Technical Support Engineer, L1

About the role

As a Technical Support Engineer, L1, you are the customer’s first point of contact at HackerRank. You own the first response on every inbound ticket, resolve what you can independently, and escalate what you can’t with full context and accurate triage.

This is also the entry point into a defined engineering progression. TSEs who build strong technical depth and communication discipline have a clear path to the next level. The best TSEs take pride in triage accuracy, queue health, and the quality of every customer interaction, understanding that their work is the foundation everything else depends on.

What you’ll do

• Own first response on all inbound tickets within SLA
• Resolve product usage questions, configuration issues, and standard troubleshooting independently, without escalating to the next level.
• Triage and escalate issues or complex tickets to TSE 2 with complete context: reproduction steps, relevant logs, and a clear description of what has been tried
• Monitor the queue actively during your shift and flag stalled tickets or anything at risk of an SLA breach before it happens
• Maintain ticket hygiene end-to-end: accurate tags, complete closure notes, and no tickets left in limbo
• Use AI tools actively to resolve tickets faster, identify similar past issues, and document solutions in a way that makes the whole team faster
• Contribute to the knowledge base.
• Work as part of a team that provides 24x7 global customer coverage. This role operates on a rotational shift schedule covering mornings, evenings, and weekends.

What we’re looking for

Technical

• 0 to 3 years of experience in a technical support or customer-facing technical role. Strong freshers with demonstrated technical aptitude are welcome
• Basic understanding of REST APIs: HTTP methods, status codes, and how to read a request/response
• Ability to read and interpret logs, browser developer tools, and error messages to understand what happened before escalating
• Familiarity with SQL: enough to write and run a basic query or understand what a query is checking
• Comfortable using AI tools to accelerate investigation and resolution, not just for drafting responses

Customer and Communication

• Clear, professional written communicator in English. 
• SLA-aware. You understand what Priority and Severity mean and you act before a breach, not after
• Calm under pressure. 
• Empathetic and composed in difficult customer interactions. You do not escalate tension, you de-escalate it

Mindset

• Genuinely curious. You want to understand how things work, not just route tickets
• Sound triage judgment. You know the difference between something you can solve and something that needs deeper expertise.
• Ownership instinct. The queue is yours during your shift, not just the tickets assigned to you
• Ready to grow. You see this role as the foundation of a technical career, and you actively work towards TSE 2

Even better if you

• Have experience with Pylon, Zendesk, Freshdesk, or similar ticketing and queue management tools
• Have used Postman or similar tools to test or inspect API calls
• Have a background in SaaS platforms, HR tech, developer tools, or assessment platforms
• Have built anything: a script, an automation, a tool, even if small, even if just for yourself

The right fit

You take ownership before you’re asked to, communicate clearly even when you don’t have all the answers, and treat every ticket as an opportunity to get better. You understand that world-class support is not just about resolving tickets. It’s about making customers feel confident in HackerRank, and that starts with you.