Senior Sales Engineer

Zendesk•San Francisco, CA

1d•$226,000 - $338,000•Hybrid

About The Position

At Zendesk, we’re revolutionizing what’s possible in Customer Experience (CX) and Employee Services (ES). Our rapid innovation and Agentic AI leadership have earned the trust of thousands of forward-thinking businesses. We are seeking a Senior Sales Engineer (SE) to sit at the intersection of enterprise software strategy, hands-on systems architecture, and advanced AI automation. This is not a traditional generalist presales role. This is a role built for highly technical builders who are deeply curious about how autonomous agents, security, analytics, and deep integrations fundamentally transform how enterprise work gets done. You will own the technical strategy for our global customer engagements, acting as a strategic advisor to both the C-suite and engineering leadership.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Business Analytics, Economics, Statistics, or a related highly quantitative technical discipline is required.
5+ years of hands-on experience in technical presales, solution engineering, or a system architect/developer role within enterprise SaaS or complex software environments.
Deep expertise with modern web and scripting technologies (e.g., Python, Node.js, JavaScript), REST/SOAP APIs, middleware frameworks, and cloud ecosystem architectures.
Strong foundational knowledge of AI technologies, including Large Language Models (LLMs), prompt engineering, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and autonomous agent deployment.
Solid understanding of enterprise infrastructure, contact center tech stacks (CCaaS, telephony, workforce management), or modern IT Service Management (ITSM) systems.
Ability and willingness to travel between 30% and 50% annually to lead critical, high-touch on-site customer architecture sessions and strategic regional briefings.

Nice To Haves

A Master’s degree or professional technical certifications are a distinct advantage.
Proven track record of designing reusable implementation guides, integration playbooks, or localization toolkits for global delivery partners and systems integrators.
Experience flattening complex technical narratives into high-impact presentations tailored for executive, economic buyers and C-level stakeholders.
Customer obsessed: The customer comes first, and you believe that through and through. We are here to delight the customer with the ability to give them what they need in CX before they even know.
A Builder First: You have a passion for code, deep system configurations, and getting your hands dirty building the future of software.
Strategically Minded: You naturally tie advanced technical mechanisms directly to strategic business metrics, ROI, and organizational transformation.
Resilient & Collaborative: You thrive in high-stakes environments, working cross-functionally across complex international teams to drive a unified go-to-market strategy.

Responsibilities

Architect Agentic AI & Integration Workflows: Design, build, and operationalize advanced, agentic AI-driven customer workflows leveraging Large Language Models (LLMs), deep prompt engineering, and modern automation frameworks.
Lead Technical Architecture Discovery: Conduct rigorous, deep-dive technical discovery and AI readiness assessments. Translate complex system requirements into scalable demonstrations, pilots and proofs-of-concept (POCs) that demonstrate clear business value.
Build Scalable Accelerators: Proactively develop production-ready, reusable technical accelerators, middleware templates, and open-source-aligned API components that allow regional teams and Systems Integrators (SIs) to deploy Zendesk solutions at scale.
Own the Technical Sales Lifecycle: Serve as the absolute technical authority from qualification through execution. Architect secure, scalable topologies leveraging Zendesk APIs, webhook frameworks, and leading cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP).
Bridge Product & Field Strategy: Partner directly with Product Management and Engineering to provide real-world, technical feedback from the field, identifying product gaps and shaping the future roadmap of Zendesk's core AI and platform ecosystem.