From the Service Industry to Support Delivery
Meet Ryan Smith, support delivery manager in Colorado
Ryan Smith doesn’t fight fires, but to keep his customers happy, he does put out the occasional flame. As a support delivery manager, Ryan handles escalated customer issues and manages the lines of communication between product, engineering, support, and customer success teams. "This means making sure the outcome is always positive for our customers – helping them stay on a successful track and building great relationships,” he says.
Assisting customers day in and day out, Ryan and his support team work on the front lines of customer interactions. "It’s about delighting customers and giving them a positive journey with DevOps” he explains. As product "shepherds,” Ryan and his team make sure the customer is making the right decisions. "We help them work smarter, not harder,” he adds.
Ryan says his eclectic mix of previous careers helped him prepare for his current role. Following an early stint in retail management, Ryan opened his own restaurant and bar in Denver, Colorado. Despite loving this chapter of his life, Ryan felt he needed a change. “The service industry doesn’t necessarily provide you with a good path for retirement. There aren’t a lot of 401ks floating around,” he says with a laugh. That’s when Ryan made the shift to tech.
The move wasn’t entirely surprising. Growing up around technology, Ryan had an early interest in computing. "I was sort of a self-taught computer dude,” Ryan says. His first job in tech was in Apple’s iTunes division, working in customer support and as a QA specialist. After getting more than enough exposure to Apple’s corporate culture, Ryan moved to a small startup in Denver. "I helped build a support organization, and eventually focused on DevOps,” he says. "I was a jack of all trades.”
After experiencing intense corporate and start-up burnout, Ryan longed for another fresh start. He found it at CloudBees.
"What I love about CloudBees is that our founders brought with them a set of non-traditional work ideals,” Ryan says. "It’s about ensuring employee well-being and maintaining work-life balance – no matter where you’re located.”
Thanks to the unconditional support he receives from his supervisors and peers, Ryan says CloudBees has grown into more of a family than a workplace. "The culture here is always transparent and authentic,” he says. "We all know each other’s kids, spouses, and even dogs.”
Ryan says this generosity of spirit and everything that comes with it – empathy, transparency, and authenticity – can be hard to find at most companies. But it’s never in short supply at CloudBees.
"Thinking about the law of attraction, there’s definitely something to be said about CloudBees attracting the right talent and the right people and the right mindsets. That’s what has gotten us from a $10 million ARR company to a $100 million ARR company,” Ryan says. "At this point, I think the sky is the limit.”
We are looking for new-bees to join the hive today: https://www.cloudbees.com/careers