Customer Support Operations Manager

WHO ARE WE? Government technology has failed the public for decades, and Americans have been conditioned to expect websites from the 90s for essential public services. Kaizen exists to strengthen trust in American public services by building technology that residents and public servants are proud to use. We partner with local, state, and federal agencies to replace legacy systems with modern, AI-native software that is worthy of the people they serve. We started in outdoor recreation, and now we're building toward something much larger — the software layer that powers how Americans access any government service. Our platform already reaches 40 million residents across 50+ agencies in 17 states. Founded in 2022 and based in New York City, Kaizen has raised $35 million from NEA, a16z, Accel, 776, and Carpenter Capital. We're builders, designers, and operators who believe that beautifully designed software shouldn’t be a luxury in government. It’s how you earn trust back. THE ROLE As Kaizen's platform expands across more agencies and more use cases, the volume and complexity of support is outgrowing the tactical, reactive way most teams handle it. This role exists to change that: to build Kaizen's customer support operations function from the ground up and move it from firefighting to system design. You'll own the whole operational picture: the escalation paths, the workflows, the support metrics, the onboarding playbooks, and the training that keeps the team sharp, along with the tooling that powers it (including our Intercom and Fin AI stack). The work compounds leverage across the entire support organization, all across state, local, and federal customers. It's an essential role with the mandate to define what great looks like rather than inherit it. LOCATION This is a hybrid role based out of our New York City HQ. Candidates must reside in New York or be able to commute to New York City to work out of our office at least three times a week (Tuesdays - Thursdays). WHAT YOU'LL DO - Design escalation paths from first principles: separate reactive work from scalable work, route escalation-ready tickets automatically, and specialize the high-skill motions - Own the support metrics that matter: First Response Time, Time to Close, CSAT, CX Score, NPS, and AI deflection. Move them, not just monitor them - Build the playbook for standing up support on new products and customer we onboard, so growth doesn't mean chaos - Own and optimize the support tooling stack, including Intercom and Fin: tune automation and retrieval so routine tickets resolve themselves and agents get smarter context on the ones that don't - Own help center and training content, and lead training sessions that get the team fluent on new product features fast - Build feedback loops across product, engineering, and deployment so support insight improves the platform, not just the queue - Work directly with customers, designing the systems that serve them and personally resolving the escalations that test those systems WHAT YOU'LL BRING - Deep customer support operations experience: you've run support, designed the workflows and escalation paths, and owned how a team actually delivers - A track record of owning support metrics (CSAT, deflection, FRT, time to close) and actually moving them, with the specifics to prove it - Familiarity with modern support tooling and AI-powered automation (Intercom/Fin or comparable): you don't need to have built it from scratch, but you know how to configure and optimize it to do real work - Experience turning messy, ad-hoc support processes into scalable, system-driven workflows - Comfort building 0→1 with no playbook. You've stood something up from nothing before and can speak to how - A strong cross-functional operator who's credible with engineers and non-technical stakeholders alike, and can translate between them STRONG CANDIDATES MAY ALSO... - Have worked in govtech, the public sector, or another regulated, high-stakes environm