No Commute

Why Thunderbird?

Thunderbird is one of the world’s most trusted open-source email applications, empowering more than 20 million people globally. At MZLA, the team behind Thunderbird, we build privacy-respecting communication tools that help people manage their digital lives while staying in control of their data.

We are open source by design. Our products are developed transparently and in collaboration with a global community of contributors, and that same spirit shapes how we work: collaboratively, inclusively, and with a shared commitment to putting users first.

Our small but growing distributed team includes 65+ people across seven countries. As Thunderbird evolves beyond a single desktop application, we are expanding across desktop, mobile, and paid services to build independent, privacy-respecting alternatives to big tech ecosystems.

Our revenue model combines user donations, which help keep Thunderbird’s apps freely available, with paid services that cover the costs of hosted offerings while supporting long-term sustainability and continued innovation.

A note about MZLA and Mozilla: MZLA Technologies Corporation is the nonprofit-owned company behind Thunderbird and part of the Mozilla family. MZLA is separate from Mozilla Corporation and has its own compensation programs, benefits, and employment policies.

To learn more, visit www.thunderbird.net

The opportunity

Thunderbird is growing, and we’re looking for a Technical Support Specialist to help deliver excellent support for Thunderbird users across our expanding product ecosystem, including our subscription products.

This role is for someone who takes real satisfaction in resolving support requests with care, clarity, and technical precision. You enjoy working through a queue, diagnosing tricky issues, helping users get unstuck, and spotting patterns that can make support better for everyone. Every closed ticket, forum response, or app store reply represents a user who can get back to what they were trying to do.

You’ll be part of the Support Operations team, working closely with support, product, engineering, documentation, and community colleagues. Your initial focus will be supporting Thunderbird’s subscription products as they scale, but you’ll also help users through community forums, app store reviews, and other support channels.

This is a great opportunity for someone who loves technical support work, cares deeply about the user experience, and wants to help shape support practices for products that are still growing.

What you’ll do 

• Manage technical support tickets from intake through resolution, with an initial focus on Thunderbird’s subscription products.
• Provide timely, thoughtful, and empathetic support that helps users feel heard, understood, and effectively supported.
• Troubleshoot Level 1 and Level 2 technical issues, including account setup, email configuration, SMTP, IMAP, JMAP, DNS, email authentication, and Thunderbird desktop client issues.
• Triage incoming requests to determine whether the issue is user error, configuration-related, a product bug, or a feature request.
• Escalate complex issues with clear reproduction steps, logs, environmental details, and user impact.
• Maintain accurate and complete support records in Zendesk or similar systems.
• Monitor and respond to technical questions in Thunderbird community forums.
• Monitor and respond to app store reviews, initially for Android and later for iOS.
• Identify recurring user pain points, documentation gaps, product confusion, and emerging trends across support channels.
• Share systemic issues with support leadership, product, engineering, or documentation teams so we can improve the experience for all users.
• Create and maintain user-facing documentation, FAQs, troubleshooting guides, and internal support playbooks.
• Help support Thunderbird ideas, feedback, or community engagement channels.
• Participate in an on-call rotation, generally one week at a time, with cadence depending on team size and operational needs.

What you bring 

• 5+ years of technical support experience providing Level 1 and Level 2 troubleshooting for software products, web services, email systems, or IT environments.
• Hands-on experience troubleshooting email protocols and client configuration issues, including SMTP, IMAP, JMAP, and account setup workflows.
• Working knowledge of DNS fundamentals, including A, MX, and TXT records, as well as SPF, DKIM, and DMARC.
• Familiarity with Mozilla Thunderbird or comparable desktop email clients.
• 5+ years of experience using Zendesk or a similar CRM, help desk, or ticketing platform.
• Strong troubleshooting skills and the ability to gather information, isolate variables, and resolve technical issues even when the initial information is incomplete.
• Excellent written communication skills, with the ability to explain technical concepts clearly to users with different levels of technical knowledge.
• Strong empathy, patience, and emotional intelligence when supporting frustrated or confused users.
• Experience engaging with users in public or semi-public support channels, such as forums, app store reviews, issue trackers, or user communities.
• A strong sense of ownership over support quality and the user experience.
• Comfort working in a queue-based role with evolving processes, ambiguity, and minimal day-to-day supervision.
• Ability to work remotely and asynchronously across time zones, with strong overlap with Eastern Time.
• Comfort using AI tools for research, troubleshooting, technical learning, and workflow improvement while applying sound human judgment.

Bonus points for

• Experience with open source software communities and support models is a strong plus—you understand the collaborative, transparent ethos of open source and thrive in community-driven environments.
• Familiarity with Linux, macOS, Windows, Android, and iOS.
• Knowledge of email server administration, hosted email platforms, or mail infrastructure.
• Experience responding to app store reviews, particularly on Google Play or the Apple App Store.
• Proficiency in a second language; German is especially helpful.
• Experience writing technical documentation, knowledge base articles, FAQs, or support playbooks.
• Background in QA, bug triage, reproduction testing, or working closely with engineering teams.

What success looks like

You’ll be successful in this role if you are the kind of person who cares about both the individual user and the bigger pattern behind the issue. You don’t just answer the ticket in front of you; you notice when the same problem is showing up again and again. You document what you learn, share useful context with the team, and help reduce friction for future users.

You bring patience to frustrating situations, precision to technical troubleshooting, and curiosity to ambiguous problems. You understand that supp