Zendesk’s Product Security organization is looking for a Senior Manager to lead our Security Platform & AI Engineering team. This is our AI innovation team, responsible for rapid experimentation, prototyping, and turning promising ideas into production-ready security capabilities.
You are a hands-on engineering leader with a strong bias for action. You lead by example, write code, test ideas, resolve technical blockers, and help engineers deliver. Your team will accelerate the development of Product Security systems and platforms through AI, including application profiling, autonomous penetration testing, automated remediation, and reusable capabilities adopted across the organization.
What you’ll be doing
- Lead from the front. Work alongside engineers on prototypes, architecture, implementation, and debugging. Set a practical technical direction and make timely decisions that keep delivery moving.
- Build and develop the team. Establish clear expectations, coach engineers and create a culture of ownership, experimentation, and accountability.
- Drive rapid experimentation. Translate ambiguous security problems into focused hypotheses, working prototypes, and measurable evaluations. Advance successful approaches and stop experiments that do not demonstrate value.
- Ship production-ready systems. Own delivery from initial concept through deployment and operation, including testing, security, observability, reliability, and maintainability.
- Scale AI capabilities. Develop reusable agent harnesses, context pipelines, integrations, and evaluation frameworks that accelerate AI engineering across Product Security.
- Deliver measurable security outcomes. Partner with security and product teams to prioritize opportunities, validate effectiveness, and improve coverage, adoption, cost, and engineering efficiency.
Basic qualifications
- Experience managing software engineering teams and delivering complex systems from concept through production.
- Strong, current programming and system design skills, with the ability to personally prototype solutions, review code, and troubleshoot difficult problems.
- Hands-on experience building AI applications using LLMs, agent workflows, tool integrations, context management, and evaluations.
- A demonstrated bias for action, with sound judgment about making progress under uncertainty and balancing experimentation with production engineering requirements.
- A record of developing engineers, setting clear priorities, and collaborating across technical teams to deliver measurable results.
Preferred qualifications
- Experience leading an AI innovation, applied AI, security engineering, or developer tooling team.
- Experience applying AI to application analysis, security testing, vulnerability discovery, or automated remediation.
- Experience building reusable AI frameworks, evaluating agent effectiveness, and driving adoption across an engineering organization.
The intelligent heart of customer experience
Zendesk software was built to bring a sense of calm to the chaotic world of customer service. Today we power billions of conversations with brands you know and love.
Zendesk believes in offering our people a fulfilling and inclusive experience. Our hybrid way of working, enables us to purposefully come together in person, at one of our many Zendesk offices around the world, to connect, collaborate and learn whilst also giving our people the flexibility to work remotely for part of the week.
As part of our commitment to fairness and transparency, we inform all applicants that artificial intelligence (AI) or automated decision systems may be used to screen or evaluate applications for this position, in accordance with Company guidelines and applicable law.
Zendesk is an equal opportunity employer, and we’re proud of our ongoing efforts to foster global diversity, equity, & inclusion in the workplace. Individuals seeking employment and employees at Zendesk are considered without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, marital status, medical condition, ancestry, disability, military or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. We are an AA/EEO/Veterans/Disabled employer. If you are based in the United States and would like more information about your EEO rights under the law, please click here.
Zendesk endeavors to make reasonable accommodations for applicants with disabilities and disabled veterans pursuant to applicable federal and state law. If you are an individual with a disability and require a reasonable accommodation to submit this application, complete any pre-employment testing, or otherwise participate in the employee selection process, please send an e-mail to [email protected] with your specific accommodation request.
Skills Required
- Experience managing software engineering teams and delivering complex systems from concept through production
- Strong current programming and system design skills, including the ability to prototype, review code, and troubleshoot difficult problems
- Hands-on experience building AI applications using LLMs, agent workflows, tool integrations, context management, and evaluations
- Demonstrated bias for action and sound judgment under uncertainty while balancing experimentation with production engineering requirements
- Record of developing engineers, setting priorities, and collaborating across technical teams to deliver measurable results
- Experience leading an AI innovation, applied AI, security engineering, or developer tooling team
- Experience applying AI to application analysis, security testing, vulnerability discovery, or automated remediation
- Experience building reusable AI frameworks, evaluating agent effectiveness, and driving adoption across an engineering organization
Zendesk Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Zendesk and has not been reviewed or approved by Zendesk.
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Fair & Transparent Compensation — The company states a commitment to publishing base pay ranges and advancing pay equity, helping employees gauge fairness. Public messaging on pay equity and transparency signals structured, consistent compensation practices.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Time away programs include flexible PTO, dedicated well‑being days, emergency time off, and pregnancy loss leave. Parental leave is described as generous, and travel support exists for reproductive care where access is restricted.
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Healthcare Strength — Benefits language highlights comprehensive medical, dental/vision, mental health access, and an employee assistance program. These offerings are positioned as part of holistic wellbeing support across regions.
Zendesk Insights
What We Do
Zendesk software was built to bring a sense of calm to the chaotic world of customer service. Today we power billions of conversations with brands you know and love. We advocate for digital first customer experiences— and we stick with it in our workplace. Over 5,000 employees worldwide are collaborating from kitchen tables, home offices, co-working spaces, and Zendesk workspaces to make one team.
Why Work With Us
We know one desk doesn’t fit all. At Zendesk, we prioritize remote work because we believe great work happens anywhere. Digital first is more than where we work though. We give our employees flexibility and choice in both where and how they work while also trusting them to be a team player.
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