Vice President, Global AI-Powered

Location: San Francisco, California, United States of America | Remote, New York, United States of America | Austin, Texas, United States of America

Requisition : R35519

: Full time

Join us at Zendesk, where we're on a mission to power exceptional service for every person on the planet. We're accelerating that ambition by building products rooted in AI, automation, and intelligent customer experiences, because behind every interaction lies an opportunity to make a human connection.

Lead Zendesk's global customer support organization as we define the future of AI-powered customer experience.

This is not a traditional support leadership role. You will build and govern a global, AI-orchestrated support model that combines intelligent automation, expert human support, knowledge operations, and premium services to deliver exceptional customer outcomes, improve retention, and establish Zendesk as the industry benchmark for AI-native CX.

As a senior member of the Global CX leadership team, you will operate at the intersection of Product, Engineering, Sales, Customer Success, Renewals, and Finance. You will transform our highest-volume customer touchpoint into a strategic source of customer intelligence, product insight, and commercial value.

Own the performance and evolution of Zendesk's AI-powered support model across email, messaging, voice, and self-service.

You will:

• Drive autonomous resolution, deflection quality, CSAT, FCR, SLA performance, and cost-per-resolution.
• Define effective AI-to-human escalation strategies and seamless handoffs.
• Establish AI quality, risk, and governance frameworks, including response standards and hallucination mitigation.
• Build feedback loops that turn resolution failures and escalation patterns into improvements to AI, workflows, and knowledge.
• Use predictive analytics and operational telemetry to identify emerging support needs, customer risks, and opportunities for proactive resolution.
• Partner with Product and Engineering to provide production-scale evidence that informs AI capabilities, configuration, governance, and roadmap priorities.

Lead a 300+ person global advocate organization delivering 24/7 technical support across segments, channels, and regions.

You will:

• Evolve the organization from volume-based support to complexity-based, specialist-led resolution.
• Build career paths, competency frameworks, and operating models for an AI-augmented workforce.
• Maintain high standards for customer outcomes, quality, SLA performance, and enterprise escalations.
• Establish modern AI-assisted quality and coaching frameworks focused on resolution effectiveness rather than procedural compliance.
• Design segment-calibrated service models that balance efficient AI-first support with high-touch expertise for Commercial and Enterprise customers.
• Serve as the executive authority for high-sensitivity customer escalations and critical customer moments.

Own the strategy, operations, and P&L for Zendesk's monetized Premier support business.

You will:

• Define differentiated support offerings and value propositions for enterprise customers.
• Drive revenue growth while maintaining world-class service delivery.
• Establish pricing, capacity, and commercial operating models in partnership with Finance, Sales, Renewals, and Customer Success.
• Develop outcome-based metrics demonstrating the relationship between premium support, adoption, retention, and customer ROI.
• Equip Sales and Solutions Consulting with validated operational proof points that strengthen the enterprise sales motion.

Build…