Principal Support Engineer

About the Role

As a Principal Support Engineer at Afresh, you will be the technical expert ensuring our AI platform behaves optimally for grocery partners. This role requires 5+ years of experience in technical support, solutions engineering, or data engineering, with a focus on root-cause analysis of production data. You must communicate effectively with both store directors and staff engineers while being passionate about reducing fresh food waste in the grocery industry.

Support Engineering handles complex technical escalations—acting as the final resolution point for internal escalations across all Afresh products. You will own the most challenging escalations, identify and lead initiatives to improve department-level OKRs (e.g., ticket deflection rate, average handle time), and eliminate root causes. This role is senior-level with broad scope, requiring autonomy, deep expertise, and cross-functional influence.

What You’ll Do

A typical week involves building agentic AI support workflows in Stylo, shipping Claude skills for Tier 1 Support, investigating data issues across 200+ products, and presenting findings to leadership. Key responsibilities include:

• Own complex escalations, such as data mapping defects, recommendation anomalies, and integration failures.
• Lead initiatives to improve department-level metrics like ticket deflection and escalation reduction.
• Define and report measurable impact, including baselines and post-improvement metrics.
• Build tooling (SQL, Python, Databricks, Looker, Stylo, Claude, and lightweight automations) to reduce manual work.
• Drive cross-functional change with teams like Solutions Engineering, Data Engineering, and Product Engineering.
• Mentor Tier 1 and Tier 2 engineers, lead training, and create documentation for complex issues.
• Present findings in Tech Demos, company-wide channels, and cross-functional forums.
• Serve as the escalation point for partner-specific decisions involving Product, Engineering, or customers.

What Will Make You a Great Fit

The following attributes are ideal, though all qualified candidates are encouraged to apply:

• 5+ years in technical support, solutions engineering, or data engineering with root-cause analysis experience.
• Advanced SQL skills for querying large, imperfect datasets.
• Ability to own cross-functional initiatives end-to-end, including securing commitments and driving decisions.
• Strong measurement instinct—define success numerically and communicate results.
• Proficiency with AI tools like Claude, paired with sound judgment on automation trustworthiness.
• Python scripting for automation and data investigation.
• Clear, calm written communication with a focus on teaching rather than correcting.
• Comfort with ambiguity and a bias toward iterative, imperfect solutions.
• Self-direction—source answers, set milestones, and progress autonomously.

Nice to Have

• Domain knowledge in grocery, retail, or supply chain (e.g., ordering, replenishment, fresh department operations).
• Experience with Databricks, Zendesk, Stylo, or workflow automation platforms.
• Support experience with ML-driven products and ability to diagnose data/model/application issues.
• Track record of mentoring engineers and raising team technical standards.