Lead Technical Support Engineer

Rafay Systems; Northern (KY); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive compensation

Comprehensive benefits

Stock options

Job summary

Rafay Systems is seeking a Lead Technical Support Engineer to own complex, high-impact customer issues. This technical leadership role spans Kubernetes, networking, public cloud, virtualization, and the Rafay platform.

You will mentor engineers, partner with Customer Success, Product, and Engineering, drive root-cause analysis, and improve support processes. Strong communication and ownership are essential in Rafay's fast-paced environment.

Qualifications

• 7+ years in a customer-facing technical role (Tech Support/SRE/DevOps).
• Hands-on Kubernetes and cloud-native troubleshooting across multiple clouds.
• Experience with DNS, routing, firewalls, and virtualization (VMware vSphere, OpenStack).
• Proficient in Helm, Terraform, and Prometheus.
• Proven experience managing enterprise customer escalations and high-severity issues.
• Excellent written and verbal communication; ability to explain complex issues clearly.

Responsibilities

• Own critical customer and partner escalations across Rafay platform.
• Lead troubleshooting, root-cause analysis, and resolution across Kubernetes, cloud, networking, and virtualization environments.
• Reproduce customer issues and work with Engineering/Product on defects and improvements.
• Mentor support engineers and share knowledge and best practices.
• Create and maintain knowledge base content and technical documentation.
• Participate in on-call rotation for urgent incidents.

Skills

Kubernetes

Cloud-native

Networking

AWS

GCP

Azure

Terraform

Prometheus

Mentoring

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Jira

Confluence

Zendesk

Job description

Rafay is building an infrastructure platform for the AI era, helping enterprises, Cloud Service Providers, and Sovereign AI Clouds simplify how compute is provisioned, consumed, governed, and scaled. Our software brings automation and orchestration to complex infrastructure environments, enabling self-service access to GPUs, CPUs, and other compute resources while improving utilization, operational efficiency, and governance.

With technology spanning AI infrastructure, Kubernetes, cloud, and automation, Rafay is helping organizations turn increasingly complex infrastructure into a scalable foundation for the next generation of applications and AI services.

The Opportunity

We are looking for a Lead Technical Support Engineer to join our growing support organization and take ownership of complex, high-impact customer and partner issues. This is a highly technical, customer-facing leadership role spanning Kubernetes, networking, public cloud, virtualization, and the Rafay platform.

You will serve as a senior escalation point, partnering closely with Customer Success, Product, and Engineering to diagnose complex problems, drive issues to resolution, and deliver exceptional customer outcomes. You will also help strengthen the support organization through mentoring, knowledge sharing, and continuous improvement of support processes.

The ideal candidate is a strong technical problem solver and customer advocate with excellent communication skills, sound judgment, and a strong sense of ownership. You thrive in a fast-paced environment, are comfortable navigating ambiguity and pressure, and enjoy learning and tackling new technologies.

Key Responsibilities

Technical Leadership & Escalations

• Own critical customer and partner escalations, serving as the senior technical point of contact for complex, high-impact issues across application, infrastructure, networking, and the Rafay platform.
• Lead troubleshooting, root-cause analysis, and resolution across Kubernetes, public cloud, networking, and virtualization environments.
• Reproduce customer issues and partner with Engineering and Product to identify defects, workarounds, and product improvements.
• Identify recurring issues and customer risks, and drive appropriate escalation and resolution.
• Build trusted relationships with enterprise customers, serving as a technical advocate and effectively managing expectations during high-severity incidents.
• Mentor and coach support engineers, conduct case reviews, and share technical knowledge and best practices.
• Serve as a subject matter expert on the Rafay platform, keeping current with new features, releases, integrations, and cloud-native technologies.
• Create and maintain knowledge base content, troubleshooting guides, and technical documentation.

Operational Excellence

• Manage customer cases in accordance with SLAs, maintaining strong ownership, documentation, communication, and follow-through.
• Collaborate with Engineering, Product, and Customer Success to improve customer outcomes and support processes.
• Lead or contribute to post-mortems and drive continuous improvements based on lessons learned.
• Participate in an on-call rotation for urgent and critical customer escalations, including weekend and other non-business-hours coverage.

Required Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience in a customer-facing technical role such as Technical Support, SRE, DevOps, Cloud Engineering, or a related discipline.
• Strong hands-on experience managing and troubleshooting Kubernetes and cloud-native environments, with familiarity across the broader CNCF ecosystem.
• Strong troubleshooting skills across networking, public cloud, and virtualization, including DNS, routing, firewalls, AWS, Google Cloud Platform, Azure, VMware vSphere, and OpenStack.
• Experience with cloud-native and DevOps tools such as Helm, Terraform, and Prometheus.
• Proven experience managing complex enterprise customer escalations and high-severity technical issues, with strong ownership from investigation through resolution.
• Excellent written, verbal, and interpersonal communication skills, with the ability to clearly explain complex technical issues to diverse audiences.
• Experience working with customer support and case-management platforms such as Jira, Confluence, Zendesk, or equivalent tools.
• Demonstrated ability to mentor engineers, influence processes, and work independently in a fast-paced, changing environment.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting enterprise SaaS, developer platforms, Kubernetes platforms, or cloud infrastructure products.
• Experience with AI/ML infrastructure, GPU platforms, or GPU cloud environments.
• Experience working with large-scale or distributed infrastructure environments.

Why Join Rafay?

As a Lead Technical Support Engineer, you will have the opportunity to:

• Solve challenging problems — Own complex customer issues where your technical expertise and judgment matter.
• Lead and mentor — Help develop engineers and shape support practices as the team grows.
• Influence the product — Partner with Engineering, Product, and Customer Success to improve customer outcomes.
• Keep learning and growing — Expand your expertise across evolving technologies while developing as a technical leader.
• Make an impact — Work in an environment that values ownership, curiosity, collaboration, and technical excellence.

We offer competitive compensation, comprehensive benefits, and attractive stock options, along with a dynamic environment where your contributions can have a meaningful impact.

If you are a technically strong customer advocate who thrives on solving complex infrastructure problems, leading critical escalations, mentoring others, and helping shape the future of AI infrastructure, we would love to hear from you.