Director, Product Management
Zendesk · Remote, California, United States of America
Job Description
What you’ll be doing
Zendesk’s Support Core organization is evolving into a modern platform and shared-experience team that enables product teams to move faster, integrate more easily, and deliver consistent, AI-forward capabilities at scale.
As Director of Product for Support Core, you will define and lead the strategy for Zendesk’s foundational support systems, including Ticketing Platform, Search Platform, Email, and Lists, owning both the underlying platform capabilities and the shared product experiences built on top of them.
You will ensure that our core systems provide:
A single, scalable integration surface for all Zendesk products, including newly acquired products
Consistent, high-quality experiences across the Zendesk ecosystem
Modern, AI-ready components that accelerate product innovation
Reduced developer overhead through composable, well-abstracted platform services
You will lead a team of five product managers and partner deeply with Engineering leadership to modernize our architecture, elevate developer experience, and embed AI capabilities throughout the core.
Why this role matters
Support Core is foundational to Zendesk’s future. As Zendesk continues to expand its product portfolio and embed AI throughout the customer experience, the strength, consistency, and intelligence of our core systems will determine how quickly we can innovate, and how seamlessly our products work together.
Responsibilities
Define and communicate the multi-year vision and roadmap for Support Core as both a platform and shared product experience layer
Transform core systems into AI-forward, composable components that power consistent experiences across Zendesk
Own both:
Platform capabilities (APIs, services, infrastructure, integration interfaces)
Shared product experiences built on top of those platforms (e.g., search experiences powered by retrieval architecture)
Design a modern, AI-native engineering experience by designing platform abstractions and integration surfaces that enable fast and scalable integration with all Zendesk products, including acquisitions
Drive AI-native platform capabilities across Support Core, ensuring our systems are architected so AI operates seamlessly on top of them, within them, and alongside them
Lead and develop a team of five product managers across Ticketing, Search, Email, and Lists
Partner closely with Engineering to modernize system architecture, improve reliability and performance, and reduce complexity
Influence the broader Core Services platform strategy and align investments with company-level goals
Establish outcome-driven planning, strong execution discipline, and clear executive communication
What you bring to the role
Experience leading platform or infrastructure product teams in high-scale SaaS environments
Experience owning both platform capabilities and shared product experiences
Strong technical fluency - comfortable engaging deeply in distributed systems, APIs, search/retrieval architecture, cloud-native systems, and integration patterns
Demonstrated experience building or enabling AI-powered systems (LLM integration, search and retrieval, ML-backed features, AI infrastructure, or developer tooling)
Strong understanding of modern AI-native development patterns and AI-assisted engineering workflows
Experience designing systems that serve as a shared foundation across multiple products or business units
Proven ability to lead and scale senior product managers
Strong strategic thinking combined with operational rigor
Exceptional communication and executive influence skills
High ownership mindset and ability to drive clarity in complex, ambiguous environments
Preferred Experience
Engineering background or early-career technical experience
Experience integrating acquired products into a shared platform architecture
Experience leading distributed teams across geographies
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 peopleandplaces@zendesk.com with your specific accommodation request.