Senior Enterprise Account Executive

Zendesk•Washington, DC

1d•$320,000 - $480,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Zendesk is hiring a Senior Enterprise Account Executive to create and close durable net-new business. The role converts priority prospects into customers through disciplined prospecting, consultative discovery, evidence-based value cases, executive selling, commercial judgment, and a clean transition to the post-sale account team. It does not own installed-base expansion or post-sale commercial outcomes. The successful candidate will build qualified pipeline and lead a repeatable prospect-to-close process, translating customer priorities and service-operation challenges into a credible Zendesk platform and AI value proposition. They will align executive and cross-functional buying groups, own commercial strategy within approved guardrails, coordinate internal and partner resources, and maintain accurate CRM, pipeline, and forecast discipline. They will document customer goals and commitments for handoff and share market and buyer insights to improve go-to-market execution. The role calls for a genuine new-business orientation, strong B2B SaaS selling capability, measurable customer or commercial impact, and the ability to discuss AI, automation, customer experience, and platform value credibly. Zendesk describes its working model as hybrid, with purposeful in-person collaboration at its offices and flexibility to work remotely for part of the week. The US annualized OTE range is $320,000–$480,000, with a 50/50 base and commission pay mix. The role may also be eligible for bonus, benefits, or related incentives.

Requirements

Typically 8–12 years of related experience.
Demonstrated capability in complex B2B SaaS new-business selling, value-based discovery, and commercial deal ownership.
Ability to create qualified demand through targeted prospecting rather than relying only on inbound leads.
Ability to uncover business problems, urgency, stakeholders, decision criteria, and measurable outcomes before positioning a product.
Executive and multi-threaded selling skills, including the ability to earn trust with business, technical, financial, security, and procurement stakeholders.
Commercial acumen to build ROI narratives, manage deal economics, negotiate thoughtfully, and qualify out when the fit is not credible.
CRM, forecasting, and operating discipline, including evidence-based decision-making, early risk identification, and mutual accountability.
Evidence of ownership of outcomes, decision quality, follow-through, and measurable customer or commercial impact.
Evidence of prospecting discipline, quota attainment or equivalent growth results, executive engagement, and complex deal judgment.
Ability to discuss AI, automation, service operations, and platform value credibly, and to recognize when specialist depth is needed.
No specific educational credential is required when equivalent demonstrated experience, capability, and track record are present.

Nice To Haves

Deeper Zendesk platform, AI, and service-operations fluency.
More advanced industry narratives, partner-led selling, and complex deal strategy.
Repeated success closing large, complex net-new deals with executive access, competitive strategy, and strong business-case construction.
Ability to shape a customer's problem, create demand where none exists, and mobilize a buying committee without overselling.

Responsibilities

Create and maintain qualified net-new pipeline to meet or exceed quota through targeted outbound, inbound conversion, partner routes, and disciplined territory planning.
Lead the prospect-to-close process, including discovery, qualification, value mapping, mutual action planning, business-case development, negotiation, contracting, and closing.
Translate customer priorities, service-operation challenges, and transformation goals into a credible Zendesk platform and AI value proposition.
Build executive and multi-threaded alignment across business, technology, security, finance, procurement, and the economic buying committee.
Own commercial strategy, deal progression, and negotiation within approved guardrails while protecting customer value and delivery credibility.
Coordinate Solution Engineers, Product Specialists, Marketing, SDR/BDR partners, ecosystem partners, and leadership to improve win probability.
Maintain accurate CRM data, pipeline health, forecast discipline, and early visibility into deal risks; use evidence to guide decisions.
Document customer goals, stakeholders, use cases, commitments, and success conditions for a clean post-sale handoff.
Share market, competitor, and buyer insights to improve the go-to-market motion.
Discuss AI, automation, CX, and platform value at the business level and engage specialists for deeper technical validation.
Frame AI opportunities around measurable customer outcomes, operating-model change, adoption risk, security, governance, and implementation readiness.
Use approved AI tools to improve account research, preparation, follow-through, and signal synthesis while protecting customer confidentiality and data.
Distinguish uniquely human work from tasks that can be augmented or automated, and use market and customer insights to refine AI narratives and objection handling without overstating product capability.