Fellow Experience Manager

📋 Description

• • As a Fellow Experience Manager at Handshake Technologies, Inc., you will be at the forefront of shaping the career journeys of individuals navigating the rapidly evolving AI economy. Handshake is the premier career network trusted by millions of knowledge workers, leading educational institutions, and a vast array of employers, including all Fortune 50 companies and foundational AI labs. Our mission is to empower career discovery, hiring, and upskilling, from initial AI training gigs to full-time professional roles.
• • This is a pivotal role within our rapidly scaling Handshake AI division, designed to support hundreds of thousands of Fellows engaged in high-volume, cutting-edge AI projects and working with our frontier lab customers. The Fellow Experience (FEXP) team is the critical engine ensuring that every Fellow receives support that is not only timely and accurate but also of the highest quality. You will lead a US-based team of Fellow Experience Specialists, who are the frontline agents responsible for reactive ticket support.
• • Your primary responsibility will be to own and drive your team's performance, ensuring exceptional quality and fostering a healthy, resilient team environment within a demanding, SLA-driven operational framework. The FEXP team operates globally across the United States, India, and Guatemala, necessitating seamless coordination across multiple time zones to guarantee continuous coverage and unwavering consistency in our support standards. As a manager, you will be instrumental in maintaining operational stability, instilling a strong sense of accountability, and skillfully navigating ambiguity amidst frequent product changes and unpredictable volume surges.
• • This is a hands-on people leadership position, demanding a proactive and empathetic approach in a dynamic, fast-paced AI-centric environment. You will be tasked with ensuring your team consistently meets and exceeds Service Level Agreements (SLAs), adheres to stringent quality benchmarks, and achieves high Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) targets. Crucially, you will also focus on maintaining team morale and fostering resilience, especially during periods of rapid transformation and evolving project landscapes.
• • **Team Performance & SLA Accountability:** You will take full ownership of your team's delivery metrics, including SLAs, quality scores, and CSAT targets. This involves meticulously monitoring daily productivity, quality assessments, backlog status, and coverage levels. A key aspect of your role will be to proactively adjust staffing and coverage strategies in response to sudden volume spikes, ensuring that operational stability is maintained even during critical incidents or significant product updates.
• • **Coaching, Development & Team Health:** A significant part of your leadership will involve coaching Fellow Experience Specialists. You will guide them on performance fundamentals, the importance of meticulous documentation, and sound escalation judgment. You will conduct regular 1:1 meetings, performance reviews, and implement structured feedback cycles to foster continuous improvement. Early identification and proactive intervention in team health issues are paramount. You will also be responsible for managing underperformance through structured improvement plans, all while cultivating a sense of morale and psychological safety within a high-intensity work setting.
• • **Escalations & Incident Stabilization:** You will be empowered to handle complex or high-risk Fellow escalations independently, providing clear and structured updates during operational disruptions. Your ability to stabilize team performance during periods of chaos or uncertainty regarding product direction will be critical. Ensuring that escalation paths are clearly defined and consistently followed is also a core responsibility.
• • **Documentation & Change Readiness:** You will ensure that Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), macros, and internal documentation are updated with speed and accuracy as product changes are rolled out. Identifying and promptly closing documentation gaps is essential. You will drive the rapid adoption of new workflows by your team, aiming for implementation within hours or days, not weeks, and reinforcing documentation discipline as a fundamental operating principle.
• • **Cross-Geo & Cross-Functional Collaboration:** Close coordination with other FEXP managers across the US, India, and Guatemala is vital for maintaining global coverage continuity. You will partner with various internal teams to ensure timely training updates and workflow adjustments. A key contribution will be surfacing recurring Fellow pain points and product inconsistencies, providing structured, actionable insights to stakeholders rather than just status updates.