Zendesk is seeking a visionary and high-impact Senior Director, Strategic AI & Hyperscaler Partnerships to lead our global partner strategy and secure Zendesk’s position at the absolute forefront of Generative AI, LLM, and Agentic AI innovation.
Sitting at the critical intersection of product, engineering, CTO and corporate strategy, you will be the executive anchor for Zendesk's relationship with the rapidly evolving AI & Hyperscaler ecosystem. You will work hand-in-hand with the Director, AI Partnerships (your direct report) to co-define Zendesk's overarching AI partner strategy in close collaboration with product and engineering leaders.
You will set the macro direction and build the high-level executive relationships necessary to open up deeper commercial and product partnership opportunities and enable flawless execution. Your focus will be on gaining top-down buy-in and ongoing engagement from both Zendesk and partner leadership for joint partnership goals, while providing mentorship, guidance, and strategic air cover to your direct as well as cross functional teams to drive operational execution of product and commercial programs with their partner counterparts. You will be a strategic advisor to Zendesk’s executive leadership team on macro shifts in the AI ecosystem, commercial frameworks, and disruptive technologies that could impact business strategy.
Defining Success (Key Objectives)
For the leader in this role, success goes beyond managing a partner portfolio and is defined by achieving the following milestones with our tier-1 AI partners (such as OpenAI and Anthropic):
Direct CEO Access: Securing and maintaining a cadence of direct, strategic access to the partner’s CEO at least twice a year.
C-Suite Foundation: Establishing and nurturing deep, trusted relationships with at least two other C-level executives per priority partner.
Multi-Threaded Ecosystem Depth: Moving beyond single-threaded points of failure by building a web of broad, resilient relationships across the partner’s entire organization—spanning both technical/product leadership and Go-To-Market (GTM) teams.
MFN Technical Access: Guaranteeing Zendesk is on the Most Favored Nation (MFN) list for immediate technology and alpha/beta model access, ensuring absolute parity with premier ecosystem players and competitors
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MFN GTM Commercialization: Securing MFN status for GTM collaboration, embedding Zendesk into the partner’s sales motion so that their field reps can retire quota or leverage lucrative SPIFs by selling/promoting Zendesk.
Technical Talent Influx: Negotiating dedicated access to the partner’s top-tier technical talent and research scientists to directly train, support, and advise Zendesk’s internal product and engineering teams.
High-Impact Co-Marketing: Executing major joint product releases, keynote appearances, and high-visibility marketing campaigns that solidify Zendesk’s status as the definitive CX AI leader.
C-Suite Engagement: Build, nurture, and own executive-level relationships with the C-suite and senior leadership teams at Zendesk and across our most critical strategic partners.
Tier-1 Platform Leadership: Serve as the primary executive contact for Zendesk’s highest-priority AI relationships, including OpenAI, Anthropic, Amazon Bedrock and pioneering AI platforms like Baseten and Eleven Labs.
Emerging Partner Development: Formulate the strategy for and accelerate deep, emerging partnerships with Microsoft and Google, specifically focusing on advanced enterprise AI integrations, model usage optimization, co-innovation and joint marketing
Executive Buy-In: Secure top-down alignment and commitment from both Zendesk and partner leadership regarding joint multi-year product, technical, and commercial roadmaps.
Strategic Leadership & Team Enablement
Strategy Co-Definition: Work closely with the Director, AI Partnerships, alongside the CTO, Product, and Engineering leaders, to define and continuously iterate on Zendesk's global AI partnerships strategy.
Operational Enablement: Set the high-level direction and build the senior leadership bridges required for effective execution, purposely clearing corporate and technical roadblocks to allow the Director, AI Partnerships to lead day-to-day AI programs.
Mentorship & Guidance: Act as a direct manager, coach, and advocate for the Director, AI Partnerships, ensuring they have the support and professional development needed to successfully drive operational execution with partner counterparts.
Strategic Guardrails: Provide overarching guidance to the broader team as they manage programmatic engagements with ISVs, developers, and hyperscalers (such as Amazon Bedrock).
Product & Market Alignment
Cross-Functional Synergy: Partner closely with internal engineering and product leadership to align partner capabilities directly with Zendesk’s core software and agentic product integration plans.
Executive Advisory: Educate and advise Zendesk’s executive leadership team on macro shifts in the AI ecosystem, commercial frameworks, and disruptive technologies that could impact business strategy.
Experience & Expertise
Proven AI Track Record: Demonstrable, deep experience building alliances or products alongside GenAI platform vendors, hyperscalers, and the broader Agentic AI ecosystem.
Hybrid Profile: A blend of seasoned technology alliances expertise and technical/product acumen. As well as negotiating enterprise commercial terms you should be comfortable discussing LLM performance variables.
Leadership Tenacity: 15+ years of relevant experience, with a proven track record of managing high-performing partnership teams and navigating complex, multi-million-dollar C-suite negotiations.
Ecosystem Network: Deep, existing networks within OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Microsoft, and other leading AI foundations would be an advantage.
Education & Location
Business Acumen: A business degree or an MBA is highly preferred.
Technical Foundation: An engineering or technical bachelor’s degree would be an advantage but is not a requirement.
Location: San Francisco or the Bay Area to maintain close, daily proximity to major GenAI platform and hyperscaler headquarters and partner ecosystems.
The US annualized base salary range for this position is $298,000.00-$446,000.00. 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.
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 fle
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