Support Engineering Lead

About the role

We're looking for a Support Engineering Lead to own and scale the technical support experience at Sardine. This role sits at the intersection of deep technical ownership, people leadership, and operational excellence.

Responsibilities

• Lead, coach, and develop a team of Support Engineers, driving accountability, continuous growth, and a high-performance culture
• Own service delivery end-to-end, acting as the primary escalation point for complex technical issues and enterprise customer situations
• Get hands-on when it counts, diving into tickets, debugging API issues, joining customer calls, and leading incident response alongside your team
• Build and enforce operational processes including incident management, escalation playbooks, and internal quality review frameworks
• Define and track team metrics and dashboards, using data to identify trends, surface systemic issues, and drive continuous improvement
• Partner with Engineering, Product, and Customer Success to advocate for customer needs and influence platform improvements
• Champion AI and automation adoption, including Pylon's AI Assistant, to improve team productivity and service quality
• Lead hiring, onboarding, and career development to scale the support organization as Sardine grows
• Represent the support function in cross-functional forums and contribute to strategic decisions with customer insights and operational data

Requirements

• 7+ years in technical support, support engineering, software engineering, or a related technical role, ideally with a background that includes hands-on development or engineering experience
• 3+ years managing technical support teams, including performance management and coaching
• Hands-on technical background, prior software development experience is a strong plus
• Proficiency with SQL and REST APIs; comfortable using debugging and observability tools
• Experience in both startup and larger company environments
• Experience running high-volume support operations with enterprise SLAs and on-call responsibilities
• Able to go deep technically and lead people effectively, both matter in this role
• Track record of building or improving processes around incident response, escalations, and service quality
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience

Qualifications

• Strong communication and interpersonal skills
• Ability to manage multiple priorities and deadlines
• Passion for technology and a desire to continuously learn and improve