Senior Solutions Architect

About Us

We are an innovative and fast-moving business focused on helping companies build better relationships with their customers. We take pride in the impact our work has on organizations, while also caring deeply about the experience of our employees and the culture we build together.

Zendesk helps companies improve customer engagement through powerful, scalable, and easy-to-use software solutions. Our products enable organizations to move faster, operate more efficiently, and deliver better customer experiences across every touchpoint. We are looking for a Senior Solutions Architect to help expand our Services business in North America. This role will lead strategic scoping conversations with customers and prospects, covering technical architecture, solution design, implementation strategy, AI-enabled workflows, automation opportunities, and competitive differentiation throughout the sales cycle.

The ideal candidate is an experienced technical leader who can operate both as an individual contributor and as a mentor across teams. This person will own technical scoping, guide complex customer conversations, and partner closely with Sales, Services, Product, and Customer Success teams to design the right solution for each customer. The Senior Solutions Architect will act as the technical bridge between Account Executives and prospective customers, owning the primary technical relationship during the sales and services process.

This role requires the ability to engage with C-level executives, directors, technical stakeholders, and implementation teams to communicate the value, feasibility, and business impact of the proposed solution. In addition to strong enterprise software and customer experience knowledge, the role now requires hands-on experience with AI technologies, including AI-assisted workflows, automation, agents, skills, prompt design, integrations, and practical use of AI tools to improve productivity, solution design, customer support, and implementation outcomes.

• Develop a comprehensive understanding of customers' functional and technical requirements, ensuring alignment with their business objectives through the effective use of Zendesk functionalities.
• Partner with Sales to define technical strategies that support AMER pipeline growth and services revenue targets.
• Own the technical relationship with prospects and customers during the sales cycle, from initial discovery through proposal and closure.
• Design scalable customer experience, support, ITSM, automation, data, and AI-enabled solutions aligned with customer requirements.
• Identify opportunities to incorporate AI, automation, agents, workflows, and knowledge-based systems into customer solutions.
• Translate business requirements into technical solutions, architecture recommendations, implementation plans, and measurable business outcomes.
• Experience crafting contact center solutions and defining a Statement Of Work which includes precise scope, delivery timelines, costing, payment terms and other contractual items.
• Stay current on emerging AI technologies, agentic workflows, automation tools, API-driven architectures, and customer experience innovation.
• Configuring services and deploying resources in customer AWS accounts, using Amazon Connect, Cloud Formation, Amazon Lex, DynamoDB, Kinesis, IAM, S3 and more.
• Lead technical projects involving multiplate development and architecture resources.
• Mentor junior colleagues on best practices and new technologies.
• Collaborate closely with members of the Zendesk Professional Services team, including Engagement Managers, Services Consultants, Developers, and Quality Assurance Analysts, across various customer engagements, serving as the lead technical solution designer.
• Lead or participate in design and configuration workshops with customers and partners to effectively architect solutions.
• Produce Technical Design Documents, Technical Guidance Documents, and specifications for custom applications or integrations within the Zendesk platform.
• Support the development and testing phases of custom solutions, working collaboratively with Zendesk Developers and Quality Assurance Analysts to address and resolve issues.
• Conduct technical training sessions, handovers, and knowledge transfer sessions to ensure continuity and understanding among stakeholders.

• 8+ years hands-on experience building, migrating and deploying complex cloud-based Solutions.
• 8+ years of customer-facing experience, preferably technical architecture or consulting role.
• Proven ability to communicate technical value to C-level executives, directors, business stakeholders, and technical teams.
• Experience scoping, managing, and executing customer pilots, Proofs of Concept, technical workshops, and solution demos.
• Experience using REST APIs and AWS Lambda (preferably Python) and integration with 3rd party systems via API
• In-depth knowledge of customer service software, ITSM, CRM, data…