Technical Program Manager - Zendesk & CX AI Platforms

We are seeking a high-impact Technical Program Manager (TPM) to lead the strategy, evolution, and technical stability of our Customer Experience (CX) ecosystem. Having completed a migration from Salesforce to Zendesk Enterprise, we are now building a proactive, automated, high-efficiency CRM.

In this role, you will serve as the "Enterprise Systems & AI Product Owner." You will lead a team of two Zendesk Specialists, collaborate directly with enterprise clients to scope API integrations, and drive cross-functional engineering projects. You will be responsible for turning Zendesk into an AI-enabled workspacedeploying Zendesk Copilot, AI Agents for deflection, Zendesk AutoQA, Zendesk WFM, Glean Enterprise Search, and Gemini LLM integrations.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic AI Ecosystem & Native Zendesk Optimization

• Autonomous AI Deflection: Build, optimize, and oversee Zendesk AI Agents (Bots) to increase self-service resolution rates for Tier-1 inquiries.
• Agent Copilot & Productivity: Architect and fine-tune Zendesk Copilot (Auto-Assist workflows, real-time ticket summarization, and suggested next actions) to reduce Average Handle Time (AHT) and cognitive load.
• 100% Automated Quality Governance: Established Zendesk AutoQA scorecards and automated grading logic to continuously evaluate 100% of human and bot interactions, using sentiment analysis to flag churn risks and coaching opportunities.
• Workforce Management (WFM): Oversee Zendesk WFM (Tymeshift) configuration to transition from reactive staffing to data-driven, predictive capacity planning.

Platform Architecture & Tool Integrations (Glean / Gemini)

• Enterprise AI & Search Readiness: Partner with engineering and data teams to connect enterprise search tools (Glean) directly into Zendesk so agents can search across Confluence, Drive, and internal tools from a single workspace.
• Gemini LLM Workflows: Build data pipelines and API hooks to connect Gemini/LLMs for predictive retention modeling, automated drafts, and custom object field enrichment.
• Internal Tool Middleware: Oversee integrations between Zendesk, internal ERPs, product databases, and middleware (e.g., Webhooks) to create a single 360-degree CRM workspace.

Customer API Discovery & Developer Experience

• External Client Solutions: Interface directly with strategic business clients and account executives to gather technical requirements for direct API access, custom webhooks, and dedicated customer portal integrations.
• Developer Experience: Partner with internal software engineers to maintain clean, secure, rate-managed, and well-documented Zendesk REST APIs for customer usage.

Governance, Stability & Knowledge Architecture

• Environment Governance: Establish strict Sandbox-to-Production release pipelines, manage API rate limits, audit trigger loops, and ensure compliance (GDPR/Data Privacy).
• Knowledge Architecture (KCS): Lead a Knowledge-Centered Service strategy to consolidate company-wide documentation into a structured source of truth indexed within Zendesk.
• Team Leadership: Directly manage and mentor 2 Zendesk Specialists, managing sprint planning, task prioritization, and platform issue triage.

Qualifications & Skillsets

Must-Have Experience:

• 5+ years in Technical Program Management, Systems Engineering, or CX Platform Ownership.
• Zendesk Enterprise Mastery: Demonstrated expertise in architecting complex Zendesk instances, including Sandbox environments, Custom Objects, Omnichannel Routing, Copilot, AI Agents (Bots), AutoQA, and WFM.
• Integration & API Technical Depth: Proven experience with REST APIs, Webhooks, JSON, OAuth, Postman, and middleware integration tools (Workato, Zapier, n8n).
• AI & Search Engines: Hands-on experience or technical project delivery involving Enterprise Search (e.g., Glean, Coveo) and LLMs (e.g., Google Gemini, OpenAI).
• Client Engagement: Ability to run discovery meetings directly with tech teams to translate business needs into clear technical specifications.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Zendesk Certified Systems Architect.
• Demonstrated track record implementing Knowledge-Centered Service (KCS) principles across multi-department teams.