Senior Support Engineer

Role

Senior Support Engineers report to the Senior Technical Officer.  Their primary responsibilities are pre-sales support and advanced post-sales technical support.  They are also expected to contribute on more straightforward support issues as the need arises, and make a technical contribution more generally.  Specific responsibilities are assigned to each engineer for specific products within the ApplianSys range ie some of DNS/DHCP/IPAM, Web Cache/Filtering, Vulnerability Assessment and VOIP acceleration, and new products as they are developed.

• Pre-sales technical support - RESPONSIBLE
  • This is a key responsibility of the role holder.  They will be assigned specific products and specific accounts (leads) to work on in conjunction with sales account managers.  Their role is to support the account manager with technical product expertise wherever it is needed, and to help maximise the chances of sales success.  In addition to technical expertise, this requires customer communication skills.
• Post-sales technical support – RESPONSIBLE
  • Resolving customer issues (either product failures or assistance with implementation).  The initial scope of responsibility – in terms of products covered and level of responsibility - will depend on the workload and the engineer’s skills and experience.  In principle, it includes all levels of support.
  • A Senior Support Engineer is expected to be “3rd-line” support –the technical expert for resolving the most difficult customer problems.  This will either be almost immediately if the post-holder is already an expert in an application, or after an initial period becoming expert in specific ApplianSys product families
  • “2nd-line” support – resolving most customer problems, calling on 3rd-line support for resolution of the most difficult problems, for specific product families.  By becoming expert on some products and competent to 2nd line level on others, the support engineers are available to back each other up.
  • “1st-line” support – answering support calls on the phone or via the ticketing system; ensuring the customer enjoys a high quality support experience, that the support request is handled rapidly and to a high standard through to a conclusion.  ApplianSys differentiates itself by giving customers rapid or even direct access to expert support, reducing the need for the customer to be passed through endless service “agents”.  However, for efficiency there is some filtering of support enquiries and the simpler ones will typically be routed to less experienced engineers. 

He/she will also contribute from time to time on other tasks of the technical department, including

• Production - assembly and final testing of some products – CONTRIBUTION

At times when extra hands are needed

• Repairs – Diagnosis and repair of returned faulty products - CONTRIBUTION

At times when extra hands are needed

• Testing of development products – CONTRIBUTION

Testing of products requires testing by someone other than a developer, someone who is technically competent to test the product.  In ApplianSys, a senior support engineer typically has the best knowledge to carry this out.

• Input to sales and marketing – CONTRIBUTION

The sale effort routinely requires a precise articulation of a technical story and the beginning of translating that into a sales story.  Support engineers are often the best person to do that and routinely contribute in this way.

As ApplianSys grows, support roles will become more specialised.  Depending on individual aptitudes and preferences, there will be scope to focus on a specific part of this role eg pre-sales or post-sales.

Key Tasks

Pre-sales

• Supporting sales executives on sales visits
• Running online and onsite demonstrations
• Providing ongoing technical support and advice to sales prospects, customers and colleagues

Post-sales

• Providing first-line responses (taking phone calls, responding to online tickets), gathering relevant information and deciding on appropriate action.
• Second-line/third-line (giving technical answers) post-sales support by email, by phone.  Diagnosing faulty products, incorrect product configurations and incorrect network configurations.  Explaining how to configure and deploy the product.
• Working from our Coventry office during office hours, and potentially providing limited ‘on-call’ support at other times to key customers

Expected Profile

• Training and significant experience in computer science or similar, including specific study of network and Internet technologies and evidence of fluent expertise
• Previous experience as a support engineer, ideally in pre-sales (sales engineer) role
• Fluency with Linux (preferred) or other Unix.  Fluency with command-line tools for day-to-day tasks, managing files and machines, carrying out diagnostic work, etc.
• Hardware experienced in working with x86 architecture hardware. Familiar with usual range of components, assembling, disassembling and diagnostic work. Clear understanding of what constitutes a 'neat and tidy' assembly (wiring, layout, etc)
• Fluent with networking in general and ideally expert in specific Internet infrastructure technologies (eg open source applications - Apache, BIND, DHCP, Squid, etc)
• Good communicator, with demonstrable ability to work in a customer-facing environment.
• Languages and international experience a distinct advantage
• Thorough, organized, comfortable in a multi-tasking environment. Cope under stress and work to tight deadlines. Must have good customer focus or have the appropriate personality to develop it rapidly with suitable guidance.
• Self-starter: able to interpret outlined tasks and develop detailed approach to implementation on own initiative. With good judgment to seek advice or approval at the appropriate times prior to implementation.

Useful

• Experience with rack mount servers and especially server appliances
• Test suite management experience.
• Programming experience - Python, Perl, Javascript, PHP

Salary

Competitive salary, performance culture - regular salary review and bonuses

Location

Coventry

Start

ASAP

How to Apply

If you believe that you have got what it takes, then contact us on +44 (0) 8454 50 51 52 or email recruitment@appliansys.com.

Background

ApplianSys is a UK-based venture capital-backed company which designs and markets server appliances – servers featuring a tailored combination of hardware and network application software to carry out one specific task in a network. 

ApplianSys is a fast-growing company. Sales of over £3m have already been achieved in 30 countries, with many sales in Europe, USA, Middle East and Africa.  It has an impressive list of blue-chip customers – eg NASA, IBM, Siemens, Warner Bros, BT, Australian Government, EDS – and thousands of devices installed in UK schools.  With international sales expanding rapidly, revenues in 2008 will be 3 times higher than in 2007.  The plan is to grow even faster in 2009.

High quality pre- and post-sales technical support is vital to winning sales and maintaining customer satisfaction.  More support engineers are now needed because with rapid growth the workload is increasing and existing support engineers are moving to other roles.

ApplianSys takes existing application software – either open source or from commercial partners – and embeds it in its linux-based appliance “platform”.  Hence support engineering involves issues and requires expertise in the operating system, the core network applications on-box and the networks in which the appliances are deployed.

ApplianSys continually adds new products to its portfolio.  The aim is to offer a wide range of network solutions in appliance form.  The range currently includes DNS/DHCP, web cache, security vulnerability assessment and VOIP acceleration, with further products in the general field of WAN acceleration likely to be near the top of the list of new candidates.  So support engineers with extensive knowledge relating to any of these applications will have a head-start.

To date, each support engineer has had responsibilities for all categories of support task: pre- and post-sales, simple/complex as well as in software testing and product assembly.  As the business scales and the number of engineers grows, ApplianSys is now seeking senior engineers to focus on the more complex tasks and recruiting less experienced staff for the simpler ones.  However, the company has a strong team ethic and everyone is expected to muck in on a day-to-day basis.

ApplianSys has its headquarters in London, with its main technical facility at the University of Warwick Science Park’s Business Innovation Centre in Coventry.  These recruits will be based there.

ApplianSys is Investors In People accredited and aims to be a best practice company