Staff Software Engineer

Join Zendesk and Shape the Future of Customer Experience

We are seeking a high-impact Staff Software Engineer to join our full-stack team in Pune—a pivotal technical leader who will drive innovation and excellence at scale.

In this senior technical role, you will own the architecture and delivery of critical system components with full lifecycle accountability. You will wield your extensive experience and strategic insight to spearhead the smart integration of advanced AI technologies that elevate customer experience, streamline development workflows, boost product quality, and drive operational efficiencies—ultimately accelerating time-to-market while reducing costs and engineering effort.

Your technical leadership will inspire and guide talented engineers, establishing rigorous engineering standards, championing best practices, and fostering a culture of technical excellence and innovation.

This is a hybrid position requiring your presence onsite in Pune at least three days a week, with relocation support available.

What You’ll Own and Deliver:

• Architect, design, and engineer robust, scalable, and AI-powered solutions that solve complex, high-scale business challenges, creating measurable impact on customer satisfaction and business KPIs.

• Drive the end-to-end product lifecycle ownership—from ideation through development, deployment, to continuous improvement—while embedding AI capabilities that optimize performance, automation, and user relevance.

• Lead the adoption of AI/ML models, predictive analytics, and automation frameworks to enhance customer interactions and developer productivity across the product suite.

• Enforce and champion best practices in code quality, test automation, continuous integration, and scalable system design.

• Collaborate deeply with product managers, architects, data scientists, and business leaders to translate business needs into scalable technical solutions.

• Act as a technical visionary and mentor, fostering the growth of engineers through coaching, code reviews, and knowledge sharing to build a high-performing, AI-fluent engineering team.

• Continuously analyze engineering workflows and product features for opportunities to reduce cycle times, improve efficiency, optimize costs, and deliver superior customer value through AI innovations.

What You Bring to the Team:

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science or a related technical field, or equivalent professional experience.

• 10+ years of software development experience with an established history of driving technical vision and delivering at scale in complex environments.

• Deep proficiency in Ruby on Rails and full-stack development, coupled with experience in modern frontend frameworks such as React and TypeScript.

• Strong foundation in distributed systems design, data architecture, scalable services, and event-driven platforms.

• Hands-on experience with relational databases (MySQL, Aurora), caching mechanisms (Redis), search technologies (ElasticSearch), and event streaming platforms (Kafka).

• Exceptional analytical and problem-solving acumen, with a results-oriented mindset.

• Proven ability to operate effectively in fast-paced, dynamic, and evolving technology landscapes.

• Excellent communication skills, capable of articulating complex technical concepts to diverse audiences.

• Passion for continuous learning and championing emerging development paradigms.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Demonstrated expertise in integrating AI technologies (such as LLMs, ML pipelines, NLP, or intelligent automation) into production-grade systems to improve business and engineering outcomes.

• Experience leading and adopting AI/ML models, predictive analytics, or automation frameworks in product development environments.

• Familiarity with AI tooling, frameworks, or APIs relevant to software product innovation.

Technology Stack

• Frontend: React (JS/TS), Ember.js

• Backend: RoR, Go services for specialized workloads

• APIs: RESTful services, GraphQL API gateway implemented in Java and Node.js

• Data Management: Zendesk Data Platform, Snowflake, MySQL, Aurora, Redis, ElasticSearch

• Event-driven Architecture: Kafka, AWS EventBridge

• Cloud & Infrastructure: AWS, Docker, Kubernetes for container orchestration

• AI/ML/LLM Technologies: OpenAI, GH Copilot, Python, Huggingface,

• DevOps & Automation: CI/CD pipelines with Jenkins and GitHub Actions, IaaC with Terraform

About Zendesk’s Product Development Center of Excellence, Pune

Zendesk is rapidly building a world-class Product Development Center of Excellence located in our brand-new, state-of-the-art office at Koregaon Park, the prime location in Pune. This center is designed to be a dynamic hub of innovation that drives AI-powered product development and delivers exceptional customer experiences.

As a foundational member, you will play a key role in shaping a cutting-edge AI-first engineering culture. You will lead the integration of advanced AI capabilities that redefine customer engagement, accelerate product delivery, and optimize operational efficiency. Our mission is to leverage aggressive AI enablement to usher in a new era of scalable, intelligent, and customer-centric solutions—solidifying Zendesk’s leadership on the global stage.

Join us to innovate, lead, and transform how customer experience evolves through the power of AI.

Please note that Zendesk can only hire candidates who are physically located and plan to work from Karnataka or Maharashtra. Please refer to the location posted on the requisition for where this role is based.

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.