Product Support Engineer II - UTC -5/-6

As a Product Support Engineer II at Primer, you'll be responsible for managing merchant support tickets and translating their business needs into technical solutions. You'll also create high-quality documentation to benefit both merchants and internal teams, checking for outstanding support and providing advocacy for our users within the company. Your role will include troubleshooting technical issues, conducting quality assurance, mentoring junior team members, and collaborating with different departments to ensure seamless operations.

To be considered for the Product Support Engineer II role at Primer, candidates should possess experience in customer-facing positions dealing with complex API products, particularly in the fields of payments or B2B. Additionally, candidates should have a strong grasp of exceptional customer support practices, troubleshooting skills, and a familiarity with software development lifecycle processes. Empathy, Problem-solving, and excellent communication skills will also be crucial to excel in this role.

The Product Support team at Primer operates in a unique 'follow the sun' model, ensuring that our merchants receive 24/7 technical support. This means that team members work staggered hours in UTC -5 or UTC -6 time zones, allowing for seamless handoffs and continuous support coverage. The team collaborates closely with product development and engineering teams to quickly resolve issues and adapt solutions based on client feedback.

At Primer, Product Support Engineers II use a range of advanced tools to help them perform their duties effectively. These include Jira for ticket tracking, Datadog for monitoring systems, Metabase for analytics, GitLab and LaunchDarkly for code management and deployments, along with Notion for internal documentation. This toolkit is essential for understanding product behavior and troubleshooting client issues accurately and efficiently.

The culture at Primer is built around support, collaboration, and innovation. As a Product Support Engineer II, you will be part of a team that values your input and allows you to grow professionally. We believe in creating a space where everyone can do their best work while providing support structures that prevent challenges from becoming struggles. This supportive environment encourages creativity and proactive solutions, fostering a culture that is both productive and enjoyable.

When addressing a difficult customer issue, it's important to stay calm and listen actively to the customer's concerns. Empathize with their frustrations and assure them that you are there to help. Gather all relevant information to understand the problem fully, then explain your troubleshooting process clearly. Aim to be transparent about timelines and possible outcomes, ensuring the customer feels valued and understood throughout.

In your answer, provide specific examples of API troubleshooting you've performed in past roles. Discuss the steps you took to identify the issues, how you collaborated with your team to resolve them, and what tools or documentation you utilized. Emphasize the importance of a strong understanding of API behavior and how that contributed to successful solutions.

Share a particular instance where you recognized a pattern in customer feedback that indicated a gap in the product. Explain how you presented this data to relevant teams, advocating for the need for changes or additional features. Highlight the impact of your advocacy, such as resulting improvements or enhancements that benefited clients.

Effective documentation begins with understanding your audience and their needs. Discuss how you gather information by collaborating with team members and documenting top issues. Emphasize the use of clear language and organization that enhances usability for both internal teams and end-users. Mention the importance of keeping documentation up-to-date and gathering feedback for continuous improvement.

When prioritizing tasks, you might focus on severity and impact, handling critical issues first that could significantly affect customers. Explain your method of categorizing issues based on urgency and complexity, and describe how you use tools like ticket tracking systems to ensure timely responses while maintaining a high standard of customer service.

Delivering exceptional customer support hinges on effective communication, empathy, and a proactive mindset. Explain how understanding the customer's perspective allows you to provide tailored solutions while anticipating future needs. Highlight your commitment to continuous learning and improvement, which ultimately leads to enhanced customer satisfaction.

Discuss your approach to collaboration with cross-functional teams while emphasizing transparent communication and mutual respect. Provide examples of projects where you collaborated with product, engineering, or sales teams, and how this collaboration improved outcomes. Touch on the value of understanding different team perspectives to provide holistic solutions.

Express your passion for solving problems and helping others as a motivation for working in support engineering. Highlight how driving customer success and contributing to meaningful products that enhance users' experiences invigorates your workday. Mention any particular achievements in past roles that fueled your motivation.

Demonstrate your commitment to professional growth by explaining how you stay informed about industry trends and technologies. Mention resources such as relevant forums, webinars, blogs, and online courses you've engaged with. Touch on the importance of sharing this knowledge with your team to foster collective growth.

In discussing on-call duty, emphasize preparedness and communication. Explain how you would ensure that your team knows the escalation process, allowing you to manage critical situations calmly. Mention the significance of documenting incidents and outcomes to improve future on-call responses, allowing you to provide a predictable and dependable support experience.