you manage the people, processes, and performance of a unified Tier 1, 2, and 3 team. You ensure we deliver a transparent, technical, and empathetic support experience. You bridge the gap between front-line queues and deep escalation investigations. Additionally, you manage dedicated Mission Control Engineers (MCEs) supporting our proactive Mission Control Program (MCP). The MCP is Fastly's dedicated initiative for proactive observability, strategic advocacy, and specialized event management. It acts as a strategic evolution from reactive troubleshooting to a highly predictable, scalable, and sustainable observability operation, ensuring our platform and support scale seamlessly to protect our strategic customers during their highest-traffic events.

Requirements

5+ years of experience in a people management role having managed 5-10 people in a hybrid work environment.
Proven track record of leading high-performing, senior technical support, Escalation, or systems engineering teams.
In-depth knowledge of Fastly products and services.
Equivalent expertise in Content Delivery Networks (CDNs), cloud technologies, and web architecture.
Proven experience managing teams to strict Service Level Agreements (SLAs).
Use Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and support platforms to provide business insights and drive operational decisions.
A deep-seated passion for customer success.
Experience de-escalating tense customer situations with grace and technical authority.
Proven ability to thrive and lead in a high-pressure, 24/7 issue-driven environment.

Nice To Haves

Hands-on coding experience beyond Varnish Configuration Language (VCL) (e.g., JavaScript, Rust, Go, or C).
Certifications such as ISO/IEC 20000 Lead Implementer, Lean Six Sigma Facilitator, or RAID Log Practitioner.
Knowledge of Workforce Management (WFM) principles and capacity planning.

Responsibilities

Lead and motivate a distributed team of T1/T2/T3 engineers, including dedicated MCE resources.
Ensure the MCP scales seamlessly to protect strategic customers during high-traffic events.
Coach technical staff from reactive Operators into strategic Owners.
Identify workflow bottlenecks.
Remove roadblocks and create realistic project timelines.
Deliver time-sensitive projects on schedule.
Oversee standardized runbooks and After-Action Report (AAR) handoffs to Engineering and Product for MCP engagements.
Apply Must Have, Should Have, Could Have, Won't Have (MoSCoW) and Eisenhower matrices to prioritize team efforts.
Use the Eliminate, Automate, Delegate, Simplify (EADS) model to optimize programmatic health.
Oversee the team's handling of complex service issues.
Serve as the Accountable party in the Responsible, Accountable, Supportive, Consulted, Informed (RASCI) framework.
Ensure your team navigates the Escalation Matrix (Tier 3 -> Product Management (PdM) -> Performance Programs) and adheres to Service Level Objectives (SLOs).
Communicate effectively to technical and business audiences.
Build effective relationships with cross-functional managers.
Synthesize Risks, Assumptions, Issues, Decisions (RAID) logs into Executive Summaries.
Ensure the MCP implements formalized "Bad-day" incident triage protocols.
Adhere to Brand Editorial Standards.
Manage team budgets and monitor staffing needs.
Drive your team toward specific annual goals.
Maintain >97% Customer Satisfaction (CSAT), resolve Tier 3 cases in under 5 days, and keep engineering escalation rates <15%.
Manage PagerDuty, shift scheduling, and Paid Time Off (PTO).
Drive continuous platform improvement by managing Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) problem management and cross-functional reviews.
Build a team that puts customers at the center of objectives.
Understand how the services your team provides offer value to the customer.
Enable proactive observability, ensuring MCEs provide early anomaly detection to reduce fatigue and increase customer confidence.