Customer Support Lead

Are you an experienced Customer Support professional who understands the challenges of supporting live-service games at scale and knows how to drive exceptional player experiences through partner management and operational excellence?

We're looking for a Customer Support Lead to take ownership of customer support operations across multiple live-service titles. This is a senior individual contributor role focused on vendor management, support quality, escalation handling and operational improvement, ensuring players receive consistent, high-quality support across all products.

About The Role

As Customer Support Lead, you will serve as the internal owner of customer support operations across several active live-service games.

Working closely with external customer support partners, internal game teams and publishing stakeholders, you will be responsible for ensuring support operations run effectively, service levels are maintained and player issues are resolved efficiently. You'll act as the key point of accountability for support quality, vendor performance and escalation management.

This role is ideal for someone who combines operational expertise, strong stakeholder management skills and a genuine passion for delivering outstanding player experiences.

What You'll Do

Vendor Management & Performance

• Serve as the primary point of contact for external customer support partners across multiple titles.
• Define, track and manage service-level agreements (SLAs), KPIs and quality benchmarks.
• Hold partners accountable to agreed performance standards and operational goals.
• Conduct regular performance reviews and business reviews with vendor teams.
• Identify operational risks and performance concerns early, driving corrective action where required.
• Build strong relationships with vendor stakeholders while maintaining high expectations around quality and delivery.

Player Support Operations

• Own the overall player support experience across multiple titles.
• Ensure consistency of support quality regardless of support partner or region.
• Monitor:
  • Ticket volumes
  • Queue performance
  • Response times
  • Resolution quality
  • Escalation trends
• Identify emerging issues and proactively address risks before they impact players.
• Manage complex player escalations, including VIP and highly visible cases.
• Act as the internal escalation point for sensitive or precedent-setting support issues.

Knowledge Management & Support Infrastructure

• Develop and maintain a centralised support knowledge base.
• Create and manage:
  • Support documentation
  • Response templates
  • Macros
  • Troubleshooting guides
  • Escalation procedures
• Ensure support resources remain up to date with:
  • Game updates
  • Live events
  • New features
  • Known issues
• Partner with development and product teams to maintain accurate support information.

Training & Enablement

• Develop onboarding and training materials for vendor support teams.
• Ensure support agents have the knowledge required to deliver consistent player experiences.
• Establish quality standards and operational guidelines.
• Support coaching and continuous improvement initiatives across vendor teams.

Process Improvement

• Review existing support workflows and identify opportunities for improvement.
• Recommend and implement process enhancements that improve quality and efficiency.
• Evaluate customer support tools, workflows and technologies.
• Help scale support operations effectively across multiple titles.
• Drive consistency across support programmes and partner organisations.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Work closely with:
  • Community teams
  • Live Operations teams
  • Product teams
  • Development teams
  • Publishing stakeholders
• Share support insights and player feedback with internal teams.
• Help prioritise issues based on player impact and business needs.
• Represent the voice of the player during internal discussions and decision-making.
• Coordinate with international stakeholders when support trends or escalations require additional visibility.

Reporting & Analytics

• Analyse support metrics and operational performance data.
• Develop reports and recommendations for leadership teams.
• Identify recurring player concerns and emerging trends.
• Translate support data into actionable insights and operational improvements.
• Support data-driven decision-making across customer support operations.

What We're Looking For

Essential Experience

• 5+ years of experience in customer support operations.
• Significant experience within live-service gaming environments.
• Experience managing third-party customer support vendors or BPO partners.
• Proven ownership of support KPIs, SLAs and quality performance.
• Experience supporting multiple products or game titles simultaneously.
• Experience building or maintaining support documentation and knowledge bases.
• Strong background in support operations management and escalation handling.

Customer Support Expertise

• Deep understanding of customer support best practices.
• Experience managing support quality and player satisfaction.
• Knowledge of support operations within online, multiplayer or live-service products.
• Ability to balance operational efficiency with player experience.
• Experience working within fast-paced live environments.

Technical & Analytical Skills

• Strong data analysis and reporting capabilities.
• Experience interpreting support metrics and operational performance data.
• Ability to identify patterns, trends and opportunities for improvement.
• Experience using customer support platforms such as:
  • Zendesk
  • Salesforce Service Cloud
  • Freshdesk
  • Similar support systems

Communication & Stakeholder Management

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Proven ability to manage external partners effectively.
• Experience presenting operational updates and recommendations to leadership.
• Strong conflict resolution and relationship management skills.
• Ability to work across multiple departments and stakeholder groups.

Nice To Have

• Experience working for a publisher supporting external development teams.
• Experience collaborating with international development studios.
• Knowledge of FPS, MMO or other online multiplayer genres.
• Experience scaling customer support operations.
• Familiarity with multilingual support environments.
• Experience supporting global player communities.

Who You Are

• You know how to drive results through external partners and hold teams accountable without damaging relationships.
• You are highly organised and comfortable managing multiple priorities simultaneously.
• You proactively identify issues before they become major player-impacting problems.
• You think in terms of systems, processes and long-term operational improvements.
• You can turn support data into meaningful recommendations and actions.
• You care deeply about player experience and understand that great support goes beyond simply meeting service-level targets.

Success In This Role

• Support vendors consistently meet or exceed agreed SLAs and quality standards.
• Player support experiences remain consistent across multiple titles.
• Escalations are handled effectively and efficiently.
• Support documentation remains accurate, scalable and easy to use.
• Operational improvements reduce friction for both players and support teams.
• Internal teams receive valuable player insights that inform product and LiveOps decisions.
• Player satisfaction and support quality continue to improve over time.

Why Join?

• Play a key role in shaping support operations across multiple live-service games.
• Work closely with publishing, product, community and development teams.
• Take ownership of player experience across a large-scale gaming portfolio.
• Influence operational strategy and support best practices.
• Join a team that values quality, accountability and continuous improvement.
• Opportunity to make a visible impact on both player satisfaction and business performance.

Location: Irvine, California (Onsite)

Employment Type: Full-Time

Salary Range: $100,000-$120,000 USD per annum

If you're a customer support leader who thrives in live-service environments and enjoys improving operations, managing partners and championing the player experience, we'd love to hear from you.  Apply now or email Joe McKernan - View email address on skillsearch.com