Summary
Guidewire is growing its Latin America presence by opening a new office in Brazil. We are seeking a seasoned, mature technical support leader to be responsible for all product support operations in Brazil. The Director will also be the Site Leader for the Brazil office, working with Guidewire’s IT and Facilities teams to ensure adequate seating for all employees and coordination of customer visits.
The Director of Customer Support will lead multiple teams of Application and Platform Support Engineers delivering 24x7 support to Guidewire customers. The Brazil location is a critical component of Guidewire’s global follow-the-sun model. The Director will be accountable for ensuring that the office is adequately staffed and trained to provide a level of support coverage consistent with other regions.
This position requires strong leadership skills, a deep commitment to customer satisfaction, and experience in driving process improvement. Reporting to the Senior Director of Customer Support in the AMER region, this role will be both strategic and tactical – defining best practices, producing detailed process documentation, managing the teams to meet key performance indicators, and owning/resolving customer escalations.
Job Description
As the Director of Customer Support - Brazil you will be responsible for:
ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES AS DIRECTOR OF CUSTOMER SUPPORT (80%)
- Responsible for hiring, training, and performance management of employees (managers and individual contributors), including regular one-on-one meetings, goal setting, and performance reviews with your direct reports
- Execute staffing and optimal resource planning to provide 10x7 coverage for the LATAM region for both Application Support and Platform Support
- Respond to and take ownership of all customer escalations
- Understand and refine the processes and subprocesses that the Global Support organization uses to manage incoming support cases
- Assist with the definition, documentation, communication and training of case management SOPs inspired by ITIL best practices
- Collaborate with other Global Support Directors to drive the standardization and adoption of best practices across the Global Support organization
- Execute and lead cross-functional customer experience improvement projects
- Provide regular reports on key operational metrics
- Collaborate with the Field Audit and Risk teams to ensure Guidewire maintains its ISO-27001 certification and passes annual ISO audits
- Develop action plans to address areas of concern identified in customer satisfaction surveys
- Promote self-service tools and the knowledge repository as mechanisms to improve customer satisfaction and reduce costs
- Perform other duties as assigned by the Vice President of Global Support
ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES AS SITE LEADER - BRAZIL OFFICE (20%)
As the Site Leader - Brazil Office you will be responsible for driving the growth, success, and operational excellence of Guidewire’s LATAM Support Headquarters. Your leadership will be instrumental in fostering a high-performance culture, aligning regional operations with global objectives, and strengthening Guidewire’s presence in Brazil.
Strategic & Organizational Leadership
- Serve as the senior-most representative of Guidewire in Brazil, leading the office with a clear vision and strategic direction
- Ensure alignment between Brazil’s objectives and Guidewire’s overarching mission, fostering seamless collaboration between global teams
Operational & Team Excellence
- Help define and execute the operational strategy for Brazil, ensuring high performance, engagement, and accountability
- Help cultivate a motivated and productive workforce that delivers on commitments, meeting project milestones while fostering innovation and cross-functional collaboration
- Act as a bridge between local teams and global leadership, ensuring effective communication, knowledge sharing, and alignment with engineering and business priorities
Industry Engagement & Market Presence
- Help build and nurture relationships with key industry leaders, business groups, and partners to stay informed about market trends and emerging opportunities
- help strengthen Guidewire’s employer brand in Brazil to attract and retain top tech talent, supporting recruitment and talent development initiatives
- Champion a culture of innovation and continuous learning, positioning Guidewire as an employer of choice within the region
Customer & Business Impact
- Foster a customer-centric mindset, ensuring teams are focused on customer success and product adoption
- Stay ahead of market trends, regulatory changes, and competitive dynamics, providing insights that enhance Guidewire’s positioning in Brazil
- Ensure compliance with local regulations while optimizing operational effectiveness and business continuity
In this role, you will play a pivotal part in shaping the future of Guidewire in Brazil, driving operational excellence, talent growth, and industry influence while seamlessly integrating Brazil into the global organization.
Required Skills And Experience
Education and Work Experience
- The ideal candidate is a Customer Support or Service leader with operational and entrepreneurship skills
- 10+ years of work experience managing/leading an enterprise software support team
- Direct people leadership experience including building out, managing performance and skill development
- Experience managing and collaborating with virtual or remote international teams
- Demonstrable experience defining, implementing, and managing business process change
- Familiarity with agile principles and methodologies, continuous integration, and DevOps practices
- Experience with a commercial customer incident tracking or CRM system such as Salesforce.com
- Experience using a software defect tracking system such as JIRA
Personal Qualities
- Team orientation – Excellent interpersonal skills and ability to establish strong relationships with all levels of management
- Excellent communication skills both verbal and written, with the ability to lead/manage large conference calls
- Exceptional ability to manage changing priorities and ambiguity
- Strong business acumen, making data-driven decisions that align technical initiatives with business goals
- Demonstrated collaborative skills and ability influence peers and senior management
- Self-motivated with critical attention to detail, deadlines and reporting
- Ability to work independently and as part of a team
- Employ sound business judgment when making business decisions
- Ability to convert general data and findings into specific, actionable recommendations
- Use creative and innovative ways to solve problems
- Display a strong work ethic and do whatever it takes to get the job done
- Willingness to travel as needed
- Possess an in-depth knowledge of the Brazilian tech job market, industry trends, and competition
Other Requirements
- Ability to read, write, and speak fluent English
- We are a global team providing 24x7 support to our customers, so we expect you to be available as needed for after-hours production emergencies
- Travel – Expect travel up to 20% to other Guidewire offices for training and meetings
About Guidewire
Guidewire is the platform P&C insurers trust to engage, innovate, and grow efficiently. We combine digital, core, analytics, and AI to deliver our platform as a cloud service. More than 540+ insurers in 40 countries, from new ventures to the largest and most complex in the world, run on Guidewire.
As a partner to our customers, we continually evolve to enable their success. We are proud of our unparalleled implementation track record with 1600+ successful projects, supported by the largest R&D team and partner ecosystem in the industry. Our Marketplace provides hundreds of applications that accelerate integration, localization, and innovation.
For more information, please visit www.guidewire.com and follow us on Twitter: @Guidewire_PandC.
Guidewire Software, Inc. is proud to be an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer. We are committed to an inclusive workplace, and believe that a diversity of perspectives, abilities, and cultures is a key to our success. Qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, citizenship, marital status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, veteran status, or disability. All offers are contingent upon passing a criminal history and other background checks where it's applicable to the position.
