Sr. Manager, Customer Service & Field Quality

Position Summary

We are seeking a highly motivated, customer-focused, and technically proficient Senior Manager of Customer Service & Field Quality to lead Blue Ops' post-delivery customer support operations while driving continuous product reliability improvements across our autonomous maritime systems.

This role serves as the operational link between customers and Blue Ops' Engineering, Manufacturing, Marine Operations, Technology, and Quality teams. The Senior Manager is responsible for ensuring exceptional customer experiences while identifying field performance trends and converting customer feedback into actionable product improvements.

The ideal candidate combines strong customer service leadership with technical problem-solving capabilities and thrives in a fast-paced defense technology environment. This individual will establish scalable support processes, improve fleet reliability, reduce warranty costs, and strengthen customer confidence in Blue Ops products and services.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Lead Blue Ops' post-sale Customer Service and Technical Support functions, ensuring timely, professional, and technically accurate support for domestic and international customers.
• Manage multi-tier customer support operations across phone, email, customer portals, and other communication channels.
• Develop, implement, and continuously improve Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for Tier 1 through Tier 3 technical support and engineering escalation processes.
• Establish and maintain a scalable knowledge management system (KMS) that provides accurate technical documentation for customer self-service and internal support teams.
• Monitor customer support cases, diagnostic logs, field service reports, warranty claims, and product performance data to identify recurring product quality or reliability trends.
• Lead Root Cause Analysis (RCA) investigations utilizing structured methodologies including 8D, 5-Why, Fishbone, and Failure Mode & Effects Analysis (FMEA).
• Manage the Return Material Authorization (RMA) process, coordinating component returns, product inspections, teardown analysis, and corrective action activities with Engineering and Manufacturing.
• Partner with Engineering, Manufacturing, Marine Operations, Quality, and Supply Chain to develop and implement Field Corrective Actions (FCAs), engineering changes, software updates, and containment plans that improve product reliability.
• Develop field service standards, technical procedures, service level agreements (SLAs), and quality expectations for internal technicians and third-party service providers.
• Conduct field quality audits to evaluate installation quality, repair workmanship, maintenance practices, safety compliance, and overall service performance.
• Build and maintain service performance dashboards and operational metrics to monitor customer satisfaction, response times, product reliability, warranty trends, and field service effectiveness.
• Analyze customer feedback, technical support data, and field performance metrics to identify opportunities for continuous improvement and communicate recommendations to leadership.
• Manage departmental budgets, staffing plans, support technologies, and service resources to ensure scalable customer support operations.
• Lead customer communications during significant product issues, field reliability events, software releases, and corrective action campaigns.
• Foster strong customer relationships while serving as the voice of the customer across Engineering, Manufacturing, and Product Development teams.
• Ensure customer feedback is effectively incorporated into future product development, manufacturing improvements, and quality initiatives.
• Support continuous improvement initiatives that reduce warranty costs, improve fleet reliability, increase operational efficiency, and enhance the overall customer experience.
• Prepare and present regular reports to executive leadership on customer service performance, field quality trends, key performance indicators, and operational improvements.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Education & Experience

• Required: Bachelor's degree in Engineering (Mechanical, Electrical, Industrial), Business Administration, Operations Management, or a related technically rigorous discipline.

• Preferred: Master's degree (MBA or M.S. in Quality, Engineering Management, Operations Management, or related discipline).
• Minimum of 8–10 years of progressive leadership experience across Customer Service, Customer Operations, Technical Support, Field Service, Product Support, Quality, or Field Engineering environments.

• Proven experience leading multi-channel customer support organizations while managing technical field service teams or supporting complex electromechanical products.

• Demonstrated success partnering with Engineering, Manufacturing, Quality, Marine Operations, and Product Development teams to improve product reliability and customer satisfaction.

• Experience managing warranty programs, Return Material Authorization (RMA) processes, field corrective actions, and root cause investigations.

• Experience supporting complex autonomous systems, robotics, maritime systems, defense technologies, industrial equipment, or similarly sophisticated technical products is strongly preferred.

Certification & Technical Knowledge

---

• Quality Management: Lean Six Sigma Green Belt or Black Belt certification strongly preferred. ASQ Certified Manager of Quality/Organizational Excellence (CMQ/OE) is a significant plus.

• Systems & Infrastructure: Experience administering and utilizing Enterprise CRM and ticketing systems (Salesforce Service Cloud, Zendesk, or similar), Field Service Management (FSM) platforms, ERP systems (SAP, Oracle, or equivalent), and business intelligence/reporting platforms such as Power BI or Tableau.

• Strong understanding of Root Cause Analysis (RCA), Failure Mode & Effects Analysis (FMEA), 8D, 5-Why, Fishbone Analysis, and continuous improvement methodologies.