Head of Customer Support - 6 Month Maternity Cover

Job Title: Head of Customer Support - 6 Month Maternity Cover

Location: Cape Town, South Africa 

Company Description

Sedna is a transformative force in global trade, designed for industries like maritime, where every decision matters. By reimagining email as an intelligent, collaborative workspace, Sedna streamlines communication and enhances decision-making for businesses operating in high-stakes environments. Its secure, cloud-native platform connects people, systems, and data seamlessly to empower organisations across teams, locations, and time zones.

We are headquartered in London, with strategic hubs in Cape Town, Singapore, Copenhagen, and North America, Sedna is redefining business communication for operational resilience and efficiency. Our innovative platform empowers global teams by seamlessly integrating secure, efficient workflows into business-critical systems.

About the Role

We are looking for a Head of Customer Support at Sedna for a 6-month maternity cover position in South Africa. You will maintain and lead the team that helps deliver on our promise of world class customer support for our customers. This is an opportunity to work closely with our high-value clients and stakeholders, making sure they're always supported.

Your Responsibilities

Here's a bit more on what you can expect to be doing day-to-day:

Customer Support Operations

Leading and managing the customer support team to ensure prompt and effective resolution of customer questions, issues and bugs, with a focus on maintaining Service Level Agreements and high levels of customer satisfaction.

Leading and Developing the Team

Recruiting, onboarding, and managing a high-performing customer support team, fostering a culture of continuous learning, growth, and accountability. Providing coaching, mentoring, and professional development opportunities to team members to enhance their skills and performance.

Optimising Process and Operations

Assessing and improving existing support processes, workflows, and tools to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the customer support function. You will be driving towards a more sophisticated approach to triage within the support team, looking to elevate the quality of support agent performance.

Managing On-Call Support and Hypercare

Managing the on-call rotation for first-line support, ensuring 24/7 availability to address customer issues. You will be working closely with customers during hypercare periods to ensure a successful implementation of Sedna's products and smooth transition into business-as-usual support.

Utilising Data to Make Decisions

Using data analytics to identify trends, patterns, and areas for improvement in internal processes, customer interactions, and overall support operations. Implementing strategies to leverage data insights for continuous improvement and optimisation of support services.

Managing Escalations

Developing clear guidelines for escalating support tickets and acting as a point of contact for high-risk escalations and issues; taking a hands-on approach to resolving critical customer concerns, ensuring timely and high quality resolutions.

Cross Functional Planning and Execution

Collaborating with internal stakeholders, including the Head of Customer Success, Head of Product, and Head of Professional Services, to align support initiatives with broader business objectives and drive improvements in customer outcomes.

About You

Experience and Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in Customer Support with experience of managing and recruiting a team of Support Agents.
• Experience using and managing issue tracking software (e.g. Jira) and help desk platforms (e.g. Zendesk)
• Strong experience with data analysis and reporting tools, including the ability to interpret trends, generate insights from support metrics, and create actionable recommendations based on quantitative and qualitative data
• Strong background in the tech space and SaaS environments, with demonstrated understanding of software platforms and cloud technologies

Core Attributes

Customer Focused

You foster a customer-centric culture within the support team, emphasising empathy, and clear communication. You have a global perspective and the awareness to support operations, considering the needs and preferences of customers across different markets.

Technical Understanding

You demonstrate a strong understanding of technology and SaaS products, coupled with the ability to articulate complex technical processes in a universally understandable manner. You can provide technical guidance and mentorship to L1 and L2 support agents and facilitate knowledge sharing within the team.

Problem-solving and Resourcefulness

You use analytical skills, empathy, and creativity to identify underlying problems, develop innovative solutions, and drive continuous improvement initiatives. You can coach and develop support agents in their own approaches to solving customer problems effectively.

Professional Communicator and Leader

You communicate clearly both internally with senior management and externally with high-level stakeholders and customers. You can articulate complex information simply for a less technical audience, present data-driven insights, and advocate for support-related priorities to key stakeholders. You can coach and improve support team members' communication styles and skills.

Proactive Strategic Ownership

You understand the balance between Sedna's business objectives and the customer needs; you make informed decisions and judgements, knowing when to escalate issues or allocate resources for resolution.

More About Sedna

Sedna was founded in 2017 by maritime and technology expert, Bill Dobie, when key industry players like Glencore sought out a new approach to their communication challenge. The company is backed by Insight Partners, alongside Stride.VC, Chalfen Ventures, GK Goh Ventures and SAP.

Sedna is comprised of two products - Stream and Pulse - providing a data-driven communication platform specifically designed to transform the shipping and supply chain industry. By effectively managing complexity, it streamlines processes and enhances efficiency. Through integrating with the existing ecosystem, Sedna enables decision-making and drives commercial success, building the foundation for our ultimate vision to make trade go faster.

Equal Opportunity

Sedna is an equal opportunity employer, and we welcome candidates of all backgrounds, race, ethnicity, ability, neurodivergence, age, sexual orientation and gender to apply. Please let us know if there is anything we can do to make our process more inclusive for you.

Hiring Process

• Submit application
• Recruiter Screen - Introduction to Sedna with Talent Acquisition
• 1st and 2nd Stages - Meet your potential future manager and take part in a range of activities and questions that will assess your suitability for the role
• Final Stage - Meet the wider team including members of senior management
• Reference Checks
• Offer