Escalation Manager

As an Escalation Manager in Global Customer Service (GCS), you will own high-severity and executive-level escalations end-to-end, serving as the single point of accountability for resolution, communication, and recovery. You will lead cross-functional “situation rooms,” advocate for the customer internally, restore trust externally, and drive systemic improvements to prevent recurrence. This is a highly visible, high-impact individual contributor role that directly influences customer retention, revenue at risk, executive confidence, and product improvement. Escalations are defining customer moments. How we respond during critical situations directly impacts retention, expansion, revenue protection, and brand trust. This role ensures Freshworks responds with speed, clarity, accountability, and empathy - every time.

Responsibilities

Own and orchestrate critical escalations; Serve as primary point of contact for high-severity and executive-level escalations; Assess business impact, risk exposure, and stakeholder landscape; Triage, prioritize, and align cross-functional teams; Establish clear ownership, action plans, timelines, and success criteria; Maintain momentum until full customer stabilization; Lead situation rooms and executive engagement; Facilitate internal and customer-facing escalation calls; Drive structured escalation management and cross-functional accountability; Deliver concise, executive-ready summaries; Communicate confidently with C-level stakeholders; Advocate for the customer; Ensure customer’s voice is represented; Demonstrate empathy; Rebuild trust through consistent communication and follow-through; Manage conflict and align perspectives; Drive root cause and prevention; Conduct post-mortems; Partner with Product and Engineering to address systemic issues; Track corrective actions; Identify recurring trends and recommend structural improvements; Build and refine escalation playbooks; Measure and improve performance; Track and report on key metrics; Contribute to dashboards and executive reporting; Improve workflows

Requirements

6+ years in enterprise Support, Customer Success, Technical Program Management, or Incident Management within a SaaS environment; 3+ years managing high-severity or executive-level escalations; Proven experience working with enterprise or high-revenue accounts; Experience partnering closely with Product and Engineering teams to resolve complex issues; Clear, concise, and confident communicator - comfortable interacting with senior executives internally and externally; Able to translate complex technical concepts into business-impact language; Demonstrated ability to influence across Product, Engineering, Support, & Success; Data-driven mindset with experience identifying trends and systemic risks; Skilled in root cause analysis and post-incident review frameworks; Ability to move from reactive firefighting to preventative strategy; Comfortable managing multiple high-priority escalations simultaneously

Benefits

Bonus compensation; Equity may be available; Inclusive teams; Flexible thinking; Opportunities to grow your career