Founding Customer Support Engineer

About Obvious We're building an AI‑native workspace—an operating system for work that puts co‑intelligence at the center. Start with data or an idea, describe your goal, and Obvious goes to work: running analysis, searching the web, writing documents, generating tables, designing presentations, visualizing data, building dashboards, and more. As Steve Jobs imagined the personal computer as a bicycle for the mind, Obvious imagines AI as a garden for the mind. Less mechanical acceleration. More organic cultivation. What if, instead of just vibe coding, you could vibe‑work? What if getting from idea to done wasn't so opaque, stubborn, and high‑latency? What if there was a way to consistently deliver work that feels like it came from the best version of you on your best day? That's Obvious. This role reports to: VP of Customer Success and Support Why we're hiring for this role We're building support infrastructure that scales from 0 to 1 million users. You'll use Obvious itself to build the support system. You'll create AI agents that read our codebase and auto-generate help articles. Build workflows that resolve issues without requiring tickets to be filed. Design systems that teach users how to succeed before they need to ask for help. Handle escalated tickets that require human judgment and consult with users to achieve desired outcomes. You'll be the first support hire at Obvious, working embedded within the Build team and alongside product and engineering teams daily. You'll have a seat at the table for product decisions and will influence what gets built. What makes this role special If you've ever wanted to fix bugs without writing code or needing an engineer's help? You can do that in Obvious. You don't have to be an engineer; however, you should be familiar enough with engineering concepts to accomplish the tasks you set out to do. We need someone at the forefront of this next wave of technology. You should be a trendsetter in using AI: the person others look to for AI support. We are small and talent-dense. Among our founding team, we have world-class builders, former founders, and leaders from companies like Netflix, Google, Uber, Meta, Instacart, Shopify, Apple, and Twitter (X). If you're excited to build the future of scalable support infrastructure, join us.

In this role you will:

Handle escalated tickets requiring human judgment and consult with users on achieving outcomes from Obvious Design AI-powered support systems that reduce ticket volume by 80%+ before reaching a human Use Obvious to build Obvious support (for example: we have an Obvious project that reads our GitHub repo and writes help articles automatically) Fix bugs and solve product issues using Obvious without writing code or waiting for engineering Create AI agents that handle common support scenarios end-to-end Work embedded with product and engineering—influence what gets built based on support insights Own the entire support experience: strategy, tooling, processes, metrics, help center, knowledge base, community Establish an AI-powered support culture that scales with a human element Demonstrate capability through creation: use Obvious to build something for support during the interview (prototype + presentation) Set the standard for how AI transforms support

You will thrive in this role if you have:

3+ years in customer support/success with proven track record building support systems, not just using them Familiarity with engineering concepts—APIs, data models, system architecture, debugging, technical problem-solving Demonstrated experience at the forefront of AI adoption with a track record of being a trendsetter who's introduced AI workflows that others adopted Consultative mindset. You help users achieve their goals, not just answer questions Experience at high-growth startup (bonus: founding team experience) Deep familiarity with support tools (Zendesk, Intercom) and their limitations Resourcefulness with AI, automation platforms, APIs, no-code tools Systems thinking, technical writing, data analysis, product thinking Comfort working embedded with product/engineering teams What great looks like AI trendsetter: At the forefront of the next wave. Proven experience pushing boundaries of what AI can do in support. The person others ask "how did you do that?" You invent new applications, not just use tools. Can-do mentality: Operate like you can do anything. Familiar enough with engineering concepts to debug issues, build automation, fix problems. Consultative: Don't just solve tickets, consult on outcomes. Ask the right questions, understand goals, and build guides to success. Systems thinking: See a queue and think "how do I eliminate 90% of these?" Build infrastructure, not just answer questions. Builder mindset: Built systems from scratch. Automated yourself out of repetitive work and considered it a win. Extreme autonomy: Figure out what needs doing. Comfortable with ambiguity and making decisions with incomplete information. Impeccable judgment: Know when to automate and when to add human touch. "Scale" means "smarter," not "worse." High agency, low ego: Care about impact, not boundaries. Open to feedback from anyone. Velocity: Unreasonable pace without leaving a mess. Default to simple systems that scale. Ownership: Own outcomes, not tasks. Ask forgiveness, not permission. Adaptability: Willing to work hard, move fast, grow quickly in rapidly changing environment. Camaraderie: Humble attitude, eagerness to help colleagues, do whatever it takes for team success.

This role may not be a fit if:

You prefer traditional support focused on answering tickets rather than building systems You're uncomfortable with engineering concepts or technical problem-solving You require highly structured requirements and aren't comfortable with ambiguity You prefer established organizations with defined playbooks rather than creating from scratch You're not excited about 100% AI adoption (non-negotiable) You need clear separation between support and the build team You're still figuring out how to use AI rather than already being at the forefront What you'll get at Obvious

• Competitive compensation—optimized for you and your future.
• Meaningful equity—you’ll own a real piece of something that could be huge.

Founding team influence—your voice will shape direction. Creative freedom—evolve and steer both current and future product identity. Platform to shine—use Obvious’s reach to amplify your personal brand and design voice. Room to grow—as we scale, opportunities are limitless. In-person hackathons—we’re semi‑distributed and regularly meet in person to lock in and build together. Excellent benefits—fully covered health, vision, and dental, 401k match, parental leave, home office stipend, and more. Work comfortably—choose between a $10,000 home office makeover stipend or paid co-working spaces. (Available for US-based full-time employees only)