Technical Support Engineer

Foundant + smartsimple

About The Position

The Technical Support Engineer (TSE) for SmartSimple (SMS) is the pivot between the Support team and the Engineering and Development teams. You will analyze the most complex client issues, decide what Support can resolve and what needs Engineering, and make sure every escalation reaches Engineering complete, reproducible, and prioritized by client impact. You will then own it through to a confirmed fix. You'll serve as the trusted point of contact between both teams, reviewing escalations before they reach Engineering: you'll reproduce the issue, confirm client impact, and package a complete Jira ticket (steps, logs, environment, priority). You'll own each escalation through to deployment — following up with Engineering, challenging constructively where ownership or impact is unclear, and confirming the fix with Support and the client, because the work isn't finished until the client's outcome is. You'll translate between both sides, giving Support clear status and realistic timelines, and giving Engineering client context and business impact. You'll lead investigation of complex configuration, data, integration, workflow, upgrade, and performance issues using structured problem analysis, documenting root cause in Zendesk and Jira. You'll use log analysis and monitoring tools (such as Kibana or AppDynamics), Postman, browser developer tools, and SQL to isolate failures. You'll resolve escalations that do not need Engineering, so developer time goes to confirmed defects. You'll identify recurring defects and process gaps, quantify them, and bring evidence to Product and Engineering to drive permanent fixes — because the people we serve feel every defect we let repeat. You'll take responsibility for maintaining the Known Issues page and contributing to internal release notes. You'll raise ticket quality across Support: defining what a good escalation looks like, maintaining playbooks and knowledge base articles, and mentoring team leads and Support Engineers. Other duties as assigned.

Requirements

5+ years in SaaS technical Support or a similar client-facing technical role.
2+ years handling Tier 2/3 escalations or working directly with Engineering teams.
Proven ability to troubleshoot complex software issues independently and document findings clearly.
Working knowledge of SQL, REST APIs and integrations, SSO/MFA/OAuth/OpenID, JavaScript, XML/JSON, and web/network protocols (HTTP, TLS, TCP/IP).
Experience with log analysis or monitoring platforms.
Experience with ticketing/issue-tracking systems (Zendesk and Jira preferred).
Must be legally eligible to work in the United States or Canada.

Nice To Haves

Experience with SmartSimple or similar grants management or nonprofit software.
Technical lead or mentoring experience.
Familiarity with Agile/Scrum and incident or problem management (ITIL).
Hands-on use of AI tools in Support work.

Responsibilities

Serve as the trusted point of contact between Support and Engineering teams, reviewing escalations before they reach Engineering.
Reproduce issues, confirm client impact, and package complete Jira tickets (steps, logs, environment, priority).
Own each escalation through to deployment, following up with Engineering and confirming the fix with Support and the client.
Translate between Support and Engineering, providing clear status and realistic timelines to Support, and client context and business impact to Engineering.
Lead investigation of complex configuration, data, integration, workflow, upgrade, and performance issues using structured problem analysis.
Document root cause in Zendesk and Jira.
Use log analysis and monitoring tools (such as Kibana or AppDynamics), Postman, browser developer tools, and SQL to isolate failures.
Resolve escalations that do not require Engineering intervention.
Identify recurring defects and process gaps, quantify them, and present evidence to Product and Engineering for permanent fixes.
Maintain the Known Issues page and contribute to internal release notes.
Raise ticket quality across Support by defining good escalation criteria, maintaining playbooks and knowledge base articles, and mentoring team leads and Support Engineers.
Perform other duties as assigned.