Customer Support Engineer

What's the job to be done?

• You will advise and handle support requests from customers and developers on the PlanetScale platform.
• You will respond to, debug, and resolve customer support issues through support tickets, customer Slack channels, public discussions, and other support channels.
• You will help customers understand how to use PlanetScale effectively, including how to reason about queries, schema changes, application behavior, database connectivity, and production workflows.
• You will create and improve internal and external documentation, support playbooks, troubleshooting guides, and customer-facing materials.
• You will identify product gaps and recurring sources of customer friction, then work with Engineering to prioritize improvements.
• You will contribute to the systems, processes, and practices that help PlanetScale deliver excellent developer-focused support at scale.

These attributes best describe you.

• You are customer-focused, empathetic, and clear in how you communicate, while knowing when to push back in ways that help customers become successful on their own.
• You have excellent debugging and troubleshooting skills, with the curiosity and persistence to follow issues across applications, databases, infrastructure, and product behavior.
• You are comfortable stepping outside your comfort zone. Whether that means reading unfamiliar application code, digging into database behavior, testing a new framework, or learning a connector you haven't used before, you're willing to go where the problem leads.
• You are a self-starting, enthusiastic individual who takes responsibility for outcomes and wants to make a meaningful impact on the business.
• You can operate independently, but you know when to ask for help and how to bring the right people into an issue.
• You are highly organized and able to operate in ambiguous or changing situations.
• You are data-driven, team-oriented, and comfortable communicating across many audiences.
• You enjoy working cross-functionally and translating customer pain into actionable product, documentation, and process improvements.

What you will need.

• Experience supporting production applications, databases, developer tools, infrastructure, or other technical products.
• Working knowledge of SQL, preferably with experience in MySQL and/or PostgreSQL.
• Strong debugging skills and the ability to reason through application and database behavior.
• Programming experience. You will not be programming full-time, but you should be comfortable reading and navigating unfamiliar code to understand customer issues.
• Experience with common application frameworks, ORMs, database connectors, or application deployment patterns.
• Willingness to explore new languages, frameworks, tools, and customer environments as needed.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Strong empathy for customers, developers, and teammates, with the ability to advocate for customer needs clearly and constructively.

What else will help you be successful.

• Experience working in a remote organization.
• Experience with cloud platforms such as AWS, GCP, or Azure.
• Knowledge of monitoring, observability, and debugging tools.
• Experience helping build support processes, documentation systems, or teams from an early stage.

Total Compensation and Pay Transparency

An employee's total compensation consists of base salary + variable comp where appropriate + benefits + equity. A member of our Talent Acquisition team will be happy to answer any further questions when we engage with you to begin the interview process.

Base salary range

$150,000 - $200,000 USD