Senior Director, AI Platform
Freshworks is hiring a Senior Director, AI Platform in San Mateo, United States. It pays $290k-$360k a year and Level rates it ; you can apply on Freshworks.
Level's read on this job
- Works on AI ●●●○ is how Level rates this role: the daily work is on AI products, without building the model.
- Tools and skills the posting cites include RAG and AI agents.
- Level classifies it as an executive role.
- Level lists 122 other open roles at Freshworks.
- The role was posted in the last few days.
AI in this role
Organizations everywhere struggle under the crushing costs and complexities of “solutions” that promise to simplify their lives. To create a better experience for their customers and employees. To help them grow. Software is a choice that can make or break a business. Create better or worse experiences. Propel or throttle growth. Business software has become a blocker instead of ways to get work done.
There’s another option. Freshworks. With a fresh vision for how the world works.
At Freshworks, we build uncomplicated service software that delivers exceptional customer and employee experiences. Our enterprise-grade solutions are powerful, yet easy to use, and quick to deliver results. Our people-first approach to AI eliminates friction, making employees more effective and organizations more productive. Over 72,000 companies, including Bridgestone, New Balance, Nucor, S&P Global, and Sony Music, trust Freshworks’ customer experience (CX) and employee experience (EX) software to fuel customer loyalty and service efficiency. And, over 4,500 Freshworks employees make this possible, all around the world.
Fresh vision. Real impact. Come build it with us.
The AI Platform team builds the foundational agentic infrastructure, runtime engines, and developer experiences that power intelligent digital workers across the entire Freshworks ecosystem. As the Senior Director of AI Platform Product Management, you will own the end-to-end strategy, roadmap, and execution of our AI agent platform—from agent creation and authoring to shared runtime architectures. Based in San Mateo in a hybrid capacity, you will lead a team of product managers and partner closely with Engineering, Forward-Deployed teams, and executive leadership to scale enterprise-grade autonomous agents and shared digital workers across global product lines.
What You'll Do
- Define and execute the end-to-end AI agent platform strategy and roadmap, spanning agent studios, natural-language builders, agentic workflows, and the shared runtime powering digital workers across our product suite.
- Direct the product vision for the core agent framework, including agent authoring interfaces, reusable skills and workflow libraries, runtime routing engines, and ambient (proactive) capabilities.
- Establish open standards and protocols for agent interoperability, cross-platform integrations, agent identity, safety guardrails, and enterprise security policies.
- Architect the quality and lifecycle infrastructure for agents, establishing rigorous evaluation frameworks, continuous testing, performance telemetry, custom model training, dynamic routing, and token/inference cost optimization.
- Oversee the context and knowledge foundation, defining strategies for knowledge curation, real-time context retrieval, memory systems, state management, and context-window optimization.
- Drive the product lifecycle for shared digital workers (e.g., workplace concierge orchestration, email-based agents, and domain-specific HR/IT vertical agents) from concept to scaled customer adoption.
- Lead, mentor, and grow a team of product managers, establishing clear quarterly OKRs, aligning roadmap priorities with executive leadership, and cultivating a high-trust, outcome-oriented product culture.
- Partner with engineering, forward-deployed engineering, and customer-facing teams to translate real-world enterprise requirements into scalable platform capabilities, serving as the senior product authority on AI to executives and customers.
- 15–20 years of progressive experience in product management, with significant leadership experience defining platform architectures, developer platforms, or AI/ML systems at scale.
- Proven track record leading with vision and strategy, translating complex AI technological advancements into clear functional charters, roadmaps, and measurable business outcomes.
- Strong leadership acumen in investing in people, with demonstrated success coaching, mentoring, and developing product managers while fostering cross-functional alignment.
- Deep commitment to executing with excellence, with experience establishing disciplined operating rhythms, robust evaluation metrics, and clear accountability for platform reliability and delivery.
- Strong customer obsession with the ability to champion customer outcomes, identifying enterprise friction points and transforming direct user feedback into platform-level solutions.
- Deep technical comprehension of modern AI ecosystems, including LLMs, multi-agent orchestration, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), model routing, inference economics, and agent safety protocols.
Nice to Have
- Prior experience building and scaling developer-facing platforms, workflow automation engines, or multi-tenant B2B SaaS platform architectures.
- Active involvement in open-source AI initiatives, agent protocols (e.g., MCP), or emerging agentic standard-setting bodies.
We're committed to building a workplace that reflects the diverse world we serve. At Freshworks, you'll find inclusive teams, flexible thinking, and opportunities to grow your career - while making work better for millions.
If this sounds like a journey you want to be part of, we'd love to meet you. Let's building something refreshing together.
The annual base salary range for this position is $290,000 - $360,000 Base Salary. This role is also eligible for variable compensation.
Compensation is based on a variety of factors including but not limited to location, experience, job-related skills, and level. Bonus/equity is available.
At Freshworks, we have fostered an environment that enables everyone to find their true potential, purpose, and passion, welcoming colleagues of all backgrounds, genders, sexual orientations, religions, and ethnicities. We are committed to providing equal opportunity and believe that diversity in the workplace creates a more vibrant, richer environment that boosts the goals of our employees, communities, and business. Fresh vision. Real impact. Come build it with us.
How we rate this
Senior Director, AI Platform at Freshworks rates 71 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Works on AI (AI Level 3 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.
Works on AI. The daily work is on AI products, without building the model.
- ●●●● Builds AI80 to 100
- ●●●○ Works on AI60 to 79
- ●●○○ Uses AI40 to 59
- ●○○○ Little AI0 to 39
Levels come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Read the description and count the AI tools, models and workflows it names.
Prepare for this job
Built from this posting and from similar jobs on Level.
Skills and AI tools this role asks for
Questions you could be asked
- How would you design a retrieval step so the model answers from real data instead of guessing?
- How do you decide when an AI agent can act on its own versus asking for approval first?
- Describe a typical day in a role like this one: which parts run through AI directly?
- If you removed AI from this role, what would be left, and how do you decide what still needs a human?
Adapt your resume
- List these exact terms on your resume: RAG and AI agents. An applicant tracking system matches the wording, not the idea.
- Attach one line of real, concrete experience to at least one of them. A tool named with nothing behind it rarely survives a human read.
- Show where AI is part of your daily process, not a one-off project. This role expects it to be a running habit.
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