Senior Sales Engineer
AI in this role
Job Description
At Zendesk, we’re revolutionising 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 act as the primary technical partner for our enterprise and commercial accounts. This role is built for technical consultants and builders who love mapping complex business challenges to modern, AI-powered software solutions. Sitting at the intersection of technical discovery, solution design and hands-on system configuration, you will be responsible for proving the value of Zendesk’s platform, autonomous agents, and integration capabilities to technical evaluators and business leaders alike.
What You’ll Be Doing:
Manage Technical Deal Cycles: Lead the technical validation phase of the sales cycle, answering detailed RFPs, designing compelling solutions, building out standard integration topologies, and ensuring compliance with enterprise security and data privacy standards.
Execute Technical Discovery & POCs: Conduct thorough technical discovery sessions with customer IT and business teams. Own the creation of impactful Proofs of Concept (POCs) and custom demonstrations that de-risk the technical buying decision.
Configure Agentic AI Workflows: Build and showcase tailored, agentic AI-driven workflows, utilising prompt engineering and Zendesk’s AI features to solve real-world customer pain points.
Deploy Reusable Tools: Utilise and adapt existing technical accelerators, API templates, and middleware components to quickly deliver complex architectures for prospects.
Advocate for the Field: Collect real-world product feedback and feature requests from customer engagements, partnering with internal teams to flag product gaps and help shape future platform enhancements.
What You Bring (Required Qualifications):
First and foremost, we are looking for a growth mindset. We value professional agility and seek individuals who actively pursue continuous learning, embrace constructive feedback, and adapt to evolving business needs. Even if you don't check every single box below, we encourage you to apply!"
Experience: 4–6 years of hands-on experience in technical presales, solution engineering, technical consulting, or an application developer role.
Technical Fluency: Proficient with modern web technologies (e.g., JavaScript, Python, Node.js), HTML/CSS, REST APIs, and utilising webhooks.
AI Expertise: Practical understanding of AI applications, including utilising LLM-powered features, prompt engineering , and automated workflows.
Domain Knowledge: Strong understanding of SaaS ecosystems, CX or ES domains, contact center tech (telephony, CRM), or IT support ticketing workflows.
Travel Commitment: Ability and willingness to travel up to 30% annually for on-site customer discovery and presentation sessions.
Education: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Business Analytics, Information Systems, or a related technical discipline.
Preferred Qualifications:
To support our strategic roadmap, we would value hands-on knowledge of cloud data stacks (eg Snowflake, Databricks, BigQuery, AWS/Azure/GCP data services) and enterprise BI software (e.g., Power BI, Tableau, Looker), and the relevant application of modern AI frameworks, LLM integration, data science processes.
Ideally some vertical industry experience, especially in Financial Services, Retail, Travel, Transport & Leisure or Public Sector
Active engagement in the technical or developer community (e.g., open-source contributions, technical blogging, or community mentorship).
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.
Who You Are:
Customer obsessed: You are dedicated to understanding customer needs and crafting solutions that deliver real value and delight.
A Builder First: You enjoy writing code, configuring complex systems, and prototyping modern software solutions.
Strategically Minded: You naturally tie advanced technical mechanisms directly to strategic business metrics, ROI, and organizational transformation.
Resilient & Collaborative: You thrive in dynamic environments, working cross-functionally across global teams to drive success.
#LI-UK1
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.
How we rate this
Senior Sales Engineer at Zendesk rates 74 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. Open the description and count.
Prepare for this job
A free preview built only from this posting: what it asks for, what you could be asked in an interview, and how to adjust your resume.
Skills and AI tools this role asks for
Questions you could be asked
- How do you structure and test a prompt to get consistent output from a language model?
- How have you integrated a large language model into a production application?
- How do you decide when an AI agent can act on its own versus asking for approval first?
- What's a project where you used Databricks hands-on?
- Describe a typical day in a role like this one: which parts run through AI directly?
Adapt your resume
- List these exact terms on your resume: Prompt Engineering, LLM Integration, AI Agents, and Databricks. 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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