Senior Sales Engineer

Job Description

About Zendesk

At Zendesk, we’re revolutionizing what’s possible in Customer Experience (CX) and Employee Services (ES). Our rapid innovation and Agentic AI leadership have earned the trust of thousands of forward-thinking businesses. We help companies foster deep, meaningful relationships with their customers through intelligent, scalable software.

As a Senior Sales Engineer based in Tokyo, you will sit at the intersection of enterprise software strategy, hands-on systems architecture, and advanced AI automation. This is a high-visibility position built for technical builders who are deeply curious about how autonomous agents, security, analytics, and deep integrations fundamentally transform enterprise workflows. You will own the technical strategy for our strategic customer engagements across Japan, acting as a trusted advisor to both the C-suite and engineering leadership.

What you'll be doing

• Architect Agentic AI & Integration Workflows: Design, build, and operationalize advanced, agentic AI-driven customer workflows leveraging Large Language Models (LLMs), deep prompt engineering, and modern automation frameworks.

• Lead Technical Architecture Discovery: Conduct rigorous, deep-dive technical discovery and AI readiness assessments, translating complex system requirements into scalable enterprise-grade pilots and proofs-of-concept (POCs) that demonstrate clear business value.

• Build Scalable Accelerators: Proactively develop production-ready, reusable technical accelerators, middleware templates, and open-source-aligned API components that allow regional teams and Systems Integrators (SIs) to deploy Zendesk solutions at scale.

• Own the Technical Sales Lifecycle: Serve as the absolute technical authority from qualification through execution, architecting secure, scalable topologies leveraging Zendesk APIs, webhook frameworks, and leading cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP).

• Bridge Product & Field Strategy: Partner directly with Product Management and Engineering to provide real-world, technical feedback from the field, identifying product gaps and shaping the future roadmap of Zendesk's core AI and platform ecosystem.

What you bring to the role

• Customer Obsessed: A deep-seated belief that the customer comes first, with a passion for delighting users by delivering impactful CX solutions before they even realize their own needs.

• A Builder First: An active passion for code, deep system configurations, and getting your hands dirty building the future of enterprise software.

• Strategically Minded: A natural ability to tie advanced technical mechanisms directly to strategic business metrics, ROI, and organizational transformation.

• Resilient & Collaborative: The capacity to thrive in high-stakes environments, working cross-functionally across complex international teams to drive a unified go-to-market strategy.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in a related highly quantitative technical discipline.

• 6+ years of hands-on experience in technical presales, solution engineering, or a system architect/developer role within enterprise SaaS or complex software environments.

• Deep technical fluency with modern web and scripting technologies (e.g., Python, Node.js, JavaScript), REST/SOAP APIs, middleware frameworks, and cloud ecosystem architectures.

• Strong foundational knowledge of AI technologies, including Large Language Models (LLMs), prompt engineering, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and autonomous agent deployment.

• Solid understanding of enterprise infrastructure, contact center tech stacks (CCaaS, telephony, workforce management), or modern IT Service Management (ITSM) systems.

• Ability to travel internationally and domestically between 30% and 50% of the time to lead critical on-site customer architecture sessions.

Preferred Qualifications

• Active engagement in the technical or developer community (e.g., open-source contributions, technical blogging, or community mentorship).

• Proven track record of designing reusable implementation guides, integration playbooks, or localization toolkits for global delivery partners and systems integrators.

• Experience flattening complex technical narratives into high-impact presentations tailored for executive, economic buyers and C-level stakeholders.

• Professional proficiency in both Japanese and English to effectively lead technical discovery sessions within the regional market.

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 peopleandplaces@zendesk.com with your specific accommodation request.