ML Engineering Manager

This is a ML Engineering Manager role with Zendesk based in Melbourne, VIC, AU
== Zendesk ==

Role Seniority - mid level

More about the ML Engineering Manager role at Zendesk

Job Description

Zendesk's people have one goal in mind: to make Customer Experience better. Our products help more than 125,000 global brands (AirBnb, Uber, JetBrains, Slack, among others) make their billions of customers happy, every day.

The AI/ML Platform team is at the forefront of this mission. We build the foundation that powers every AI-driven experience at Zendesk, enabling product teams to build, evaluate, and deploy state-of-the-art Large Language Model (LLM) applications reliably and at scale.

We're looking for an Engineering Manager to lead the next wave of GenAI infrastructure at Zendesk. This includes our internal LLM Proxy, benchmarking framework, Data annotations and agentic workflow orchestration tools. You'll empower Zendesk's ML/AI teams by building secure, cost-optimized, and developer-friendly ML platforms that scale across use cases and products.

You'll work with different partners (Engineering, Product, Architects and Tech Leads) to ensure your team's roadmap is aligned with company strategy and the team is shipping architecturally sound software at a regular cadence.

What you get to do every day

• Lead a high-performing team of AI/ML platform engineers to deliver the core infrastructure powering LLM-based applications.

• Own the design, rollout, and optimization of Zendesk's LLM Proxy, enabling safe, observable, and cost-efficient access to multiple foundation models.

• Collaborate with existing ML/AI leadership to continually improve software delivery and service reliability.

• Partner with applied ML, product, and infrastructure teams to align platform investments with AI roadmap priorities.

• Establish strong engineering practices around observability, reliability, security, and cost monitoring.

• Foster a team culture that emphasizes mentorship, inclusion, and technical excellence.

What you bring to the role

• Proven experience managing high-performing engineering teams in the ML/AI or infrastructure space.

• Deep understanding of LLM systems, GenAI applications, or ML/AI platform components such as vector databases, serving layers, and orchestration tools.

• Experience owning the full lifecycle of ML/AI platform components—from early design to production deployment.

• Strong communication skills and an ability to influence technical direction across teams and partners.

• A pragmatic mindset: you balance innovation with scalability and performance in enterprise environments.

• A dedication to continual self-development.

• Collaborative, upbeat work ethic where you can take ownership and have fun.

What our tech stack looks like

• Our code is written in Python.

• Our servers live in AWS.

• LLM Vendors: OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Llama

• Infra: Kubernetes, Docker, Kafka, AWS 

What we offer

• Full ownership of the projects you work on.

• What you will be doing will have a huge impact.

• Team of passionate people who love what they do.

• Exciting projects, ability to implement your own ideas and improvements.

• Opportunity to learn and grow.

...and everything you need to be effective and maintain work-life balance

• Flexible working hours.

• Professional development funds.

• Comfortable office and a remote setup.

• Choice of your laptop and other equipment.

• Premium Medical Insurance as well as Private Life Assurance.

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.

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.

Before we jump into the responsibilities of the role. No matter what you come in knowing, you'll be learning new things all the time and the Zendesk team will be there to support your growth.

Please consider applying even if you don't meet 100% of what's outlined

Key Responsibilities

• Leading a high-performing team
• Owning the design and rollout of LLM Proxy
• Collaborating with ML/AI leadership

Key Strengths

• Experience managing high-performing engineering teams
• Understanding of LLM systems
• Strong communication skills
• Pragmatic mindset
• Dedication to self-development
• Collaborative work ethic

Why Zendesk is partnering with Hatch on this role. Hatch exists to level the playing field for people as they discover a career that's right for them. So when you apply you have the chance to show more than just your resume.

A Final Note: This is a role with Zendesk not with Hatch.

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