Support Engineering Lead

OpenAI

. Set the strategy, charter, service model, priorities, and growth plan for Dedicated Support Engineering .

Posted 9/18/2026full-timeSan Francisco • California • United StatesSenior💰 $347,000 - $385,000 per yearWebsite

Core Competencies

Role fit

Core Competencies

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Demonstrates extensive experience in leading technical customer-facing teams, with a strong foundation in APIs, distributed systems, and cloud infrastructure. Proven ability to build and scale dedicated support engineering programs while ensuring high service quality and effective incident management.

Highest-signal resume keywords

Technical Customer-Facing ExperienceLeadership in Support EngineeringAPIs and Distributed Systems ExpertiseAI and Automation ImplementationCustomer Escalation Management

ATS Keywords

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Applicant Tracking System Keywords

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Hard Skills

APIsDistributed SystemsCloud InfrastructureTechnical Account ManagementEvidence-Based TroubleshootingIncident ManagementAutomationRisk AssessmentCustomer Engagement Model DesignService Model Development

Soft Skills

Communication with ExecutivesJudgment in Decision-MakingInfluencing StakeholdersCoaching and MentoringAccountability

Industry Keywords

Technical SupportCustomer SuccessEnterprise IntegrationsOperational ReviewsCritical-Event PreparationCapacity PlanningSustainable GrowthProactive Reliability PracticesCustomer ConfidenceMeasurable Improvements

Tech Stack

Tools & technologies

CloudDistributed Systems

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Set the strategy, charter, service model, priorities, and growth plan for Dedicated Support Engineering
Build and develop a high-performing global organization by hiring and coaching senior technical talent
Design the customer engagement model, including customer assignment, account knowledge, operational reviews, and critical-event preparation
Define responsibilities and handoffs with Support, Technical Success, Sales, and Engineering
Establish standards for evidence-based troubleshooting, reproduction, systems-level investigation, mitigation, and Engineering escalation
Build proactive reliability practices for assessing customer architectures and dependencies, identifying risks, and preparing for launches, migrations, and traffic growth
Ensure incident learnings result in completed corrective actions
Lead critical customer situations as a senior escalation point and align responders across teams
Communicate clearly with customer executives and maintain accountability through mitigation, resolution, and follow-through
Own capacity plans, coverage arrangements, investment proposals, delivery quality, and sustainable growth
Define and measure investigation quality, time to mitigation, recurring issue reduction, customer confidence, and proactive risk reduction
Translate customer investigations into evidence-backed recommendations for product and engineering priorities
Apply AI and automation to preserve customer context, accelerate investigations, detect risks, and automate repeatable work
Establish evaluations and human oversight for AI-enabled support capabilities

Requirements

What you’ll need

12+ years of experience in technical customer-facing roles
6+ years of leadership responsibility for enterprise Support Engineering, Technical Account Management, or a comparable function supporting complex production environments
Experience building or materially scaling a dedicated technical customer program, including ownership of its service model, staffing, delivery standards, and outcomes
Experience leading senior engineers and developing technical leaders across regions
Strong technical foundation in APIs, distributed systems, cloud infrastructure, and enterprise integrations
Ability to evaluate investigation quality, challenge hypotheses, and guide teams through ambiguous failures
Experience maintaining long-term technical relationships with strategic enterprise customers
Experience leading high-stakes customer escalations and communicating uncertainty accurately
Ability to influence senior stakeholders across organizational boundaries and translate customer evidence into technical and operational changes
Demonstrated judgment balancing customer commitments, service quality, staffing, and support-function economics
Experience delivering measurable improvements through automation or AI
Ability to establish direction in ambiguity and take accountability for difficult decisions

Benefits

Comp & perks

Equity
Performance-related bonus(es) for eligible employees
Medical, dental, and vision insurance for you and your family, with employer contributions to Health Savings Accounts
Pre-tax accounts for Health FSA, Dependent Care FSA, and commuter expenses (parking and transit)
401(k) retirement plan with employer match
Paid parental leave (up to 24 weeks for birth parents and 20 weeks for non-birthing parents)
Paid medical and caregiver leave (up to 8 weeks)
Flexible PTO for exempt employees and up to 15 days annually for non-exempt employees
13+ paid company holidays
Multiple paid coordinated company office closures throughout the year for focus and recharge
Paid sick or safe time (1 hour per 30 hours worked, or more, as required by applicable state or local law)
Mental health and wellness support
Employer-paid basic life and disability coverage
Annual learning and development stipend
Daily meals in our offices
Meal delivery credits as eligible
Relocation support for eligible employees
Charitable donation matching and wellness stipends may also be provided
Hybrid work model