Christopher Pederson
Available for leadership roles · Remote, US

Support leaderwho scales by design

I build and rebuild technical support organizations. Over 20+ years in SaaS and enterprise software, I've restructured teams around the product, put AI into the daily support workflow, and kept service levels steady through big changes.

Bedford, NH · Most recently Director, Escalation Technical Support at an application security SaaS company
Case files

Leadership in practice

Four case studies highlighting my approach to leadership: the challenges I faced, the actions I took, and the outcomes I achieved.

Operating modelApplication security SaaS

From one generalist team to five product divisions

Situation

The product portfolio was growing in size and complexity. A single generalist team was stretched thin and leaned on Engineering for answers.

Action

Restructured support into 5 product-focused divisions, named subject matter experts in each, and built a RACI across Support, Engineering, Sales, CS and Professional Services.

Result

Case age down 35% year over year. Cases escalated to Engineering down 20%. More resolution without proportional headcount growth.

AI in productionApplication security SaaS
Salesforce · LLMs

Putting AI into the daily support workflow

Situation

Support engineers spent heavy time on research and on writing clear customer updates for complex technical cases.

Action

Built AI into the production workflow and evaluated Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot. Prepared the knowledge management system so AI could draw on accurate, well-structured content, installed a Salesforce Agentforce agent in a test environment, and introduced AI into the customer user community.

Result

Customer self-service up 18% after AI was added to the user community. Engineers also researched and resolved cases faster and wrote clearer customer updates.

Delivery model2023
Offshore partner transition

Changing who delivers support without customers feeling it

Situation

The business moved half of the US support team to an offshore BPO partner.

Action

Ran the transition and governed the partner through formal SLA and KPI targets and recurring quality reviews.

Result

Service levels held throughout the transition.

Built from zeroTechnology startup

Standing up a support function where none existed

Situation

A fast-moving startup with no call tracking, no process and no metrics.

Action

Created call tracking, procedures, CRM management, an RMA process and KPI dashboards.

Result

A measurable support operation the business could plan around.

How I lead

A global team, one standard

In my most recent role I led a 35+ person organization with 4 managers across five countries, covering the clock.

United StatesUTC−5
United KingdomUTC+0
Czech RepublicUTC+1
IndiaUTC+5:30
SingaporeUTC+8

Develop managers, not just tickets

Daily coaching, structured reviews, and clear performance plans when they're needed. Strong managers are how a support org scales.

Lead with the data

Executive Power BI dashboards on case aging, escalation volume, SLA adherence and sentiment drive priorities and staffing decisions.

Make Support a voice in the product

Recurring issues go to Product and Engineering as prioritized, evidence-backed feedback instead of raw ticket counts.

Own the hard moments

Incident Commander for high-severity events, QBRs with customers, and executive relationships when accounts need attention.

Leading with data

Inside the dashboards

I built a dashboard for every level of the organization, from each engineer's one-on-one view up to the leadership summary. These are recreations of how they were structured. Names and customer details are removed, and the numbers are illustrative.

Engineer view

One-on-one goals

Reviewed in every one-on-one. Each engineer sees their own numbers against the team goal.

MeasureGoalActual
CSAT≥ 4.64.7
First response< 5 hrs3.3 hrs
SLO adherence> 92%94%
Avg case age< 2.7 days2.4 days
Case updatesEvery 2 days1 overdue
Daily hygiene checks
  • Sev 1 and Sev 2 cases with no summary after 1 day
  • Case summaries older than 2 days
  • Days since last email to the customer
  • Jira closed but support case still open
  • Cases missing a product line
Team view

Case age against goal

Used by managers to spot a team drifting before it shows up in CSAT.

Avg case age (days)Goal: under 3 days
Leadership view

SLO adherence by product division

Shared with executives monthly to steer staffing across the five product divisions.

SLO adherenceGoal: 92%
The real thing

Production dashboards, redacted

Screenshots of two Salesforce dashboards I designed. Names, case numbers, customer accounts and product details are blacked out.

Redacted engineer dashboard with a Daily To-Do's section (cases needing a summary, days since last customer email, closed Jira with open case) and a Goals section (CSAT, first response time, target response adherence, time to resolve, backlog).
Engineer dashboard. Daily to-do's on top, personal goals below. Each engineer had one, and we walked through it in every one-on-one.
Redacted team dashboard showing survey scores, time to resolve, first response and SLO adherence, case age against a 3-day goal, backlog over time, and monthly cases opened and closed.
Team dashboard. Survey scores, response and SLO adherence, case age against goal, backlog, and monthly volume for one product team.
Career log

Twenty-plus years in support leadership

  1. Veracode
    –
    Application security SaaS

    Director, Escalation Technical Support

    • Led a 35+ person, 4-manager organization across the US, UK, Czech Republic, India and Singapore, developing managers and engineers through daily coaching, structured reviews and performance plans
    • Restructured a single generalist team into 5 product-focused divisions with named subject matter experts, cutting case age 35% year over year and escalations to Engineering by 20%
    • Held 98% SLO adherence and 96% CSAT, tracked through executive Power BI and Salesforce dashboards covering case aging, escalation volume and customer sentiment
    • Put AI into the daily support workflow, prepared the knowledge base for AI, and installed a Salesforce Agentforce agent in a test environment; AI in the user community lifted customer self-service 18%
    • Led the 2023 move of half the US team to an offshore partner, governed through SLA, KPI and quality reviews, with no drop in service levels
    • Built a RACI across Support, Engineering, Product, Sales, Customer Success and Professional Services, and turned recurring issues into prioritized product feedback
    • Served as Incident Commander for high-severity events and delivered QBRs and executive customer communications
    • Owned workforce planning, staffing and vendor budgets, support tiers, and onboarding programs with structured ramp timelines
  2. PlumChoice
    –
    Outsourced technical support services

    Manager, Technical Support – Help Desk

    • Ran weekly Change Advisory Board meetings for HIPAA and SOC compliance
    • Built a knowledge-base and deflection strategy that reduced ticket volume
    • Zendesk administrator; built an IoT lab for connected-device support
    • Partnered with WFM on a 500-agent, 24x7x365 operation
  3. Kronos (now UKG)
    –
    Workforce-management SaaS

    Cloud Systems Operation Manager

    • Managed a distributed team across the US and India for cloud-hosted environments
    • Incident Manager for P1 and P2 events, with ITIL root cause analysis
  4. Aspect Software
    –
    Contact-center software

    Manager, Customer Services and Support

    • Developed and delivered quarterly business reviews
    • Partnered with HR on salary restructuring and employee development
  5. XOS Technologies
    –
    Technology startup

    Director of Support

    • Built the support function from scratch: call tracking, procedures, RMA process and KPI dashboards
  6. Kronos (now UKG)
    –
    Workforce-management software

    Manager, Global Support

    • Built KPI tracking with custom Crystal Reports
    • Sustained 95%+ customer satisfaction and earned multiple company awards
Skills

What I bring

Leadership
  • Support operating model design
  • Manager development & coaching
  • Executive & cross-functional partnership
  • Distributed, global team leadership
  • Workforce & capacity planning
  • Vendor & BPO management
Support operations
  • Escalation management
  • Incident command
  • Root cause analysis
  • SLA / KPI governance
  • Knowledge management & deflection
  • QBRs & customer advocacy
Platforms
  • Salesforce
  • Agentforce
  • Zendesk
  • Jira
  • Power BI
  • Crystal Reports
AI & automation
  • Claude
  • ChatGPT
  • Gemini
  • Copilot
  • AI workflow rollout & enablement
  • Knowledge base prep for AI
  • Agentforce agent setup
Frameworks & compliance
  • ITIL
  • HIPAA
  • SOC
  • Change Advisory Board

Education · B.S., University of New Hampshire · Management Certification, Boston University Corporate Education Center · Salesforce Administrator Training · Claude Academy Training

Contact

Let's talk about your support team

I’m seeking a senior leadership role where I can build and scale high-performing customer support teams in a SaaS environment.

Message me on LinkedInlinkedin.com/in/christopherpederson ↗