Director, Escalation Management

OpenKrill; United States; Remote; USD 150,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

OpenKrill is seeking a Director of Escalation Management to lead a team of Escalation Engineers and own ITIL-aligned Problem and Release Management for Services. The role prioritizes escalations across customers and product lines, drives root cause analysis, and partners with Product, Engineering, and Platform teams to ensure timely resolution.

The position requires extensive experience in enterprise software support, strong leadership, and exceptional communication with executives and technical

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience (required).
• 10+ years in enterprise software support, escalation engineering, sustaining engineering, or technical services (required).
• 5+ years leading technical teams (required).
• Hands-on experience with ITIL Problem Management, including RCA reporting (required).
• Knowledge of ITIL Release/Deployment/Change Enablement practices (required).
• Experience coordinating software releases, patches, or upgrades in cloud or SaaS environments (required).
• Experience running cross-functional defect triage or review forums with Product and Engineering (required).
• Clear written and verbal communication with executives, customers, and technical staff (required).
• Familiarity with ITIL standards and RCA methods (preferred).
• Experience with migrations from legacy or end-of-life products to new platforms (preferred).
• Familiarity with medical imaging, radiology, or clinical software (preferred).
• Experience with AWS, Azure, or GCP and multi-tenant SaaS operations (preferred).
• Proficiency with ITSM and issue tracking tools (ServiceNow, Jira, Salesforce) (preferred).

Responsibilities

• Lead, coach, and develop Escalation Engineers, setting goals and priorities across product lines and tech stacks.
• Ensure issues are triaged, reproduced, and documented before escalation to L3 Engineering.
• Prioritize escalations across customers based on impact, risk, and commitments.
• Own ITIL Problem Management for Services including problem control and RCA reporting.
• Publish RCA reports and drive corrective actions with Engineering, Product, and Platform teams.
• Host a Defect Review Board for each product line and publish outcomes to stakeholders.
• Apply ITIL Release Management to track status and product versions containing fixes.
• Collaborate with Platform and Cloud Management to plan patches and upgrades with minimal customer impact.
• Assist customers and teams in understanding end-of-life vs new-stack products; identify gaps with Product.
• Report escalation metrics and lead communications for high-severity cases.

Skills

Escalation management

Leadership

ITIL

Executive communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

ServiceNow

Jira

Salesforce Service Cloud

Job description

Job Summary

The Director, Escalation Management is responsible for leading Escalation Management for Services, including a team of Escalation Engineers who serve as the technical escalation point for implementation and support issues before L3 Engineering. This role owns ITIL-aligned Problem Management and Release Management practices for Services, prioritizes escalations across customers and product lines, drives root cause analysis and corrective actions, and runs cross-functional defect review with Product and Engineering.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Lead, coach, and develop Escalation Engineers, setting goals, priorities, and coverage across product lines and technology stacks.


• Ensure implementation and support issues are triaged, reproduced, and fully documented before escalation to L3 Engineering.


• Prioritize escalations across customers from a Services perspective, weighing customer impact, severity, business risk, and contractual commitments.


• Own the ITIL Problem Management practice for Services, including problem identification, problem control, and error control, with problem records, known errors, and published workarounds.


• Research, document, and publish root cause analysis (RCA) reports, and drive corrective and preventive actions to completion with Engineering, Product, and Platform teams.


• Host a recurring Defect Review Board with each product line to agree defect priority, target fix versions, and owners, and publish outcomes to Services stakeholders.


• Apply ITIL Release Management practices to track and communicate L3 ticket status and which product versions, patches, and hotfixes contain each fix.


• Partner with Platform and Cloud Management to schedule and sequence patch and release upgrades to customer cloud environments to minimize customer impact.


• Help customers and Services resources understand differences between end-of-life and new-stack products, and work with Product to identify and close functionality gaps.


• Report on escalation volume, aging, fix status, upgrade schedules, and RCA outcomes, and lead communication for high-severity customer escalations.

PLEASE NOTE: This is not an exhaustive list of all duties, responsibilities and requirements of the position described above. Other functions may be assigned and management retains the right to add or change duties at any time.

Minimum Qualifications, Education and Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience (required).


• 10+ years of experience in enterprise software support, escalation engineering, sustaining engineering, or technical services (required).


• 5+ years leading technical teams (required).


• Hands‑on experience with ITIL Problem Management, including root cause analysis, known error management, and RCA reporting (required).


• Working knowledge of ITIL Release Management, Deployment Management, and Change Enablement practices (required).


• Experience coordinating software releases, patches, or upgrades in cloud or SaaS environments (required).


• Experience running cross-functional defect triage or review forums with Product and Engineering (required).


• Ability to prioritize competing needs across a large customer base and lead through influence (required).


• Clear written and verbal communication with executives, customers, and technical staff (required).


• Preferred: Familiarity with ITIL standards and formal RCA methods (for example, 5 Whys, Ishikawa, Kepner‑Tregoe, or fault tree analysis).


• Preferred: Experience supporting migrations from legacy or end‑of‑life products to new platforms.


• Preferred: Familiarity with medical imaging, radiology, or clinical software, including on‑premise and hosted deployments.


• Preferred: Experience with AWS, Azure, or GCP and multi‑tenant SaaS operations.


• Preferred: Proficiency with ITSM and issue tracking tools such as ServiceNow, Jira, or Salesforce Service Cloud.

Quality Standards

• Communicates, cooperates, and consistently functions professionally and harmoniously with all levels of supervision, co-workers, visitors, and vendors.


• Demonstrates initiative, personal awareness, professionalism and integrity, and exercises confidentiality in all areas of performance.


• Follows all local, regional and country laws concerning employment.


• Follows all DeepHealth policies and procedures.


• Follows data privacy, compliance, safety and confidentiality standards at all times.


• Practices universal safety precautions.


• Promotes good public relations on the phone and in person.


• Adapts and is willing to learn new tasks, methods, and systems.


• Reports to work regularly as scheduled; consistently punctual with respect to working hours, meal and rest breaks, and maintains satisfactory personal attendance in accordance with DeepHealth guidelines.


• Completes job responsibilities in a quality and timely manner.

Travel

This position may require occasional travel.

Working Environment

Remote (United States).

Physical Demands

The employee must be able to perform the essential duties and responsibilities of the position, with or without reasonable accommodation.