Support Operations Lead

Tolan is an Embodied Companion — a cute AI alien you talk with naturally, like a friend. Tolans have their own personality and preferences, and over time form memories about you, your life, and your shared friendship.

We're an experienced team that previously founded Even, acquired for $300M in 2022. Tolan is backed by the designers and founders behind Instagram, Retro, Behance, Vimeo, and Notion.

Our team works hard, with an emphasis on autonomy and ownership. We’re building together in-person in downtown SF.

We're hiring a Support Operations Manager to make Portola's user experience efficient, empathetic, and human. You'll lead a team of front-line specialists, own the systems and tooling behind our support operation, and ensure every user interaction reflects the quality bar we set for the rest of the product.

This is a rare opportunity to own the full support stack — people, process, and automation — at a category-leading AI company. You'll sit at the intersection of operations and product, with a direct line to company leadership. The decisions you make will be felt by every user we have.

• Manage and mentor a team of front-line Support Operations Specialists.
• Regularly audit support automations to ensure they're working as intended.
• Perform ongoing quality assurance across the full support experience, including specialist performance.
• Partner with your team to build and maintain regular reports on support volume and quality.
• Leverage AI and automation in a way that doesn't compromise the human-centered mission of our support function.
• Share user insights with company leadership to inform product strategy and overall company direction.
• Support community-building efforts on channels like Reddit & Discord.
• Spend ~20% of your time on front-line support yourself — to stay close to the user experience and build with empathy.

• Systems thinker. You naturally look for leverage points and build for scale, not just for today.
• Technically curious. You enjoy figuring out how things work and aren't afraid to get into the weeds of a ticketing system.
• Experienced with ticketing tools. You've configured Zendesk, Intercom, or a similar platform — and know what good looks like.
• Front-line experience. You've done the work yourself, ideally supporting a technology product, and use that to inform how you lead.
• Balanced operator. You know when to automate and when the human touch matters. Efficiency and empathy aren't opposites to you.