Principal Support Engineer

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Job Description:

Principal Support Engineer
Escalations & Customer Experience Engineering

Role Overview

The Principal Support Engineer is a senior, hands-on technical expert responsible for driving rapid resolution of complex customer issues. This role blends deep technical troubleshooting, advanced log and API analysis, Datadog monitoring expertise, and leadership of high‑severity escalations. The engineer will collaborate tightly with Engineering, Product, and external vendors to eliminate root causes, improve MTTR, and elevate the overall customer experience.
This is a high‑visibility individual contributor role requiring strong ownership, urgency, and the ability to translate complex technical problems into clear, actionable paths forward for both customers and internal stakeholders.

Key Responsibilities

• Perform hands‑on technical troubleshooting using Datadog (logs, traces, dashboards), API tools (Postman/cURL), and distributed log tracing.
• Lead high-severity and strategic customer escalations, providing authoritative technical direction and timely communication.
• Drive vendor ticket escalations, ensuring SLA adherence and proactive follow‑ups with Microsoft, Adobe, AWS, Cisco, and others.
• Collaborate with Engineering to deliver root-cause fixes, submit detailed technical findings, and validate permanent resolutions.
• Partner with Product to identify platform gaps, recurring customer pain points, and areas for workflow or UX improvement.
• Analyze MTTR performance, SLA trends, and operational bottlenecks; publish weekly metrics and insights.
• Develop SOPs, escalation workflows, and troubleshooting guides that improve global support operations.
• Identify automation opportunities and collaborate with internal teams to enhance Zendesk workflows and self-service deflection.

Required Skills & Qualifications

• 10+ years in Technical Support Engineering, Escalations, SRE, or related roles.
• Expertise with Datadog (log search, traces, monitors, dashboards).
• Strong REST API troubleshooting using Postman, cURL, authentication flows, and JSON payload analysis.
• Experience diagnosing distributed systems, integrations, and SaaS platform behavior.
• Proven ability to interface with strategic enterprise customers and communicate complex technical issues clearly.
• Hands‑on experience with vendor escalation processes and SLA governance.
• Strong working knowledge of MTTR, incident management, and technical support KPIs.
• Familiarity with Zendesk or similar ticketing platforms.

Performance Expectations & KPIs

• Resolve ≥90% of escalated tickets within SLA.
• Engage vendors within 15 minutes of SLA risk detection.
• Drive MTTR improvements of 40–50% for assigned ticket categories.
• Maintain CSAT ≥90% for escalated interactions.
• Identify and support permanent fixes for at least 2 recurring root-cause issues per quarter.
• Deliver 3–5 workflow, automation, or SOP improvements each quarter.

*This is not a complete listing of the job duties. It’s a representation of the things you will be doing, and you may not perform all of these duties.