How Rippling built and scaled global customer support across three continents

Most companies treat international teams as second-class citizens. Here’s how to build one unified culture instead. 

The highest-performing global teams don’t feel global. They operate as a single team with shared expectations, consistent quality, and equal respect, regardless of geography. 

Husam Najib, VP of Customer Support at Rippling, has built exactly this structure at scale. In 2026, he will lead over 1,200 people spread across three continents. The key to his success is treating geography as an operational detail instead of a defining characteristic. 

This playbook shares his six-step framework for building global teams that perform as one unified powerhouse. You’ll learn how to: 

• Reject the "offshore for routine work" mindset. Use international hiring for cost augmentation, not work segmentation. 

• Apply identical standards and metrics across all locations. Hold everyone to consistent standards — from customer satisfaction targets to promotion criteria — to level the playing field and simplify management.

• Establish unified operational norms. Make deliberate choices about holiday schedules, time-off policies, and service coverage that prioritize business needs while honoring cultural realities.

• Design sustainable time zone strategies. Create coverage approaches that can scale without burning out your team, from hiring people with night shift experience to reducing the most difficult hours.

• Invest in strong local leadership. Track how many people have their manager and skip-level manager in-country. Empower local leaders to handle cultural nuances and reinforce expectations.

• Evolve your travel strategy as teams scale. Shift from early-stage priorities of cultural boost and retention to scaling-stage priorities of operational improvement and leadership development.