Industry: Software Development
Team size: ~20 engineers across 8 countries
Duration: 1 month
Engagement model: Staff augmentation
With consistent global user growth reaching 15M+ active users, a leading software development tools company needed a reliable partner to quickly onboard and manage skilled support teams across multiple countries and time zones.
The objective was to build a global support team of 20 engineers led by a skilled technical support manager, achieve target support performance metrics within a short time period, and establish clear KPI metrics with transparent reporting.
The delivery challenge: Finding rare technical talent across eight time zones in 30 days
The core challenge was finding support engineers with a rare combination of technical depth, typically found in senior engineering roles, and customer support expertise. They needed a:
- strong knowledge of support operating procedures, plus
- expertise in Java, IDEs, version control systems, and the software development lifecycle, even for L1 support.
The timeline was tight: just one month to staff a fully operational global 24/7 support team. Added to the complex support engineer profile was the need for teams from multiple locations to validate non-standard working hours and working days to provide true 24/7 coverage.
This meant hiring from eight different countries and time zones: Serbia, Armenia, Moldova, Romania, India, Argentina, Mexico, and Jamaica. Given the complex skill set requirements, a multi-stage interviewing process was needed to better manage candidate profiles, interviews, and test assignments.
Because the client did not have experience managing a vendor workforce or external 24/7 L1 teams in their support department, their Internal IT Service Management (ITSM) tools required adjustments to work with vendors and create objective, transparent reporting. Finally, the onboarding process was complex due to the specifics of supported products, including IDEs and AI tools.
The team leads of our support projects note that engineers are proactive, thoughtful, and demonstrate a good understanding of our needs. The clear and well-structured organization of the support processes keeps things smooth and predictable.
The engineers cover a big share of my team’s workload. Even though their onboarding is formally not yet finished, they show the performance level of more experienced engineers. The onboarding goes much faster than expected, which is valuable both externally—users are more satisfied with the service—and internally—our in-house engineers have more capacity for product-related initiatives.
The engineers integrated well into the team and maintain active communication, regularly sharing knowledge and supporting each other. Over the past six months, we’ve seen a significant increase in user requests, and it would have been impossible to handle this workload without their contribution. The collaboration has been productive and valuable.
Delivery strategy and framework: Building a scalable hiring engine
Technical excellence and automation tools: ITIL and AI-powered candidate processing
The team applied IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL)/ITSM methodologies specific to support operations, distinct from development frameworks. A staffing tool managed demand tracking, an AI solution was used to process candidate profiles and feedback, and YouTrack managed the pipeline on the client side.
The Gemini-based AI model was trained for hiring purposes using structured prompts, candidate profiles, and technical interview feedback forms and templates to create customer-focused candidate summaries for faster, better candidate processing on the client side.
Customized dashboards, metrics, and target KPIs, built on ITSM tools, are visible to every person at every level in a continuous improvement process that’s easily customizable and adjustable.
Governance and risk management: Location-specific risk mitigation
Dedicated team channels were created in the client’s Slack to coordinate operations and resolve questions in real time, while the staffing tool managed multiple demands and candidates.
Risks were identified early, especially around the specialized skillset requirements, legal considerations for non-standard hours, and tight hiring timelines. Regular alignment sessions between distributed recruitment teams created feedback loops from technical and client interviews, helping recruiters match candidate profiles to expectations. HR confirmed non-standard hours across locations, and opened demands early to meet hiring lead times and local workforce regulations.
Collaboration practices: 24/7 coverage across 8 countries
Support team shifts are carefully scheduled across time zones to ensure 24/7 coverage, while rotating PTO planning reduces the risk of support unavailability. Every other week, support teams in different time zones meet to share context and information, while teams and managers can communicate in real time in dedicated Slack channels. Standardized handover procedures and ITSM tools like Zendesk and YouTrack ensure clear and simple information exchange, timely task reassignment, and consistent SLA performance across shifts.
Leadership and culture: Hands-on onboarding with transparent KPIs
The delivery manager took the client onboarding training with support engineers to understand workflows firsthand, and joined all customer interviews to assess technical and interpersonal requirements. Weekly reporting to the Director of Delivery maintained strategic alignment, and regular 1:1s and client feedback loops set expectations and maintained accountability. Support engineers received clear KPIs proposed by delivery and approved by the client.
Business impact: Immediate and sustainable performance uplift
30-day
launch requirement met
130+
support tickets resolved monthly
70-80%
First-call resolution rate
Quantitative outcomes
The 24/7 engineering support team launched on time! Engineers resolved 130+ tickets per month, matching the performance of more experienced in-house engineers, with continuous improvement. First-call resolution rates reached 70-80%, occasionally exceeding internal team benchmarks. Support ticket backlog has decreased month-over-month since the team joined the project.
Strategic value
The expanded support team delivered immediate impact: all hiring demands closed on schedule, engineers ramped to full productivity, and ticket backlogs dropped significantly. Strategic timezone placement ensures coverage where users concentrate most, while custom dashboards provide real-time visibility into service quality without additional costs.
The 24/7 L1 team now enables new corporate service offerings, and engineers are forming an independent expertise center that onboards new hires with minimal client involvement, freeing internal teams to focus on product development. Cross-product knowledge sharing and coordinated escalation with internal engineers have elevated service quality across the board.
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