Zendesk · 2 days ago
Director, AI Partnerships
San Francisco, CA
Full-time
Hybrid
Director/Executive
$263K/yr - $395K/yr
10+ years expZendesk 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 involve building and managing relationships with leading AI platforms and technology partners while driving engagement models to adapt to the evolving AI landscape.
Customer ServiceData ManagementEnterprise SoftwareSoftwareTechnical Support
Responsibilities
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
Qualification
Required
Demonstrable experience building with and/or working closely with GenAI platform vendors and ISV partners
Good understanding of the Agentic AI ecosystem and technology evolution
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 bachelor's degree at a minimum
Preferred
Business degree and an MBA would be a bonus
Benefits
May also be eligible for bonus, benefits, or related incentives
Flexibility to work remotely for part of the week
Company
Zendesk
Zendesk develops a customizable customer service platform for organizations.
5001-10000 employees
H1B Sponsorship
Zendesk has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships. Please note that this does not
guarantee sponsorship for this specific role. Below presents additional info for your
reference. (Data Powered by US Department of Labor)
Distribution of Different Job Fields Receiving Sponsorship
Represents job field similar to this job
Trends of Total Sponsorships
2025 (50)
2024 (69)
2023 (37)
2022 (92)
2021 (93)
2020 (44)
Funding
Current Stage
Public CompanyTotal Funding
$85.5MKey Investors
RedpointMatrixBenchmark
2022-11-22Private Equity
2022-06-24Acquired
2019-09-18Grant
Leadership Team
Mikkel Asger Svane
CEO and Co-Founder
Adrian McDermott
Chief Technology Officer
Recent News
Index Ventures
2026-01-06
Small Business Trends
2026-01-04
Small Business Trends
2025-12-25
Company data provided by crunchbase