Technical Support Manager, EMEA

Welcome to Planet. We believe in using space to help life on Earth.

Planet designs, builds, and operates the largest constellation of imaging satellites in history. This constellation delivers an unprecedented dataset of empirical information via a revolutionary cloud-based platform to authoritative figures in commercial, environmental, and humanitarian sectors. We are both a space company and data company all rolled into one.

Customers and users across the globe use Planet's data to develop new technologies, drive revenue, power research, and solve our world’s toughest obstacles.

As we control every component of hardware design, manufacturing, data processing, and software engineering, our office is a truly inspiring mix of experts from a variety of domains.

We have a people-centric approach toward culture and community and we strive to iterate in a way that puts our team members first and prepares our company for growth. Join Planet and be a part of our mission to change the way people see the world.

Planet is a global company with employees working remotely world wide and joining us from offices in San Francisco, Washington DC, Germany, and The Netherlands.

About the Role:  

The Technical Support Manager is the thought leader of the tech support team. They will act as a guiding force to ensure that Planet is providing top quality customer services to our clients. The Technical Support Manager will lead, manage, and maintain all activities related to customer troubleshooting and support including leading, motivating a team of staff to ensure they're giving the best customer service possible while handling queries and complaints from both internal and external customers.

You will build strong relationships  with customer engineering teams to ensure smooth product deployments and timely resolution of  technical problems. Your contributions will directly enable customers to understand our changing  world.

Impact You’ll Own:

• Manage employee activity and development.
• Serve as the primary escalation point for external\internal customers regarding issues, coordinating across all internal teams to ensure issue resolution is completed in a timely manner.
• Provide consistent oversight on service tickets progress to ensure customer timelines and expectations are managed.
• Manage complex customer issues, coordinating appropriate technical personnel, defining work plans, deadlines and driving customer communications until the customer has confirmed issue resolution.
• Develop, implement, and continuously improve process documentation for the technical support team.
• Ensure depth and breadth of technical skills are maintained across the team to support customer demand.
• Experience in project management. 
• Experience directing collaboration with global teams.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills at the C-Level.
• Effectively communicate critical issue status to executive staff, sales teams, and other stakeholders.
• Troubleshoot technically complex issues and understand how those issues impact the customers business priorities in order to develop solutions.
• Lead cross-functional post-incident process reviews to ensure continuous improvement.
• Identify systemic and pervasive issues related to products and/or processes and drive actions to prevent future problems.
• Participate in projects that improve the efficiency, quality, and overall customer experience with Planet products and services.

What You Bring:

• 3+ years of experience managing, coordinating, and ensuring resolution on executive-facing escalations.
• 3+ years experience working as a people manager in an escalation or technical support function.
• 3+ years experience in troubleshooting complex technical issues with the ability to understand how those issues impact the customers business priorities.
• 3+ years experience in problem recreation and root cause analysis.
• 3+ years experience in one (or more) scripting languages: JavaScript, Python, Perl.
• 3+ years experience with relational databases (e.g. MySQL, Oracle).
• Previous experience in writing customer-facing “Root Cause Analysis” or Postmortem reports.
• High level of skill using advanced judgment and initiative.
• Determine methods and procedures, and guide team members in problem-solving
• Ensure high expectations of customer service and service level agreements are met and maintained.
• Track key performance indicators (KPi’s) to ensure proper service levels are met.
• Lead hiring and career development for a team of professionals across a variety of technical disciplines.
• Working knowledge of API’s.
• Familiarity with GIS applications (ESRI, QGIS).
• Familiarity with geo-spatial data, satellite imagery, and remote sensing.
• Experience with Zendesk, JIRA, or comparable ticketing systems.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to clearly articulate solutions to technical problems.
• Proven ability to maintain a professional demeanor when handling complex user issues.
• Ability to work in a challenging environment with global customers.
• Ability to manage communications and coordinate resources for critical customer situations.
• Ability to work independently, as well as contributing as a team player.
• Ability to multitask and prioritize workload.
• Willingness to travel as necessary to client sites 
• Participate in scheduled weekend on-call support as needed.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or equivalent combination of technical education and work experience.

Benefits While Working at Planet:

• Additional company winter holidays and regular global days off
• Remote friendly work environment and flexible working hours
• Contribution to our growth by offering equity options for employees
• Giving back to the community - one day per quarter for charitable work
• Learning and Tuition Reimbursement
• Regular hack-weeks and meetup events to exchange knowledge
• Home office budget
• Employee Resource Groups providing empowering spaces for connection and mentorship

Some Press About Us: 

Our CEO, Will Marshall featured on TED and featured in a Planet Blog

“Planet: Bringing Space Back Down to Earth”

Tiny, privately owned satellites are changing how we view the Earth features in NBC News

“Planet And Rocket Lab Create Mission Patch To Honor Women In Aerospace” —Planet Blog

Why we care so much about Belonging. 

We’re dedicated to helping the whole Planet, and to do that we must strive to represent all of it within each of our offices and on all of our teams. That’s why Planet is guided by an ultimate  north star of Belonging, dreaming big as we approach our ongoing work with diversity, equity and inclusion.  If this job intrigues you, but you’re thinking you might not have all the qualifications, please... do apply!  At Planet, we are looking for well-rounded people from around the world who can contribute to more ways than just what is listed in this job description.  We don’t just fill positions, we aspire to fulfill people’s careers, most excited about folks who are motivated by our underlying humanitarian efforts.  We are a few orbits around the sun before we get to where we want to be, so we hope you’re excited to come along for the ride. 

EEO statement:

Planet is committed to building a community where everyone belongs and we invite people from all backgrounds to apply. Planet is an equal opportunity employer, and committed to providing employment opportunities regardless of race, religious creed, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding, age, sexual orientation, military or veteran status, or any other protected classification, in accordance with applicable federal, state, and local laws. 

Accommodations:

Planet is an inclusive community and we know that everyone has their own needs. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation during the interview process, please call Planet's front office at 669-214-9404 or contact your recruiter with your request. Your message will be confidential and we will be happy to assist you.

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