What is Support Engineering?

A Support Engineer is an engineer that solves technical customer problems and questions.


Reader's Note:
Previously, I managed Support Engineering at Finix from the Seed to Series B stage.  You can read more about my story and journey here.


What do Support Engineers do?

Support Engineers interact with customers daily through integration questions, developer support, and any issues/feature requests they might find.  Questions can range from API integration questions to specific scenarios that might require hours of research.

Support Engineering is a cross-functional role working across product, engineering, and customer-facing teams.

What does the average day look like?

  • Respond to customer’s inquiries and issues via email, support tickets, or zoom
  • Troubleshoot and debug technical questions from customers relating to APIs or integrations
  • Build strong relationships with customers and work with them to resolve their issues
  • Act as a customer advocate in cross-functional product and engineering meetings
  • Participate in on-call rotations for alarms

Background of Support Engineers

Support Engineers come from all different backgrounds. Support Engineers tend to have the following background.

  • BS/MS in Computer Science, Engineering, or similar experience (Bootcamps!!)
  • Strong written and verbal communication skills.
  • Strong foundational knowledge of APIs and can explain the concept to a five-year-old easily
  • Python, Ruby, and or JavaScript experience
  • Intermediate to Advanced SQL knowledge

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