Staff-Level Support Operations
Architect

I design scalable support infrastructure for high-growth SaaS — escalation governance, CRM systems architecture, routing logic, and analytics frameworks that reduce recurring incidents and protect engineering bandwidth.

Senior individual contributor operating at the intersection of Support, Product, and Engineering.

Enterprise experience: Adobe & Tipalti • Proven results: 93% CSAT and 22% efficiency improvement.

View Systems & Case Studies Discuss a Role or Engagement

93%

CSAT Score Achieved

Selected systems: Severity governance models • Smart routing & automation • RCA dashboards • AI-ready knowledge foundations • Support–Engineering operating rhythms

22%

Efficiency Improvement

10+

Years in Support Operations

What I Build

Support Infrastructure Designed to Scale

At Staff level, impact comes from designing systems — not handling tickets. Here are the core operating systems I build for Support organizations.

Escalation Governance Architecture

Standardize severity, protect Engineering bandwidth, and reduce recurrence with objective criteria embedded into workflows.

  • Severity modeling & standardization
  • Objective escalation thresholds
  • RCA frameworks & recurrence tracking
  • SLA and customer impact alignment
  • Escalation policy-to-workflow implementation

CRM & Workflow Systems Design

Architect Zendesk/Salesforce to reflect real operations: clean routing, automation, governance, and cross-team clarity.

  • Zendesk / Salesforce systems architecture
  • Routing logic & automation strategy
  • Cross-team workflow integration
  • Release & documentation governance
  • Knowledge base & self-service foundations

Support Observability & Analytics

Turn dashboards into decisions: align KPIs, reveal drivers, and build visibility leaders can trust.

  • Executive-facing dashboards
  • KPI alignment across functions
  • Escalation pattern detection
  • Capacity and backlog modeling
  • Feedback loops to Product/Engineering

AI-Ready Support Foundations

Prepare Support for AI-first operations with knowledge architecture, containment readiness, and safe handoffs.

  • Knowledge architecture for AI containment
  • Tier-1 automation readiness
  • AI-to-human escalation logic
  • Governance guardrails & oversight
  • Measurement model for containment & deflection

Hiring note: I’m pursuing Staff-level Support Operations roles as a high-leverage individual contributor. If a full-time hire isn’t feasible, I also offer targeted advisory engagements to accelerate systems design.

Real Results

Case Studies

Concrete examples of how I've helped teams solve real support challenges.

Standardizing Escalation Governance: Severity Calculator

Problem

Severity definitions varied across teams, causing priority conflicts, inconsistent escalation decisions, and unnecessary Engineering interruptions.

Staff-Level Approach

  • Met with Engineering to define each severity level (Minor, Important, Urgent, Critical) and align with existing workflows
  • Collaborated with Customer Experience team to map customer priorities (S4, S3, S2, S1) to impact criteria
  • Built a JavaScript-based calculator using four weighted factors:

• Customer Impact (Production down vs. workaround available)
• Customer Ranking (Top tier vs. SMB)
• End-Users Affected (50%+ vs. <10%)
• Customer Urgency (Contract at risk vs. calm discussion)

Impact

Created a standardized, objective framework that both teams could use to assign and validate ticket severity. The calculator is still in use today and has eliminated confusion around escalation priorities.

Rollout: Introduced incrementally with Support leadership buy-in, validated with Engineering, and reinforced through escalation workflows rather than policy alone.

Scope: Used by a multi-team Support organization working with Engineering across enterprise and SMB customers.

Severity Calculator Interface

Dynamic Zendesk Guide Customization

Challenge

Client needed different description text for the Description field depending on which request form users selected in their Zendesk Guide, but the platform didn't support this natively.

Staff-Level Approach

Implemented custom JavaScript to:

  • Target the field description element dynamically
  • Detect which form was selected by the user
  • Change the description text in real-time based on form selection
  • Ensure seamless user experience with no page reloads

Impact

Users received contextually relevant guidance for each request type, improving form completion quality and reducing back-and-forth clarification requests.

Scope: Implemented across multiple Zendesk Guide request forms serving both internal and external users.

Support form with custom description General Question form with custom description

Personalized Guide Experience with Announcements

Challenge

Client wanted to personally greet logged-in users when they navigated to the Zendesk Guide page and needed a way to display important announcements (system outages, holiday schedules, etc.).

Staff-Level Approach

  • Implemented JavaScript to pull the signed-in user's name and add it to the search bar placeholder text
  • Integrated Bootstrap framework into the Guide page
  • Created customizable notification panels that agents could show/hide and update with announcements
  • Built admin-friendly controls for managing announcement content and links

Impact

Enhanced user experience with personalized greetings and improved communication channel for time-sensitive updates. Agents could manage announcements without developer intervention.

Scope: Deployed to customer-facing Zendesk Guide with agent-managed announcement system, reducing dependency on development for urgent communications.

Personalized greeting and announcement panels in Zendesk Guide

About Me

How I Work as a Staff-Level IC

Jonathan J. Scott - Customer Experience Expert

I design and operate support infrastructure inside enterprise SaaS environments — escalation systems, analytics, CRM architecture, and cross-functional workflows at scale.

Operating model: Observe reality → align stakeholders → embed systems → measure outcomes.

🎯 Operator First, Consultant Second

10+ years leading Tier 2/3 support at Adobe, Tipalti, and enterprise SaaS companies. I understand the real challenges because I've faced them myself—I've been in the trenches handling escalations, building workflows, and coaching teams.

Typical scale: 5–25 agents, enterprise + SMB customers, multi-product SaaS environments.

📊 Data-Driven Results

Every recommendation is backed by analytics. I've built the dashboards, run the experiments, and delivered measurable improvements at scale. I don't guess—I measure, test, and optimize based on real data.

🔧 Technical Depth

Zendesk Admin certified, Explore analytics expert, and deep troubleshooting background. I don't just recommend solutions—I build them. From JavaScript customizations to API integrations, I can implement what I recommend.

Certifications: Zendesk Support Administrator Expert I • Zendesk Explore/Analytics • Zendesk Talk • Guide/Self-Service • PMEC

🤝 Cross-Functional Collaboration

Years partnering with Product and Engineering teams. I bridge the gap between support and technical teams effectively, translating customer pain into actionable product insights and creating frameworks both sides can use.

⚡ Quick Wins + Long-Term Strategy

I prioritize immediate improvements while building sustainable systems. You'll see results within the first month—whether it's reducing response times, improving CSAT, or streamlining escalations.

💡 Enterprise Experience, Startup Agility

I've scaled support at billion-dollar companies but work with the speed and flexibility your growing business needs. No bureaucracy, just results.

Real Example: Engineering-Support Alignment

When Support and Engineering couldn't agree on what made an issue "critical," I built a JavaScript-based severity calculator that standardized escalation criteria across both teams. The tool uses four weighted factors—customer impact, customer tier, users affected, and urgency—to objectively calculate severity levels (S1-S4).

Result: Eliminated confusion around priorities, reduced unnecessary escalations, and created a framework both teams still use today. This is the kind of practical, implementable solution I bring to every engagement.

Role Fit

Where I Add the Most Leverage

  • Escalations bypassing process and burning Engineering time
  • Support tooling exists but isn’t trusted by agents or leadership
  • Severity definitions that mean different things to different teams
  • Dashboards that exist but don't drive decisions
  • Support blamed for product gaps with no shared framework

Hiring Signals

Is This You?

I work best in high-growth SaaS environments where support complexity is increasing:

You're the right fit if:

  • Your support team has grown to 5-25 agents and processes are breaking
  • You're using Zendesk or Salesforce Service Cloud but know it's underutilized
  • CSAT is declining as ticket volume increases
  • Escalations to Product/Engineering are out of control
  • You need someone who understands both the technical and operational sides
  • You're ready to invest in proper systems, not just band-aids

Testimonials

What Clients Say

"In my time working with Jonathan, his ability to solve complex business issues for clients by creatively utilizing technology was very impressive. He was able to effectively sift through a client's background clutter, identify the actual root cause of their issue, and then creatively utilize the tools available to provide them with well thought out solutions. Jonathan was enjoyable for everyone here to work and socialize with, and he was a valued member of our team. He would be an asset to any organization."

Rob Tapia

VP of Operations

"I had the pleasure of working with Jonathan and think he would be an asset to anyone's team. He has a real passion for the platforms and products he works with and brings a creativity to problem solving that I don't see enough of. He's very patient with clients and was solid at working through their issues. He's constantly evolving and honing his skills. I hope to work with him again in the future!"

Rob Fife

CEO/CTO

"I had the pleasure of working with Jonathan for two years at Adobe. Jonathan developed reports that met requirements I provided -- using data from both JIRA and Zendesk. Jonathan was great to work with and always responded quickly and completely. He has great insights and is a quick learner. I highly recommend Jonathan's system administration, data query and report development skills."

Charlene Land

Developer Tools Support Engineer, Adobe

Ready to Transform Your Support Operations?

If you’re hiring for a Staff-level Support Operations role (or exploring advisory support), let’s connect.