Role: Senior Manager, Technical Services
Department: Tech Services
Reports To: VP of Finance
Compensation Range: $130,000 - $165,000 annual salary
About this Role
The Senior Manager, Technical Services leads the Technical Services team and is responsible for how it operates: the diagnostic process, the documentation standard, the partner network, the information flow back to Engineering, Operations and Finance. The right candidate is a problem solver by nature, data-driven in how they make decisions, and business-minded in how they weigh cost against customer outcome. They are as comfortable writing a procedure as working a ticket.
Job Location
The role requires on-site presence at Bellwether's Berkeley HQ.
Primary Responsibilities
Team Leadership and Service Operations
- Lead the Technical Services team across remote diagnosis and on-site coordination. Support owns the customer relationship; Technical Services owns diagnosis, the fix decision, and execution.
- Define the operating standard for the team: what a complete handover looks like, what is documented on every case, and when work is complete.
- Set service targets (acknowledgement, time to diagnosis, first-time fix, remote resolution rate), run the operating cadence against them, and report performance to leadership.
- Develop the team through coaching, clear expectations and cross-training.
- Partner with the Customer Experience leader on escalations for machine-down customers and high-visibility accounts, owning the technical resolution.
Process and Documentation
- Own the diagnostic framework: a structured, consistent troubleshooting method the whole team follows.
- Define the catalog of service types, each with work instructions, parts and labor expectations.
- Ensure Technical Service Bulletins issued by Engineering are checked and completed on every repair and maintenance visit.
- Ensure on-site work is authorized after remote troubleshooting is complete and warranty status is confirmed.
- Keep Technical Services documentation current, versioned and usable by internal teams and partners.
Engineering Feedback Loop
- Maintain a structured, continuous information loop to Engineering covering symptoms observed, troubleshooting performed, and resolution achieved, for every case.
- Deliver quantified failure feedback to Engineering ranked by frequency, cost and customer impact.
- Partner with Engineering on remote diagnostics, telemetry use, and the evolution of the troubleshooting framework as the product changes.
Cost and Warranty
- Manage Technical Services spend against the approved budget, including third-party labor, parts, freight and warranty cost.
- Make or approve the warranty-versus-billable determination on every parts order and dispatch, and ensure it is recorded accurately.
- Manage cost per service event and warranty cost per unit while protecting customer outcomes.
- Manage service partner rate cards, scopes of work and performance terms.
- Partner with Finance on warranty accuracy, service profitability, and the business case for billable maintenance and paid service offerings.
Field Service and Partner Network
- Manage dispatch of Bellwether technicians and third-party partners across the service territory, with complete briefs so partners arrive prepared.
- Recruit, onboard, certify and manage service partners to Bellwether standards. Maintain partner scorecards for quality, speed, cost and customer satisfaction.
- Coordinate with Supply Chain on parts availability and stock levels.
- Coordinate coverage for outlying markets and UK/EU customers served through established partners.
Systems and Data
- Drive configuration, adoption and data discipline in the service tools (ticketing, dispatch, knowledge base), in partnership with Finance and Operations, who own the ERP and system architecture.
- Ensure complete, structured data on every case so that failures, partner performance and cost can be measured.
- Build and use reporting on case load, cycle time, parts flow, partner performance and cost per case.
- Apply AI tooling where it improves speed or quality of service.
Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in mechanical, electrical or mechatronics engineering, or equivalent technical education and hands-on experience.
- 7+ years in technical service or field service for commercial equipment (foodservice, appliances, HVAC, industrial, medical devices or similar), including several years leading a team.
- Experience building or scaling a service function, including process design.
- A natural problem solver: diagnoses root causes rather than symptoms, whether in a machine, a process or a partner relationship.
- Data-driven: builds the report, questions the number, and changes the process. Proficient in spreadsheets and reporting tools.
- Business-minded: weighs cost, customer outcome and risk together, and can make and defend a commercial call.
- Hands-on technical depth: able to diagnose electromechanical and thermal faults remotely and evaluate a technician's work.
- Direct experience managing outsourced service providers and field technicians, including commercial terms and performance.
- Working fluency with connected products: telemetry, remote diagnostics, firmware updates and connectivity troubleshooting.
- Proficiency with a ticketing or service platform and an ERP; HubSpot and NetSuite preferred
- Authorized to work in the U.S. without sponsorship.
