Director, Software Engineering

Job Description Director of Engineering 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. Zendesk is establishing a world-class Research & Development centre in Pune to scale our engineering capabilities and accelerate delivery of AI-enabled customer service solutions. We’re hiring a seasoned Director of Engineering to lead and scale a mature engineering organization in Pune, delivering reliable execution, strong technical leadership, and cross-functional alignment that enables product outcomes at scale. Summary You will have autonomy and a clear mandate to create predictable delivery, technical excellence, and cross-functional alignment across multiple engineering teams. This role requires strategic vision, operational discipline, exceptional partnership skills, and a talent for developing managers and technical leaders. You will be accountable for delivery risk, org design, and for scaling an engineering organization that builds secure, reliable, and delightful AI-augmented products. What you’ll be doing Champion an AI-First Mindset: Guide teams to thoughtfully integrate AI into product features and internal workflows to drive best-in-class efficiency and innovation, ensuring usage is purposeful rather than reactive. Cultivate Product Ownership: Shift team culture from ticket-taking to deep product ownership, where engineers understand the why behind the code and take accountability for user outcomes. Operate as a Multiplier: Focus intensely on coaching and mentoring managers and engineers to elevate their performance, effectively scaling your impact through the growth of others. Lead through Ambiguity: Take high-level, ambiguous business goals and convert them into clear, executable plans, providing stability for the team while navigating shifting priorities. Roll up your sleeves Leadership: Maintain a strong technical pulse; while you are a business-tech leader, you are willing and able to chip in on technical architecture or critical blockers when the situation demands. Define, communicate, and reinforce the purpose and vision for your teams so they are empowered to execute against business priorities. Partner with Product Management and Group Tech Leads to create and maintain a shared product and technical roadmap balancing business value, risk mitigation, and technical debt. Own delivery risk for your teams’ products: capacity planning, incident response, technical debt strategy, compliance and disaster recovery readiness. Build Global Partnership & Cross-functional Alignment: Build and maintain strong relationships with global partners (Security, HR/People, Product, Design) and internal engineering stakeholders across time zones and cultures to ensure alignment and coordinated execution. Make delegated budget, resourcing, and compensation decisions; ensure capacity across delivery, testing, and operations. Communicate progress, risks, and emerging issues frequently and transparently to stakeholders across the business. Participate in long-range planning and contribute proposals for organization design and resourcing that align engineering outcomes with company strategy. Participate in the engineering leadership on-call rotation. What you bring to the role Builder Mindset: You are a creator at heart who remains close to the technology. You possess the technical depth to earn the respect of principal engineers while remaining focused on business strategy. Versatility and Business Impact: You thrive in fluid environments and are comfortable wearing multiple hats. You prioritize making an impact where the business needs it most over maintaining a rigid organizational structure. Focus on Disambiguation: A track record of entering complex, undefined si ... (truncated, view full listing at source)