Lead Technical Support

Why This Role Matters

The Support Technical Lead plays a critical role in maintaining the quality, consistency, and technical integrity of our service delivery.

This role helps ensure that complex issues are resolved properly, support standards are upheld, recurring problems are reduced, and client environments remain supportable, compliant, and well-managed. You'll be a trusted technical authority within the business, helping both our clients and our teams operate with greater confidence.

Your impact will be seen in stronger technical standards, better outcomes for clients, and a more capable, mature support function.

Purpose of the Position

The Support Technical Lead is the technical authority for the Support function and serves as the Head of Operations' technical counterweight within agreed-upon authority limits. The role owns technical escalation quality, supports technical governance and compliance discipline, supports readiness sign-off, reduces recurring issues, and advances technical capability maturity across the Support team. The Support Technical Lead does not replace the Technical Solutions Architect for design and scoping, but ensures that live client environments, support standards, handovers, documentation, and escalations are controlled, supportable, compliant, and technically sound.

Role Scope

• Technical authority and escalation governance for the Support function, within agreed authority limits.
• Complex incident oversight, technical decision support, containment guidance, and restoration validation.
• Technical governance, compliance discipline, standards adherence, and audit readiness across Support activities.
• Support technical roadmap ownership in collaboration with the Head of Operations.
• Support readiness review and sign off for projects before transition into live support.
• Problem management, root cause quality, recurring issue reduction, and technical risk identification.
• Ticket, documentation, Autotask, IT Glue, evidence capture, and handover quality standards.
• Technical standards across relevant environments, including Microsoft 365, endpoint, networking, security, backup, monitoring, voice, and field support activities.
• Team technical coaching, skills matrix input, certification roadmap tracking, and practical upskilling.
• Vendor, ISP, provider, and client technical engagement where escalation, risk, compliance, or credibility requires senior technical involvement.

Key Responsibilities and Duties

• Technical Authority and Escalation Governance

Act as the senior technical authority for Support escalations. Guide the troubleshooting approach, validate technical decisions, challenge weak assumptions, and ensure escalations are handled with evidence, urgency, and discipline. Operate within agreed authority limits, with operational, people, commercial, and strategic decisions remaining with the Head of Operations.

• Major Incident and Complex Technical Resolution

Take ownership of high-impact technical incidents that require senior support judgment. Ensure rapid containment, controlled troubleshooting, clear communication, and verified restoration. Coordinate with Support Engineers, Lead Support Engineers, vendors, and providers to resolve complex issues without unnecessary delay or duplication of effort.

• Technical Governance, Compliance and Audit Readiness

Own the technical governance discipline within Support. Ensure support activity aligns to Zinia standards, client requirements, security expectations, documentation requirements, change discipline, and agreed support boundaries. Maintain a compliance mindset across tickets, handovers, SOPs, evidence, credentials, access controls, technical standards, and audit readiness.

• Support Technical Roadmap and Standards Ownership

Collaborate with the Head of Operations to define and drive the Support technical roadmap. This includes standards for monitoring, alert handling, Microsoft 365, identity, endpoints, firewalls, backups, cybersecurity, voice, networking, patching, firmware, documentation, and recurring risk areas. Convert technical gaps into improvement actions, SOPs, automations, training, or projects where appropriate.

• Support Readiness Sign Off for Projects

Review project handovers before they are accepted into Support. Confirm that documentation, access details, diagrams, credentials, monitoring, backup status, client contacts, support boundaries, and known risks are clear. Raise gaps to Projects and the Technical Solutions Architect before support acceptance, where the environment is not support-ready.

• Problem Management, Root Cause and Recurring Issue Reduction

Drive recurring issue reduction through proper problem management. Identify repeat incidents, weak standards, avoidable faults, and high-risk clients or systems. Ensure root causes are documented properly and that corrective actions are assigned, tracked, and converted into knowledge base articles, standard changes, automation, or improvement projects.

• Team Coaching, Certification and Capability Building

Coach Support Agents, Support Engineers, Lead Support Engineers, and Field Support resources on technical approach, escalation quality, evidence capture, troubleshooting structure, and documentation. Maintain input into the team skills matrix and certification roadmap. Recommend training priorities based on real support gaps and operational risk.

• Vendor, Provider and Client Technical Engagement

Lead or support technical discussions with vendors, ISPs, last-mile providers, and client technical stakeholders where senior technical credibility is required. Ensure escalations are backed by proper evidence, commitments are followed up, and client-facing technical explanations are clear, accurate, and controlled.

• Operational Visibility and Technical Risk Reporting

Provide structured technical inputs to the Head of Operations on escalation themes, client risks, recurring incidents, compliance gaps, team capability gaps, support readiness issues, and technical improvement priorities. Maintain visibility into stuck technical items and ensure risks are surfaced before they become delivery or client confidence issues.

Key Interfaces

• Head of Operations
• Customers and key client stakeholders
• Operations Coordinators
• Support Agents, Support Engineers, and Lead Support Engineers
• Technical Solutions Architect
• Lead Project Coordinators and Projects team
• Field Support Engineers and Field Support Technicians
• Procurement and Logistics Coordinator
• Vendors, ISPs, last-mile providers, and platform partners

Success Measures

• Complex escalations handled with clear technical ownership, evidence, and controlled outcomes.
• Support readiness sign-off completed before projects transition into live support.
• Improved technical standards, documentation quality, and compliance discipline across Support.
• Reduced repeat incidents through effective problem management and corrective actions.
• Improved root cause quality, technical handovers, knowledge base maturity, and ticket evidence.
• Clear progress against the Support technical roadmap and agreed improvement priorities.
• Improved team capability through coaching, certification progress, and practical technical guidance.
• Fewer stuck technical tickets due to active escalation governance and accountability.
• Better client and vendor confidence in Zinia's technical control and professionalism.
• Technical risks surfaced early with clear recommendations and action plans.

QualificationsMinimum requirement (non-negotiable)

• Matric (National Senior Certificate) or NQF Level 4 equivalent
• Relevant IT degree, or similar formal IT qualification aligned to the role
• Strong English business communication (spoken and written)
• Proven senior IT support experience in a managed services environment or similar
• Demonstrated technical leadership capability in a Tier 3, escal