Technical Support Group Lead (TSG)
Scope and Key Responsibilities
A. TSG / L2 Leadership - Building the function
- Define the TSG - what it is, what it is not, what L2 means in the MR context. Communicate clearly internally.
- Design and agree the TSG headcount plan with Manish and Biren - initial team size, skill profiles, hiring timeline.
- Own the work prioritisation for TSG. Define and enforce the triage decision tree: what TSG resolves, what goes to back-office SWAT (Ashfaqs team), what goes to NPD only under exception.
- Build a skilling and certification path for the team - what does an L2-certified TSG engineer look like Define, publish, and track.
- Set performance standards and review cadence for the TSG team. The leader is accountable for the groups output, not just their own technical contribution.
- Eventually transition the TSG under Shailesh Sule (Customer Success / Ops Head) as the function matures.
B. Running Lane - Immediate recovery (first 30-90 days)
- Take immediate ownership of L2 technical support for live accounts: TEPL, Visteon, DICV, CAT.
- Conduct issue classification: product-defect vs site-execution. Route each correctly and confirm routing with PMO (Sameer) within 30 days.
- Provide direct L2 field support for IC escalations - be present at site when required.
- Build and deploy the dispatch software support capability within TSG - this is a specific gap identified in the value stream.
- Complete deferred validation at live accounts under controlled conditions - document what was skipped and run the protocols.
- Deploy customer-confidence communication protocol with Site Incharges - time-bound recovery plans that rebuild trust.
C. NPD Firewall - Guardian of the platform franchise
- Own and enforce the NPD Firewall from day 1. The rule: Physical-AI NPD engineers are not available for site firefighting except under a controlled, senior-approved, time-capped, and logged exception.
- Negotiate the firewall boundary with NPD leadership and engineering - get explicit agreement on what constitutes an exception and what the approval chain is.
- Log every NPD-to-site pull, every exception, every time the firewall holds. Report drain visibility to Manish and Shailesh monthly.
- Be the person who says no on behalf of NPD - absorb the escalation pressure so NPD does not have to.
- Over time, build TSG capability so the number of legitimate exceptions declines to near-zero.
D. Validation Capability - Two-tier gate contribution
- Partner with Anand (VV / Quality gate owner) to understand the standard-track validation requirements for the two-tier pre-ship gate.
- Build TSG as the execution arm of standard-track validation - the team that conducts fast incoming checks vs known-good baseline for all standard products.
- Ensure TSG engineers are certified to run standard-track validation for each robot family they support.
- Feed custom-track validation gaps (where product fell outside standard paths) back to Design (Adrian) and Controls (Sourabh) for root-cause correction.
E. New Lane - Process and lifecycle support
- Represent TSG in the I-C-R-H lifecycle RACI - define clearly where L2/TSG sits in the Install, Commission, Ramp-up, and HyperCare phases.
- Partner with Chetan Sharma (IC) to define the L1 L2 escalation protocol: what triggers escalation, expected response time, and resolution ownership.
- Build knowledge management within TSG - structured capture of field issues, resolutions, and root causes. Feed recurring patterns to Design, Controls, and Quality for prevention.
- Develop TSG SOPs and resolution playbooks for the most common field scenarios. Reduce dependency on individual knowledge.
Education
- B.E. / B.Tech in Electronics, Electrical, Mechatronics, Computer Science, or a related engineering discipline.
- Post-graduate qualification in engineering or management is a plus but not required.
Experience
- Total experience: 8-14 years in industrial automation, robotics, or complex electromechanical systems integration.
- Field engineering / technical support: minimum 4-5 years in an L2 or L3 escalation management, field applications engineering, or complex system commissioning role.
- Team leadership: minimum 3 years leading an engineering team - hired people, set standards, managed performance.
- Product knowledge: deep familiarity with AMR or AGV systems, or equivalent complex automation (PLC/SCADA/motion control). Robotics-specific knowledge strongly preferred.
- Customer-facing experience: managed technical relationships with industrial customers under delivery pressure. Has delivered a credible recovery plan to a dissatisfied customer.
- NPD / engineering interface: has experience working at the boundary between field support and product development - knows how to elevate correctly without pulling the whole team.
- Ticketing: has experience working with tickets management systems - knows how to manage a team under kanban process.