Vice President, Software Engineering

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Zendesk is seeking a VP of Engineering to lead Customer Reporting and Analytics. This position will be responsible for our customer-facing analytics platform and reporting, including but not limited to Zendesk Explore and real-time analytics along with other customer-facing reporting features. This is a highly technical and strategic role. A successful candidate will have an extensive background in analytics systems including OLAP and RDBMS technologies at scale, ETL, front-end UX development, and data modeling. This includes both custom and third party systems and technologies.

This is a global position. You will need to be comfortable working across different geographies with your engineering and product development counterparts, along with building strong relationships with your business partners across the larger organization. Globally, Zendesk is a geographically distributed organization, spread across AMER, EMEA, and APAC with multiple offices in each region. A successful candidate will have had experience working with multiple teams in a global and culturally diverse organization. Previous experience working abroad is a desired qualification, given the requirement for travel to different office locations. A strong background and presence in diversity, equity and inclusion is a must-have for this position. We believe in leading by example and it starts with senior leadership.

At Zendesk, a VP of Engineering owns software development for one or more business units and/or large functional areas. This includes the full software development lifecycle, along with production operations. Given the scale of analytics and reporting systems at Zendesk, a solid understanding of cloud-based cost optimization and usage will be imperative in ensuring we can meet the demand for business growth, new data sets, additional reporting functionality, and operational effectiveness within a well-defined budget.

As well as being able to manage, develop and support experienced engineering staff, you'll also be an active influencer in technical and product discussions, along with strategic planning and direction - technical, product, and organizational. Being able to set clear goals/OKRs and contribute constructively to these discussions are key to ensuring your success in this position.

The role is located in Dublin, Ireland. International relocation is available.

What you get to do every day:

• Lead a team of highly talented and competent software engineers

  
  

• Work closely with senior leaders in Engineering, Product Management, Design, Program Management, GTM, and People Development to deliver on our product development commitments

  
  

• Manage and grow a team of skilled Director+ engineering leaders

  
  

• Continuously improve and monitor the reliability and performance of all Zendesk systems and services that are developed and operated by your teams

  
  

• Hire, recruit, retain and grow top engineering talent for Zendesk, globally

  
  

• Engage as a senior engineering leader and representative, globally, with Zendesk customers 

  
  

• Participate in region-level strategic development for Zendesk, with other senior leaders in EMEA

  
  

• Partner with geographically distributed stakeholders in Product Development

  
  

• Work with existing management to continually improve delivery, grow the team responsibly and ensure team cohesion and functional health

  
  

• Communicate progress and key decisions broadly within the organization

  
  

• Work closely with Engineering Enablement and Executive Operations to continually improve engineering on-boarding, training, planning, and operational excellence

  
  

What you'll bring to the role:

• You are currently or have been in a VP of Engineering role with a history of delivering high-quality products built for scale and flexibility, with specific industry experience developing business intelligence and analytics systems

  
  

• You have a track record of building high-performing, self-sufficient teams. This could be from hiring the right talent to mentoring & growing it internally, as well as hiring and developing other senior leaders

  
  

• You actively participate in the development of engineering talent acquisition

  
  

• The ability to interact with multiple stakeholders and senior leaders, across different business functions

  
  

• You are knowledgeable in your functional area, able to have technical discussions with engineers and architects, along with feature/strategy discussions with Product Management

  
  

• A history of strong partnership with other business units such as Finance, HR, IT, Sales, and GTM 

  
  

• Experience with large-scale SaaS architecture, including cloud-based services such as AWS

  
  

• Exceptional communication skills, across a large, culturally and functionally diverse group of people

  
  

• Over 5 years of experience as a VP or SVP of Engineering, leading organizations over 100+ engineers

  
  

• At least 10 years of Software Engineering management and a minimum of 5 years as an individual contributor

  
  

• Software engineering and management for SaaS products and operations

  
  

• A bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related field

  
  

• Previous experience communicating and presenting to Executive Leadership and C-staff

  
  

#LI-BP1

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.

About Zendesk - Champions of Customer Service

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. We advocate for digital first customer experiences—and we stick with it in our workplace. Over 5,000 employees worldwide have the flexibility to choose where they work. The fact is, we know great work happens anywhere. Whether you’re collaborating from your home office, a Zendesk workspace, or the kitchen table, you’re part of one team at Zendesk.

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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.