Manager, Customer Support Engineering

Fastly•Minneapolis, MN

5h•Remote

About The Position

Fastly helps people stay better connected with the things they love through its edge cloud platform, which enables customers to create great digital experiences quickly, securely, and reliably. The platform processes, serves, and secures applications at the edge of the Internet, supporting agile software development. Fastly's customers include prominent companies like GitHub, Yelp, Paramount, and JetBlue. The Customer Support Engineering (CSE) team is the primary interface for Fastly customers navigating the edge cloud platform. As a Manager of CSE, you will manage the people, processes, and performance of a unified Tier 1, 2, and 3 team, ensuring a transparent, technical, and empathetic support experience. This role bridges the gap between front-line queues and deep escalation investigations and also manages dedicated Mission Control Engineers (MCEs) supporting the proactive Mission Control Program (MCP). The MCP is Fastly's dedicated initiative for proactive observability, strategic advocacy, and specialized event management, evolving from reactive troubleshooting to a predictable, scalable, and sustainable observability operation to protect strategic customers during high-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, or equivalent expertise in Content Delivery Networks (CDNs), cloud technologies, and web architecture.
Proven experience managing teams to strict Service Level Agreements (SLAs).
Ability to 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.
Monitor swarm health and audit cases for adherence to the Rules of Engagement in a CSE-led approach to resolving complex customer issues.
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.
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.