Lead, Incidents & Escalations, User Operations
WFA Digital Insight
The demand for skilled incident managers grew 25% in 2025, driven by the increasing complexity of digital operations. Openai's User Operations team is at the forefront of this trend, ensuring exceptional customer experiences. With a strong background in Salesforce, you'll be well-positioned to succeed in this role. Before applying, consider your ability to operate calmly under pressure and bring structure to ambiguous situations. Openai's innovative approach to AI and customer support makes this a compelling opportunity for those looking to make a real impact.
Job Description
About the Role
The Lead, Incidents & Escalations role is a critical component of Openai's User Operations team, responsible for building and running the company's incidents and escalations function. This is a player-coach role, requiring a unique blend of hands-on operational expertise and leadership acumen. You'll be responsible for setting the operating model, stepping into active incidents and urgent escalations, and ensuring seamless communication across multiple teams.As a key member of the User Operations team, you'll work closely with sales, technical success, product, engineering, and other stakeholders to deliver exceptional customer experiences. Openai's customers are diverse, ranging from early-stage startups to established global enterprises, and you'll need to be adaptable and responsive to their unique needs.
The User Operations team is committed to delivering the best possible experience to customers at scale, and you'll play a vital role in achieving this goal. With a strong focus on innovation and customer satisfaction, Openai is an exciting place to work for those passionate about AI and customer support.
What You Will Do
- Participate in an on-call rotation and serve as the active incident lead during live incidents and urgent escalations
- Own alert intake and triage process across support, safety, customer, and service-impacting issues
- Assess severity, determine scope and impact, and initiate the appropriate response path
- Page and coordinate Engineering, Infrastructure, Support Delivery, Product, Legal, Policy, Go-To-Market, and other teams as needed
- Lead incident response calls, manage timelines, clarify roles, and keep responders focused and unblocked
- Set internal guidelines for incident communications to all users, including enterprise customers, and own internal updates, executive briefings, customer-facing updates, and external status page updates where required
- Maintain situational awareness across all customer-facing incidents and parallel workstreams, ensuring the response remains coordinated and customer impact is understood
- Create and operate the process for monitoring, processing, mitigating, and resolving critical escalations, including formal closure and handoff
- Identify root causes behind incidents and escalations, lead retrospectives, and coordinate corrective action with accountable teams
- Track corrective actions to closure and ensure follow-through is focused on the best possible customer outcome
- Identify recurring operational issues, escalation patterns, and product or process gaps
What We Are Looking For
- 5+ years of experience in incident management, customer support, or a related field
- Strong expertise in Salesforce and incident management tools
- Proven ability to operate calmly under pressure and bring structure to ambiguous situations
- Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with experience working with technical and non-technical teams
- Strong problem-solving and analytical skills, with the ability to assess severity and determine scope and impact
- Experience working in a fast-paced, dynamic environment with multiple stakeholders
- Strong understanding of customer support and success principles
- Ability to work in a hybrid remote work environment, with 3 days in the office per week
Nice to Have
- Experience working with AI-powered customer support tools
- Knowledge of ITIL or similar frameworks
- Certification in incident management or a related field
- Experience working with enterprise customers and large-scale deployments
Benefits and Perks
- Competitive salary and benefits package
- Opportunity to work with a cutting-edge AI company
- Hybrid remote work environment with 3 days in the office per week
- Relocation assistance for new employees
- Access to professional development and training opportunities
- Collaborative and dynamic work environment with a talented team
- Flexible PTO and holiday schedule
- Comprehensive health and wellness benefits
- Remote stipend and equipment allowance
How to Stand Out
- Develop a strong understanding of incident management principles and Salesforce expertise to stand out in this role
- Be prepared to provide specific examples of your experience with incident management and customer support
- Show a willingness to learn and adapt to new technologies and processes, including AI-powered customer support tools
- Highlight your ability to work calmly under pressure and bring structure to ambiguous situations
- Prepare to discuss your experience working with cross-functional teams and multiple stakeholders
- Research Openai's company culture and values to demonstrate your alignment with their mission and approach
- Be prepared to negotiate your salary and benefits package based on your experience and qualifications
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