Overview

The Agentic Tribe is revolutionizing the chatbot and voice assistance landscape with Gen3, a cutting-edge AI Agent system that is goal-oriented, dynamic, and truly conversational. Gen3 leverages a multi-agent architecture and advanced language models to deliver personalized and engaging user experiences, handling complex tasks and off-script inquiries in real time.

We are hiring a Senior Machine Learning Scientist for the AI Agent product at Zendesk. You will own a designated product area and help revolutionize how our customers experience our products. This is an opportunity to bridge cutting-edge ML research and real-world impact, shaping the product roadmap, discovering innovative ML applications, and collaborating with a talented cross-functional team.

Key responsibilities

• You\'ll be part of a team responsible for designing and testing novel AI solutions for real business problems.

• You\'ll own the full research projects end-to-end from understanding business requirements to design, implementation, experimentation and reporting.

• You\'ll discuss your and others\' ideas in the research team regularly and provide peer review for colleagues\' work.

• You\'ll keep up with the NLP and ML fields and literature and introduce new concepts discovered as potential solutions to our business problems.

• You\'ll work closely with AI engineers helping them implement your designs into our production system.

• You\'ll use suitable tools and technologies for rapid implementation and quickly testing your hypotheses while keeping in mind the requirements of future production implementation.

• You\’ll collaborate with Product managers and other non-technical stakeholders to discover the product roadmap.

Who you are

• Degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Statistics, Engineering, Mathematics, or related fields.

• Proven record of Machine Learning or NLP research, ideally in industry.

• Knowledge of building deep learning neural network architectures, ideally with a focus on NLP.

• Ability to implement ideas from research literature into proof-of-concept models.

• Practical approach for researching machine learning solutions to business problems.

• You have significant experience with LLMs and Prompt Engineering.

• Bonus if you have experience with AI Agent Context Management.

• Ideally experience with conversational AI and voice technologies, including text-to-speech (TTS) and speech-to-speech (STS).

• A positive, proactive team player who is passionate about their craft, participates in product discussions, and cares about helping the team deliver.

• Excellent communication skills and fluency in English.

How we measure success in this role

• Alignment of your work with the overall product roadmap and strategic goals.

• Effectiveness in collaborating with product managers, engineers, designers, and other stakeholders.

• Discovery and ideation — the ability to identify new opportunities within the product area and to prioritize and champion these ideas.

The Interview Process

We are excited to learn more about you and want to be transparent about what you can expect from our interview process:

1. Initial Call with Talent Team — 15 mins

2. Interview with one member of the Hiring Team — 45 minutes

3. Take-home technical/research challenge

4. A technical interview with two of our scientists to discuss your technical experience and answer questions — 1 hour

5. Final interview with two of the following: CTO or Engineering Manager/Director — 45 minutes

About Zendesk

Zendesk builds software for better customer relationships. It empowers organizations to improve customer engagement and understand their customers. Zendesk products are easy to use and implement, enabling organizations to move quickly, focus on innovation, and scale with growth.

More than 100,000 paid customer accounts in over 150 countries use Zendesk products. Based in San Francisco, Zendesk has operations in the United States, Europe, Asia, Australia, and South America.

Zendesk is committed to diversity and inclusion in the workplace and is an equal opportunity employer. Individuals seeking employment 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.

By submitting your application, you agree that Zendesk may collect your personal data for recruiting, global organization planning, and related purposes. Zendesk\'s Candidate Privacy Notice explains what personal information Zendesk may process, where it may be processed, its purposes, and your rights regarding Zendesk’s use of your personal information.

Hybrid: In this role, our hybrid experience is designed to provide a rich onsite experience while also offering flexibility to work remotely part of the week. The in-office schedule will be determined by the hiring manager.

The intelligent heart of customer experience

Zendesk believes in offering our people a fulfilling and inclusive experience. Our hybrid approach enables in-person collaboration at Zendesk offices worldwide while also providing flexibility to work remotely.

Zendesk is an equal opportunity employer with ongoing efforts to foster global diversity, equity, and inclusion. We are an AA/EEO/Veterans/Disabled employer. If you are based in the United States and would like more information about EEO rights, please click here. Zendesk makes reasonable accommodations for applicants with disabilities and disabled veterans. If you require an accommodation to submit this application or participate in the process, please email peopleandplaces@zendesk.com with your request.