Customer Support Director

1021 W Adams St, Chicago, IL
Operations /
Full-time /
Hybrid
We’re Tovala, a food-tech company reinventing home cooking to save consumers time. Through an innovative combination of hardware, software, and fresh food delivery, we make it incredibly simple for anyone to prepare and enjoy delicious, home-cooked meals without sacrificing time to do whatever matters to them. Through our superior technology, product experience and food quality, we have separated Tovala from the busy pack of other meal delivery businesses. In the process, we’ve amassed a loyal, rapidly growing following and our retention, product engagement and customer NPS are all best-in-class. We’ve raised over $100mm from great investors like Left Lane Capital, Origin Ventures, Y Combinator and Comcast Ventures and have invested strongly in building a unique culture that fosters growth, personal development and camaraderie.

Position Summary
As Customer Support (CS) Director, you’ll chart the strategy for our Customer Support team, rally a talented team around it, and make sure our service scales smoothly as Tovala grows. By bringing sharp processes, data-driven thinking, you’ll keep response times quick and quality high. You’ll partner closely with product and marketing so every launch, feature change, and policy shift shows up in clear support protocols. All the while, you’ll turn what customers tell us into improvements across the business, protect the budget, and jump on any fires that pop up. If you’re a seasoned support leader who blends people development, operational rigor, and a knack for smart automation, we’d love to meet you.

Location: Chicagoland area (preferred)

How you will spend your time at Tovala:

    • Set the CS vision, metrics, and roadmap
    • Coach and develop three existing managers 
    • Build career paths and a strong team culture
    • Improve forecasting, staffing, ticket routing, and fraud-prevention workflows
    • Establish SOPs and documentation that enable fast, high-quality responses
    • Own CS budget and cost-per-ticket targets Lead selection and rollout of AI/automation for triage, self-service, and QA
    • Partner with the business to translate product and marketing efforts into CS protocols 
    • Turn support insights into product, marketing, and operations improvementsOwn real-time monitoring and escalation protocols

About you:

    • 8+ years leading customer support teams 
    • Excellent project management skills
    • Proven track record managing people and distributed agent teams
    • Hands-on experience implementing automation/AI tooling
    • Strong analytical skills: can build models, set KPIs, and act on data
    • Exposure to hardware-plus-subscription businesses or food/CPG (preferred)

Compensation / Benefits

    • Tovala uses market data, geography, and placement of internal employees to determine salary. Additionally, we offer all employees real ownership in the company in the form of a competitive equity package.
    • Flexible paid time off (with a minimum of 15 days off you HAVE to take)
    • Comprehensive healthcare coverage we really invest in401k with match
    • Free Tovala Smart Oven and discounted Tovala meals 
    • Paid holidays and our winter holiday office shutdown where the offices and facilities close for a week around Christmas and New Years
    • Various other perks - recognition programs, continued learning stipend, casual dress code, in-office coffee, snacks and drinks, and Tovala swag
The values we hold dear

Put the team first
We put what is best for the broader team ahead of what is best for ourselves or our immediate department.
Get s#!t done (well)
We celebrate people at all levels for delivering high impact work that expands the bounds of what we’re able to do.
Connect the dots
We engage with curiosity to learn how our work impacts others so that we can problem-solve holistically and work collaboratively.
Be Direct
We share our perspective openly and directly, even when it feels difficult to do so.
Embrace the obstacles
We rise to meet challenges with a sense of urgency, resolve, and optimism.
Champion the customer
We consider and prioritize our customer in all of our decisions 

At Tovala we‘re committed to building a workplace that represents a variety of backgrounds, skills, and perspectives and do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. Everyone is welcome here!