Customer Support Organization - France Team Lead

For over 20 years, Ekinops has been driving innovation in network systems. We provide solutions focused on the needs of communication service providers and enterprises worldwide.

We provide open, trusted, and innovative network connectivity and enable our customers’ success by delivering high value-added software-driven solutions. Today, over 120 international service providers, including numerous Tier 1 carriers around the world, trust our people and technologies.

Over 50% of our 600+ strong team works in our multi-national Agile R&D centers. Our company has a strong international background, with sales offices strategically located around the world.

Ekinops is also recognized for its ESG commitments with its rating in the EthiFinance ESG Ratings report and its Gold Medal awarded by EcoVadis.

Duties and Responsibilities:

As part of the CSO (Customer Support Organization) Access team of 24 people across France, Belgium, Germany, Spain, Australia and the US, you will report to the CSO Access Director and manage the French CSO Access team. The team currently comprises more than 10 people across Massy-Palaiseau and Sophia-Antipolis.

As France Team Lead, you will be accountable for the people management and operational performance of the French team. You will organize activities, allocate resources, develop skills and ensure that customer commitments, service quality and SLAs are consistently met.

You will work in a demanding international environment and collaborate closely with the other CSO teams, R&D, Product Management, Pre-Sales and Sales. Technologies covered include routing, switching, voice, virtualization, SD-WAN, cloud-based platforms and Edge computing.

You will supervise major incidents and customer escalations, ensure clear communication and mobilize the right internal stakeholders to drive issues to resolution.

You will have the following responsibilities:

• Lead and develop the French CSO Access team, including objective setting, regular feedback, performance reviews, competency development, recruitment and onboarding.
• Manage day-to-day support operations, including workload allocation, priority setting, capacity planning and business continuity across Massy-Palaiseau and Sophia-Antipolis.
• Ensure operational performance and service quality by monitoring SLAs, backlog, critical tickets, customer commitments and relevant performance indicators, and by driving corrective actions when required.
• Lead the response to major incidents and crisis situations, including cybersecurity-related events, by establishing clear governance, mobilizing the appropriate resources, coordinating technical and management stakeholders, supporting decision-making and ensuring timely communication until service and customer confidence are restored.
• Manage customer escalations, ensuring clear ownership, effective communication, appropriate internal visibility and timely resolution.
• Coordinate with R&D, Product Management, Pre-Sales, Sales and other CSO teams to resolve complex issues, align priorities, anticipate operational risks and improve product supportability.
• Coordinate cybersecurity-related support activities, including customer incidents, vulnerabilities and security escalations. Ensure effective collaboration between CSO, R&D, Product Management and cybersecurity teams, with clear ownership, risk visibility and customer communication.
• Drive continuous improvement across support processes, documentation, knowledge sharing, automation, AI-assisted practices and secure support practices to improve efficiency and quality.
• Represent the French team in operational reviews and provide concise, fact-based reporting on performance, risks, priorities and required decisions to the CSO Access Director.

Profile and skills:

• Engineering degree in Telecommunications, Electronics, IT or equivalent experience.
• 8 to 10 years’ experience in technical support, network operations or a comparable customer-facing technical environment.
• Significant experience in people management or team leadership within an operational technical organization.
• Demonstrated ability to manage workload, priorities, escalations, crisis situations and cybersecurity-related support activities.
• Strong customer focus, sound judgement and the ability to take ownership and make clear decisions.
• Proven ability to coach people, develop skills, provide feedback and manage performance.
• Strong communication and cross-functional coordination skills in an international and multicultural environment.
• Ability to produce clear reports, technical documents, procedures and action plans.
• Fluent French and English, both written and spoken.

Technical skills

• Solid knowledge of IP networking environments, including routing, switching, VPN and voice technologies.
• Good understanding of SD-WAN, branch networking and enterprise network architectures.
• General knowledge of cybersecurity principles and solutions such as ZTNA, Private Access, CASB, secure remote access and identity-based access control.

Nice to have

• Operational experience with SASE or cybersecurity solutions such as ZTNA, Private Access and CASB.
• Experience coordinating vulnerability management, cybersecurity incidents, CVE analysis or product-hardening activities.
• Knowledge of authentication, certificates, PKI, IPsec and secure network architectures.
• Experience with virtualization or cloud technologies such as VMware ESXi, KVM, OpenStack, Azure, AWS or GCP.
• Experience with support automation, knowledge management or AI-assisted support tools.

Recruitment process:

At Ekinops, we believe diversity makes us stronger! We hire talents based on skills, experience, and potential—nothing else. No matter your age, gender, background, or abilities, what matters to us is what you bring to the team. Join us and thrive in an inclusive, open-minded workplace where everyone has a voice!

3 interviews:

1st with the CSO Director

2nd with HR and HRBP

3rd with VP Customer & R&D Operations.