Manager, AI Success Strategist, Customer Success at Zendesk

Lisbon, , Portugal -

Full Time

Start Date

Immediate

Expiry Date

13 Jun, 26

Salary

0.0

Posted On

15 Mar, 26

Experience

5 year(s) or above

Remote Job

Yes

Telecommute

Yes

Sponsor Visa

Skills

People Leadership, Product Expertise, AI Strategy, Team Management, Customer Success, Roadmap Delivery, Business Strategy, Outcome Measurement, Forecasting, Risk Mitigation, Hiring, Coaching, Executive Engagement, Generative AI, Cross-functional Coordination, Responsible AI Governance

Industry

Software Development

Description

Job Description Why This Role? Why Now? Customer experience is transforming through AI-driven innovation. At Zendesk, we don’t just embrace this change — we lead it. As the Manager, AI Success Strategists will scale our AI-driven Resolution Platform by building and leading a team of strategists who deliver predictable, measurable AI outcomes for customers. This role blends deep product expertise with people leadership: you’ll be both the product authority for your team and the coach who develops their skills to deliver at scale. Mission You will manage and grow a high-performing team (6–10 direct reports) that owns end‑to‑end delivery of customers’ AI roadmaps. You’ll translate product capabilities into clear business strategies, ensure consistent execution across customers, and maintain recurring outcome-driven cadences that secure retention and expansion. Success is measured by customer satisfaction, adoption of automated resolutions, retention improvements, and a team that reliably forecasts and mitigates risk. Overarching Objective For The Role: Own and scale a 6–10 person AI Success Strategist team to deliver predictable, measurable customer AI outcomes — e.g., drive double‑digit increases in automated resolution adoption, shorten time‑to‑value for deployments, and materially improve account retention and expansion metrics (GRR/NRR) Operationalize repeatable playbooks, SLAs, and account‑level forecasting so the team detects and mitigates risk earlier, improves forecast accuracy, and reduces at‑risk accounts — turning reactive firefights into steady, measurable adoption curves Hire, coach and develop individual contributors to raise team delivery velocity and quality: establish clear career paths, lift performance metrics, and ensure consistent, outcome‑focused executive engagement that converts strategic customers into referenceable success stories Own account‑level delivery, adoption and forecast accuracy for a defined portfolio; responsible for X% lift in automation adoption, Y% reduction in time‑to‑value, and Z decrease in at‑risk accounts year over year How You’ll Make an Impact Strategic Responsibilities Org leadership & people strategy: Own hiring, onboarding, and day‑to‑day development for your AI Success team (6–10). Coach ICs, run performance cycles, create clear career paths, and track team health and retention metrics. Strategic product partnership & roadmap influence: Be the product expert for your team—translate portfolio signals from your accounts into clear product feedback and prioritized tasks. Work closely with Product on pilot execution and beta validation to de‑risk customer deployments. Operational ownership & cross‑functional coordination: Run repeatable playbooks, KPIs, and delivery SLAs for your team. Coordinate handoffs with Sales, Professional Services, Product, Partners, and RevOps to remove blockers and enable rapid context‑switching across accounts. Executive engagement & external relationships: Own executive relationships at the account level and personally lead C‑level briefings for strategic customers. Coach your team to prepare and run scalable, outcome‑focused executive interactions. Portfolio‑level risk forecasting & business insight: Maintain predictive health scores and account‑level forecasts for your portfolio. Identify trends and early risks, surface prescriptive mitigations to stakeholders, and improve forecast accuracy and time‑to‑detection for at‑risk accounts. Commercial outcomes & growth: Drive adoption and expansion plays within your portfolio—own account targets for adoption, retention, and expansion velocity. Collaborate with Sales and Finance on renewal strategy and tactical expansion motions. Responsible AI governance & policy guidance: Advise customers on practical, engagement‑level AI guardrails (explainability, data handling, compliance). Escalate complex governance issues to Product/Legal/Security and ensure your team is trained on responsible‑AI best practices. What You’ll Need to Succeed Strategic Skills & Expertise Product partnership track record: Proven ability to translate account signals into validated product asks and run pilots/betas; escalate strategic asks to Director. Translate account signals into validated product asks and run pilots/betas; escalate strategic asks to Director Product & technical fluency: Deep familiarity with generative AI, integrations, and authentication—able to map features to customer journeys and unblock adoption with ProdDev/Engineering. Forecasting & risk management outcomes: Built and operated account‑level predictive health scores and adoption forecasts that improved forecast accuracy and enabled early mitigations. Operational delivery: Defined and ran team playbooks, KPIs, and SLAs; owned tooling or dashboards that provide a single source of truth for adoption and risk. Executive presence: Comfortable briefing customer executives (up to VP/CxO) and presenting account‑level trends and forecasts to internal stakeholders with clear, concise materials. Commercial impact: Track record owning team targets for adoption, retention, and expansion—with measurable improvements in GRR/NRR, automation adoption, or expansion outcomes. People leadership: Proven experience managing, coaching, and developing individual contributors (6–10), including hiring, performance cycles, and career development. Change & strategic judgment: Demonstrated ability to convert account insights into prioritized product tasks or tactical GTM adjustments and to drive follow‑through. Mindset: Entrepreneurial ownership, bias for action, and comfort operating with ambiguity while enforcing disciplined measurement and accountability. Qualifications 7+ years in Customer Success / Professional Services / Technical Account Management / Solutions Consulting in enterprise SaaS; 2+ years in AI-related roles or working on AI product adoption. 2+ years of people management experience leading customer-facing teams (6–10 direct reports). Previous experience in go-to-customer/GTM roles in enterprise technology / SaaS — either customer success management, professional services/consulting, technical account management, or solutions engineering/pre-sales consulting Demonstrated experience in using adoption and health analytics to forecast churn and expansion; surface early risk signals and recommended mitigations to secure retention and growth. Bachelor’s degree in Business, Computer Science, Engineering, or related field; advanced degrees; certifications in AI strategy or project management preferred. Demonstrated product expertise: ability to translate generative AI features, integrations, and technical requirements into business outcomes. Proven cross-functional influence with Product and Engineering; experience surfacing product feedback and driving prioritization. Track record of building predictive adoption models, using analytics to forecast churn/expansion and operationalizing mitigations. Excellent communication skills; ability to distill complex AI concepts for executives and technical teams. AIAA #LI-JF2 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. Zendesk is on a mission to simplify the complexity of business and make it easy for companies and customers to create connections. Our customer experience software unlocks the power of billions of interactions, enabling businesses to build rich, meaningful relationships with their customers. What’s it like to work here? Our offices reflect the global cities we call home, and have spaces for collaboration, quiet, and events. With our hybrid approach, you’ll experience flexibility and connection, collaboration, and learning with your team. We’re aware of an increase in recruitment scams where individuals falsely claim to represent Zendesk. These scammers may ask for money or personal information by offering fake job opportunities through e-mail, text message or social media. Please verify the source of any job-related communications carefully. All official Zendesk communications are conducted through "@zendesk.com" email addresses. If you encounter suspicious messages, do not respond and report them to peopleandplaces@zendesk.com

Responsibilities

The manager will own and scale a team of 6-10 AI Success Strategists responsible for the end-to-end delivery of customer AI roadmaps, ensuring predictable and measurable AI outcomes like increased automated resolution adoption and improved retention. This involves operationalizing playbooks, managing portfolio delivery and forecast accuracy, and coaching the team to raise delivery velocity and quality.