Senior Machine Learning Scientist

The Agentic Tribe is revolutionizing the chatbot and voice assistance landscape with Gen3, a cutting-edge AI Agent system that's pushing the boundaries of conversational AI. Gen3 is not your typical chatbot; it's a goal-oriented, dynamic, and truly conversational system capable of reasoning, planning, and adapting to user needs in real-time. By leveraging a multi-agent architecture and advanced language models, Gen3 delivers personalized and engaging user experiences, moving beyond scripted interactions to handle complex tasks and "off-script" inquiries with ease.

We are delighted to be hiring a Senior Machine Learning Scientist for the AI Agent product at Zendesk. You will own a designated product area and revolutionize how our customers experience our products. This is an exciting opportunity to bridge the gap between cutting-edge ML research and real-world impact. You'll have the freedom to shape the product roadmap, discover innovative ML applications, and collaborate with a talented cross-functional team.

• 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 your 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 AIengineers 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 product roadmap.

• Degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Statistics, Engineering, Mathematics, etc.

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

• Knowledge of building deep learning neural network architectures, ideally with 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, Prompt Engineering

• Huge bonus if you have experience with AI Agent Context Management.

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

• A positive, pro-active team player who is passionate about their craft, is keen to take part in product discussions and cares about helping the team deliver.

• Great communication skill and fluency in English.

• How well your work aligns with the overall product roadmap and strategic goals.

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

• Discovery and Ideation - ability to identify new opportunities within the product area, as well as their ability to prioritize and champion these ideas.

We are excited to learn more about you, so we 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 talk more in-depth about your technical experience and answer any questions you might have - 1 hour

5. Final interview with 2 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 better understand their customers. Zendesk products are easy to use and implement. They give organizations the flexibility to move quickly, focus on innovation, and scale with their growth. 

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

Interested in knowing what we do in the community? Check out the Zendesk Neighbor Foundation to learn more about how we engage with, and provide support to, our local communities.  

Zendesk is an equal opportunity employer, and we're proud of our ongoing efforts to foster diversity & inclusion in the workplace. Individuals seeking employment 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, physical or mental 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 Zendesk may process your personal information, its purposes for processing your personal information, and the rights you can exercise over Zendesk's use of your personal information.

Hybrid: In this role, our hybrid experience is designed at the team level to give you a rich onsite experience packed with connection, collaboration, learning, and celebration - while also giving you flexibility to work remotely for part of the week. This role must attend our local office for part of the week. The specific in-office schedule is to be determined by the hiring manager.

The intelligent heart of customer experience

Zendesk software was built to bring a sense of calm to the chaotic world of customer service. Today we power billions of conversations with brands you know and love.

Zendesk believes in offering our people a fulfilling and inclusive experience. Our hybrid way of working, enables us to purposefully come together in person, at one of our many Zendesk offices around the world, to connect, collaborate and learn whilst also giving our people the flexibility to work remotely for part of the week.

As part of our commitment to fairness and transparency, we inform all applicants that artificial intelligence (AI) or automated decision systems may be used to screen or evaluate applications for this position, in accordance with Company guidelines and applicable law.

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 click here.

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.