Senior Customer Support & AI Operations Lead

About the Role
We are a fast-growing consumer brand building a next-generation, AI-powered customer service operation — and we're looking for a Senior Customer Support & AI Operations Lead who has been there and done it. Not someone who has worked around AI tools, but someone who has genuinely built an AI-powered customer support function (or played a major role in shaping one).

This is a senior, largely independent role. You'll own our customer support operation end-to-end — handling the cases our AI can't, continuously improving how the AI responds and performs, building the SOPs that keep everything running, and turning customer feedback into real business insights. As we grow into retail, this role grows with us.

Work Structure & Requirements

• Location: Remote / Virtual
• Schedule: Full-time, Monday–Friday, 8:00 AM–5:00 PM (40 hours/week, 1 hour unpaid break)
• Time Zone: PST business hours
• Start Date: Within 2 weeks
• Compensation: $10–$12 USD per hour

Key Responsibilities

1. Customer Support Leadership

• Own the customer support inbox and escalations as the company's customer support lead
• Clear overnight tickets the AI could not resolve at the start of each day
• Process returns, refunds, and replacements accurately and promptly
• Identify sensitive, complex, or unusual cases and handle or escalate appropriately
• Ensure every customer concern is documented and followed through to resolution

2. AI Customer Service Ownership

• Own the day-to-day performance of our AI customer service agent (Siena AI)
• Review AI-handled conversations, identify inaccurate or weak responses, and find the root cause
• Build and refine the knowledge base, intent routing, rules, and response guidelines
• Test changes in the sandbox before they go live and monitor outcomes afterwards
• Run ongoing quality checks on AI responses and decide when the AI should handle a case vs. when a person should step in
• Escalate technical or system-level issues when they require additional support

3. Building the Support Function

• Design, document, and maintain SOPs for the full support operation
• Improve processes and use automation to reduce manual workload
• Track and report key support metrics — response time, resolution rate, AI resolution rate
• Deliver regular voice-of-customer reporting, turning ticket patterns into product and business insights
• Work closely with leadership on day-to-day operations and longer-term support strategy

4. Growth Scope (Next 3–6 Months)

• Expand into retail customer support as the company grows its retail presence
• Support EDI and order management alongside the operations team as needed

Required Skills & Experience

• Experience: 5+ years in customer support, customer experience, or support operations — including a lead role or ownership of a support function
• AI Customer Service: Proven hands-on experience building (or playing a major role in building) an AI-powered customer service operation — knowledge base building, intent routing, prompt and response refinement, sandbox testing, and ongoing quality checks required
• Tools: Strong experience with Gorgias, Zendesk, or similar helpdesk platforms; Siena AI experience is a major plus
• Process & Reporting: Track record of writing SOPs and reporting on support metrics and customer insights
• Communication: Excellent written and spoken English; professional, empathetic, and customer-focused
• Profile: Strategic and analytical self-starter who takes ownership from problem identification through to resolution — someone who can build a support department, not just respond to tickets

Nice to Have

• Experience in e-commerce, CPG, or consumer brands
• Exposure to retail customer support, EDI, or order management
• Experience supporting a product launch