Support Operations Manager

Description:

Our support team plays a critical role in ensuring a seamless experience for clients, providers, and employer partners alike. As we continue to scale, we’re looking for a Support Operations Manager to build and lead a high-performing support organization.

The Support Operations Manager will own day-to-day support operations, people leadership, and the evolution of our support technology stack. This role blends hands-on leadership with strategic thinking: you’ll manage and develop a growing team, optimize our AI-powered support tools, define service standards across the company, and act as a key escalation point for complex issues.

This is an ideal role for someone who enjoys building and leading teams, improving systems, and partnering cross-functionally to deliver an excellent customer experience.

Core Responsibilities

Team Leadership & Performance Management

Lead and develop a team of 4+ Support Associates, supporting their learning and growth with Tava
Establish individual and team goals aligned to customer satisfaction, resolution quality, and operational efficiency
Monitor the quality and consistency of customer interactions, providing regular feedback and targeted coaching to improve outcomes and customer experience
Build and scale an in-person support team in Salt Lake City, ensuring staffing levels and schedules align with support demand and service expectations

Support Operations

Own end-to-end support operations across email, phone, and AI-driven channels, ensuring timely, accurate, and empathetic customer experiences
Continuously refine workflows, escalation paths, and documentation to improve first-touch resolution and reduce repeat or reopened tickets
Own and manage Tava’s Zendesk instance, including configuration, workflows, automations, integrations, reporting, and ongoing optimization to support efficient, high-quality support operations

Support Escalations & Troubleshooting

Serve as the primary escalation point for complex or high-severity issues, resolving issues efficiently and minimizing unnecessary escalations
Identify patterns in complex tickets and train the team of Support Associates to effectively troubleshoot in line with these patterns.
Partner closely with Engineering, Product, and Operations to identify root causes of recurring issues and improve overall resolution speed and quality

AI & Automation Ownership

Own and optimize Tava’s AI support agent, ensuring a high rate of effective self-service resolution without compromising customer experience
Monitor and improve AI performance, accuracy, and handoff quality between automated and human support
Evaluate, pilot, and implement Voice AI solutions to improve phone support coverage, responsiveness, and efficiency
Balance automation and human support to improve operational efficiency and reduce overall cost per ticket while maintaining strong customer satisfaction

SLAs, Phone Performance & Service Levels

Develop, document, and communicate clear, tiered support SLAs across the organization
Ensure phone support operations consistently meet established service-level expectations, including responsiveness, call handling, and resolution quality
Regularly assess staffing models, scheduling, and coverage to meet demand across channels while maintaining cost efficiency
Partner with internal teams to ensure SLAs are understood, achievable, and aligned with business priorities
Regularly review and refine SLAs based on performance data and customer feedback

Reporting, Analytics & Continuous Improvement

Lead support reporting and analytics across all channels, including response times, resolution times, ticket volume trends, escalation rates, and customer satisfaction
Use data to identify trends, forecast staffing needs, and drive continuous improvement initiatives
Share clear, actionable insights with leadership to inform resourcing decisions, process improvements, and priorities
Influence Product priorities by translating product feedback and ticket themes into clear, data-backed recommendations (e.g., quantifying request volume and impact, estimating expected ROI, and partnering with Product to advocate for high-value changes)

Qualifications

Requirements

5+ years of experience in customer support, support engineering, or customer operations, including 2+ years in a people management role
Experience managing and scaling support teams in a fast-growing or startup environment
Strong comfort with support tooling, AI-driven automation, and operational systems
Hands-on experience using and administering Zendesk, including managing workflows, automations, reporting, and agent tooling
Proven ability to handle complex escalations and collaborate cross-functionally
Data-driven mindset with experience building and using support metrics to guide decisions
Located in (or willing to relocate to) the Salt Lake City area, with enthusiasm for building an in-person team while creating a cohesive culture across existing remote team members
High degree of empathy and excellent judgement in developing support processes for clients seeking mental healthcare
Excellent communicator and cross-functional collaborator
Comfortable in fast-paced, ambiguous environments and able to build structure where it doesn’t yet exist
Experience working closely with engineering teams on ticket-driven improvements