Engineering Manager, Machine Learning

The AI/ML Platform team is at the forefront of this mission. We build the foundation that powers every AI-driven experience at Zendesk, enabling product teams to build, evaluate, and deploy state-of-the-art Large Language Model (LLM) applications reliably and at scale. We're looking for an Engineering Manager to lead the next wave of GenAI infrastructure at Zendesk. This includes our internal LLM Proxy, benchmarking framework, Data annotations and agentic workflow orchestration tools. You’ll empower Zendesk’s ML/AI teams by building secure, cost-optimized, and developer-friendly ML platforms that scale across use cases and products. You'll work with different partners (Engineering, Product, Architects and Tech Leads) to ensure your team's roadmap is aligned with company strategy and the team is shipping architecturally sound software at a regular cadence.

What you get to do every day

• Lead a high-performing team of AI/ML platform engineers to deliver the core infrastructure powering LLM-based applications.

• Own the design, rollout, and optimization of Zendesk’s LLM Proxy, enabling safe, observable, and cost-efficient access to multiple foundation models.

• Collaborate with existing ML/AI leadership to continually improve software delivery and service reliability.

• Partner with applied ML, product, and infrastructure teams to align platform investments with AI roadmap priorities.

• Establish strong engineering practices around observability, reliability, security, and cost monitoring.

• Foster a team culture that emphasizes mentorship, inclusion, and technical excellence.

What you bring to the role

• Proven experience managing high-performing engineering teams in the ML/AI or infrastructure space.

• Deep understanding of LLM systems, GenAI applications, or ML/AI platform components such as vector databases, serving layers, and orchestration tools.

• Experience owning the full lifecycle of ML/AI platform components—from early design to production deployment.

• Strong communication skills and an ability to influence technical direction across teams and partners.

• A pragmatic mindset: you balance innovation with scalability and performance in enterprise environments.

• A dedication to continual self-development.

• Collaborative, upbeat work ethic where you can take ownership and have fun.

What our tech stack looks like

• Our code is written in Python.

• Our servers live in AWS.

• LLM Vendors: OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Llama

• Infra: Kubernetes, Docker, Kafka, AWS 

What we offer

• Full ownership of the projects you work on.

• What you will be doing will have a huge impact.

• Team of passionate people who love what they do.

• Exciting projects, ability to implement your own ideas and improvements.

• Opportunity to learn and grow.

...and everything you need to be effective and maintain work-life balance

• Flexible working hours.

• Professional development funds.

• Comfortable office and a remote setup.

• Choice of your laptop and other equipment.

• Premium Medical Insurance as well as Private Life Assurance.