Customer Operations Engineer

Overview

The chemical industry is a $5.2 trillion market that powers 96% of all manufactured goods, from everyday items to advanced technologies. Yet most chemical distributors still operate with outdated software, manual processes, and disconnected systems that waste time and limit growth.

ShelfCycle is changing that. We're the modern operating system for chemical distribution - an AI-native ERP and CRM platform that automates daily operations so teams can focus on strategic growth instead of manual tasks.

Our customers are seeing transformational results:

• U.S. Chemicals saves 7-10 hours per week per employee through automation
• ClearEdge Solutions consolidated five different systems into one seamless platform
• Dozens of other companies are scaling operations without adding headcount, making faster decisions with real-time data, and focusing on strategic initiatives instead of manual processes

We're modernizing an industry. Our platform handles everything from inventory optimization and order processing to financial reporting and customer relationships, all powered by AI that learns from each distributor's unique data.

Ready to help transform a $5.2 trillion industry? Let's build the future of chemical distribution together.

Job Description

We need someone who can hear problems from a customer, trace them through the product, deep-dive the data, and close the loop - fast, clearly, and with empathy.

ShelfCycle customers are sophisticated distributors with messy, legacy data and essential industrial operations (purchasing, compliance, accounting, inventory). The challenges that arise are not "reset my password," they're "this invoice didn't post because the underlying data was shaped wrong" or "this report isn't matching our GL."

This is a technical, customer-facing, developmental seat for someone who wants to build their product instinct by owning problems.

Note: This is a NYC-based role, with 2 days a week in-office at our Bryant Park HQ

What you'll do

• Triage and resolve customer issues - Take inbound issues, clarify the real problem, reproduce it in our environment, and determine if it's data, configuration, product, or user misunderstanding
• Investigate data and configuration - Use admin tools, exports, and simple SQL (or AI-assisted SQL) to spot patterns and troubleshoot
• Draft engineering-ready tickets - When something is a real defect or enhancement, you'll write a clean repro: environment, steps, expected vs. actual, customer impact, attachments
• Close the loop with customers - Communicate quickly, plainly, and professionally about what happened, what we're doing, and when they'll see it resolved
• Validate product changes (light UAT + QA) - When engineering ships a fix, you confirm it actually fixes the customer's data or flow before we tell them "done"
• Capture knowledge - Turn solved problems into repeatable artifacts: KB articles, internal troubleshooting steps, saved queries, Loom walkthroughs
• Prototype with AI - Use AI responsibly to draft SQL, summarize tickets, generate customer comms, and create internal docs…you should always be exploring new use-cases to maximize productivity and customer outcomes

Who you are

• Customer-first. You must be on-mission to help the people in this industry flourish, by transforming their work with powerful, purpose-built software
• Technical enough to learn SQL and programming tools quickly. Maybe you've written some before, maybe you haven't - but you're comfortable in spreadsheets, you understand relationships/IDs, and you're deeply curious how technical systems work
• Systems thinker. You like tracing a problem from "this invoice is wrong" back to "this master data was missing" and explaining that to a non-technical person
• Excellent written communicator. You can write updates that make customers and founders relax
• Hungry/generalist energy. You want to touch support, product, QA, data, code, internal tools - because you see this as a launchpad
• AI-forward. You already use AI to draft things, to write first-pass SQL, to summarize long threads - and you care about doing it responsibly
• Humble. We believe humility is a banner trait. We honor our customers, learn new things, serve our teammates, respond to mistakes, and maintain a resilient attitude out of humility.

This is a developmental role on purpose

We expect the right person to use this role as a launchpad toward…

• Product Support / Customer Ops leadership
• Product Management
• QA / Support Engineering
• Software Engineering
• RevOps / Data Ops
• Implementation Management

We will give you the raw material for that - real customer problems, direct apprenticeship with the founder, influence over the product, and messy data to learn from.

Must-haves

• 1-3 years in support, CX, CS ops, RevOps, data ops, or implementation at a B2B or vertical SaaS - OR, very compelling nontraditional experience that shows you can solve technical problems
• Comfort with spreadsheets, CSVs, IDs, and joins conceptually
• Strong, concise writing - you'll write constantly, to customers and to engineers
• Hunger to learn SQL, programming, and new technical skills (with AI help!)
• Ability to handle customer-facing moments with composure and confidence while doing real-time discovery and problem solving

Nice-to-haves

• Experience in ERPs, inventory, manufacturing, distribution, or accounting software
• Experience writing tickets in Linear/Jira/etc. and communicating with engineers
• Experience producing content, recording Looms, writing internal/external tutorials, etc.
• Any experience with Postgres/SQL or BI tools
• A passion for startups and learning to build a product-centered business - this would be an incredible role for an aspiring founder