Forward Deployed Engineer

Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) — AI & Solutions

We’re hiring a Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) to join our Technical Presales team. You will be an elite hybrid: part software engineer, part strategic consultant, and embedded with strategic customers to design, build, and deliver production‑grade AI solutions that unlock measurable ROI. You will translate customer needs into robust integrations, architect LLM‑powered workflows, and collaborate cross‑functionally to turn real‑world friction into product improvements.

• Lead end‑to‑end technical delivery of AI agent and LLM‑powered solutions: discovery, scoping, system design, PoC, production rollout, and operational handoff.
• Build production‑grade integrations and custom connectors (APIs, data pipelines, RAG systems) to surface high‑quality signals into Zendesk AI workflows.
• Troubleshoot and resolve escalated technical blockers across data, infra, and model behavior, acting as the field’s final line of defense for complex issues.
• Collaborate closely with Sales engineering and product teams to map undocumented systems, define integration patterns, and implement solutions.
• Translate customer learnings into product feedback and prioritized roadmap items; partner with Zendesk Product and Engineering to reduce future deployment friction.

• Founder mindset: comfortable navigating ambiguity, mapping unknown systems, and delivering results without a predefined playbook.
• Engineering rigor: 5+ years building production systems; strong software engineering fundamentals and attention to quality.
• Full‑stack fluency: experience across frontend (React/Type Script), backend (Python/Node/Java/Ruby), REST/Graph
  
  QL APIs, and cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP, or Azure).
• AI/LLM expertise: practical experience with LLMs, prompt engineering, retrieval‑augmented generation, vector stores, and evaluation/guardrails for model safety and reliability.
• Systems integrator: proven ability to design secure data ingestion, ETL/data pipelines, and work with diverse data stores and message systems.
• Excellent communicator: able to present trade‑offs to executives and pair‑program with customer engineers; strong written runbooks and documentation skills.
• Travel readiness: willing to travel as needed to customer sites (typical range 25–50%).

• 5+ years software engineering experience delivering production systems.
• Proficient in Python and JavaScript/Type Script; experience with at least one backend language (Java, Ruby, or Go) preferred.
• Hands‑on experience deploying or integrating LLM‑based solutions in production (RAG, vector DBs, model evaluation).
• Practical experience with cloud platforms (AWS/GCP/Azure) and containerized deployments (Docker, Kubernetes).
  
  Preferred Qualifications
  • Prior FDE, Professional Services, Solutions Engineering, or Technical Account Management experience delivering enterprise AI or SaaS deployments.
  • Experience with specific LLM tooling and frameworks (Lang Chain, Llama Index, Haystack, or similar).
  • Familiarity with Zendesk products and APIs, or experience integrating customer support/contact‑center platforms.
  • Background in observability and operationalization of ML/AI (monitoring, SLOs, cost controls, retraining pipelines).
  • Experience with data governance, PII handling, and enterprise security/compliance constraints.

  The US annualized OTE (On Target Earnings) range for this position is $–$ with a pay mix of 80/20 (base/commission). This position may also be eligible for bonus, benefits, or related incentives.

  Zendesk is an equal opportunity employer, and we’re proud of our ongoing efforts to foster global diversity, equity, & inclusion in the workplace. Individuals seeking employment and employees at Zendesk are considered without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, marital status, medical condition, ancestry, disability, military or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.
  
  We are an AA/EEO/Veterans/Disabled employer. If you are based in the United States and would like more information about your EEO rights under the law, please .

  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  with your specific accommodation request.