Head of Customer Service

Summary

Join Smile.io as the Head of Customer Service, North America, leading a cross-functional support team providing 24/7 support to ecommerce merchants globally. This hands-on leadership role requires at least 5 years of experience leading customer support teams, including technical support and cross-functional service roles in SaaS, ideally in the ecommerce space. You will coach your team, partner with APAC leadership, and drive operational clarity, ensuring high-quality support. The role involves setting performance metrics, jumping in to help during high-volume periods, and fostering a culture of collaboration and continuous improvement. This is a full-time, remote position requiring overlap with core EST working hours.

Requirements

• 5+ years of experience leading customer support teams, including technical support and cross-functional service roles. You also possess experience in account management, either as a manager or as an individual contributor
• Tech Know-How - familiarity with tools like Shopify, Intercom, and a willingness to leverage AI for efficiency, and have an opinion around how you see AI advancements in your field. You have led technical support teams, and while not a developer, you have developed a solid baseline of skills along the way
• A “lead from the front” mindset - comfortable jumping into the inbox, solving merchant issues, and modeling what great looks like
• Experience working across regions and time zones - with a partnership approach and strong async communication skills
• Knowledge sharing is in your DNA. You know what it feels like when a customer asks a question and you don't have the answer at your fingertips, so you prioritize the dissemination of information across your team so that everyone has all of the information that they need to support merchants
• Coaching instincts - you value reflection, feedback, and ongoing learning, and are committed to helping people grow through thoughtful guidance
• A track record of delivering high-quality support at a SaaS company, with an eye for detail and a passion for doing right by your customers
• Operational strength - you know how to drive consistency, use tooling effectively, and maintain balance without over-indexing on headcount
• Belief in non-linear growth - you support individual contributors developing mastery and advancing without defaulting to management

Responsibilities

• Obsess about performance metrics that speak to the impact and success of the team across multiple angles - review generation, response times, SLOs, retention, efficiency per employee, and more - as you guide a world-class team and help them reach new heights
• Lead a cross-functional support team that spans technical, billing, and frontline service responsibilities, with a strong commitment to collaboration and shared goals
• Jump in when needed - responding to merchants directly when volume spikes or coverage is needed, and showing your team that no task is beneath leadership
• Partner with APAC leadership to manage round-the-clock global support, ensuring consistency in quality and experience regardless of time zone. (Note: this may require some schedule flexibility to accommodate)
• Coach through context - Review team interactions regularly, give timely feedback, and use real examples as learning tools to build confidence, judgment, and excellence
• Drive operational clarity - including clear expectations for performance, quality, and tone, especially when engaging our Plus (Enterprise) merchants
• Strengthen the connective tissue between frontline and Plus (Enterprise) teams through shared standards, supportive workflows, and unified growth paths
• Lay the foundation for future evolution - including role specialization and key skill certifications that reward deep expertise and build trust and confidence in handling our most important merchant interactions

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience managing account managers responsible for the retention and expansion of an assigned book of business
• Experience working at a SaaS organization with a strong product-led growth (PLG) motion running in parallel to a traditional sales-driven approach
• If you have experience leveraging AI to improve customer experience outcomes
• Experience within the Shopify app ecosystem - you understand the impact that great customer service has on reviews and ratings, which are essential for company growth in a marketplace environment

Benefits

This is a full-time, remote position with required hours Monday to Friday, 8am - 4pm Atlantic Time +/- 2hrs. (7am-3pm Eastern Time)