Director, AI Partnerships

Job Description

About the Role

Zendesk is seeking a senior leader to take ownership of our AI Partner Strategy, ensuring Zendesk remains at the forefront of Generative AI and LLM innovation. This role will sit at the intersection of product, engineering, and business strategy, working closely with executive leadership to shape how Zendesk partners with the rapidly evolving AI ecosystem.

You will build and manage deep technical and commercial relationships with leading AI platforms and technology partners, drive structured engagement models, and help Zendesk continuously adapt to a fast-changing AI landscape.

Location - San Francisco, CA (Hybrid)

This is a hybrid role based at our SF headquarters. You must be immersed in the local AI ecosystem to facilitate collaboration with our major GenAI platform partners and specialized ISV network.

Role Scope

• Take ownership of Zendesk’s AI partner strategy, in close alignment with Zendesk’s product, engineering and CTO leaders

• Drive the development and ongoing management of programmatic engagement with the AI technology partner ecosystem (ISVs, Developers, hyperscalers). Continuously update Zendesk’s understanding of the evolving AI ecosystem, including partner and commercial frameworks that can impact Zendesk’s own strategy. Educate Zendesk leaders and executives to help them respond to a rapidly changing environment. 

• Build close technical and commercial relationships with leading GenAI platforms such as AWS, Google, OpenAI and Anthropic, ensuring that Zendesk remains at the forefront of AI and LLM innovation 

• Work with priority tech partners to align on AI product integration strategy and plans, execute on them and jointly promote the integrated value propositions to the market

• Identify marketing opportunities with GenAI Platform vendors and tech partners to raise Zendesk’s profile and visibility in the market, and generate pipeline

 

Candidate Profile

• The primary requirement is demonstrable experience building with and/or working closely with GenAI platform vendors and ISV partners, and a good understanding of the Agentic AI ecosystem and technology evolution

• The ideal candidate will have a mix of both product management/ technical as well as technology alliances expertise. 

• For candidates with a product/technical background - a seasoned product management or technical leader with experience in AI product development - 10+ years relevant work experience, 

• For candidates with a business/partnership background - extensive experience managing partnerships with hyper-scalers as well as working with GenAI platform vendors - 10+ years in technology partner management

• Must have an engineering or technical bachelors degree at a minimum

• Business degree and an MBA would be a bonus

The US annualized base salary range for this position is $263,000.00-$395,000.00. This position may also be eligible for bonus, benefits, or related incentives. While this range reflects the minimum and maximum value for new hire salaries for the position across all US locations, the offer for the successful candidate for this position will be based on job related capabilities, applicable experience, and other factors such as work location. Please note that the compensation details listed in US role postings reflect the base salary only (or OTE for commissions based roles), and do not include bonus, benefits, or related incentives.

Hybrid: In this role, our hybrid experience is designed at the team level to give you a rich onsite experience packed with connection, collaboration, learning, and celebration - while also giving you flexibility to work remotely for part of the week. This role must attend our local office for part of the week. The specific in-office schedule is to be determined by the hiring manager.

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