Customer Support Operations Manager

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 reaches 55 million Americans across 50+ agencies. Our goal: build technology that touches the lives of 100 million residents by the end of the year.

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 environment where getting support right actually matters
• Have managed external tools and influenced their product direction, rather than just consuming what they were handed
• Use generative-AI tools as genuine leverage for response quality and operational efficiency, not as a novelty

Don't Apply If...

• You need an existing playbook and a team around you to be effective. This seat is about building both, not inheriting them
• You're more comfortable optimizing a system someone else designed than designing one from scratch
• You see support tooling and automation as a threat rather than leverage. The point of this role is using them so a small team delivers great support at scale
• You'd rather own one layer, just the tooling, or just the metrics, or just the escalations, and never touch the rest. This role owns all of it
• And if the people on the other end of the queue feel abstract to you, this isn't the role. They are residents applying for benefits, public servants trying to do their jobs, and communities relying on services that simply have to work

What Kaizen Offers

Health & Insurance

• 100% coverage across the board: medical through Oxford/United (Gold and Platinum PPO plans), dental through Guardian PPO, and vision through Beam - all fully covered for employees, with 100% coverage for dependents.
• $100,000 in fully paid life insurance. FSA and Dependent Care FSA.
• One Medical membership, on us - same-day primary care, 24/7 virtual visits, and offices all over the city.
• Fertility and family-building support through Carrot.
• 401(k) through Guideline, with a 2% company match.

Family & Time Off

• 16 weeks of fully paid parental leave for birthing parents. 10 weeks fully paid for non-birthing parents.
• Unlimited PTO, with a two-week minimum (we mean it when we say take time off!)
• Closed for all federal holidays.
• Company-wide winter break the week of Christmas.
• Company offsites throughout the year.

Office & Remote Setup

• Up to $750 one-time home office or desk setup stipend for NYC-based employees. $500 for remote employees.
• $50/month commuter benefit (company contribution).
• Expensed lunch while in the office.
• Company-provided laptop of your choice.

Wellness

• Fully covered gym membership at Grindhouse - right across the street from our office at 47 W 17th St (and in Williamsburg). A $225/month value, on us. For remote employees, $100/month dedicated to gym or physical fitness reimbursement.

Stipends

• $100/month utility stipend.
• $500/year professional development.
• $250/year recreation.
• $300/quarter pet care stipend.