Principal Machine Learning Engineer

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.

Our team is responsible for helping Customer Experience teams to achieve their best, by intelligently solving repetitive work, so they can shift their focus to solving more sophisticated problems. We use the latest trends in Machine Learning algorithms to help us on that mission, and we're passionate about empowering our customers.

You will be embedded in a multi-functional team, closely collaborating with scientists, engineers and product managers. You will contribute to the Research road map of Zendesk, by researching and building efficient machine learning solutions that can power AI capabilities, such as macro suggestions for admins and semantic search.

What you’ll be doing

• Pair with applied ML scientists to learn about our technology stack and architecture




• Collaborate with ML teams to research, build and improve efficient AI solutions with a significant impact on customer support




• Solve meaningful and challenging problems with recent ML techniques including neural networks and information retrieval




• Support productionizing ML techniques and learn how to design for scale




• Collaborate with hardworking, experienced, and humble colleagues around the globe




• Present your work to a multi-disciplinary, global audience




• Stay up to date with recent literature in Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing (NLP) and share knowledge internally




• Champion initiatives to improve the quality and robustness of Zendesk AI capabilities




• Mentor junior colleagues and set a high standard for applied research at Zendesk

What you bring to the role

Required experience

• MSc degree in computer science, electrical engineering, math, or related areas




• A solid foundation in statistics and machine learning techniques




• Good programming skills in python




• Experience with at least one of the main deep learning libraries (Tensorflow, Keras, PyTorch), preferably PyTorch

Preferred requirements

• PhD degree in computer science, electrical engineering, math, or related areas.




• Knowledge and experience with Natural Language Processing (NLP) is a bonus, specifically related to generative language models and information retrieval




• Strong bonus if there is practical LLM experience including RAG, fine tuning and model pertaining,

What we offer

• Ownership of the product features implementation you work on




• What you will be doing will have a huge impact




• Team of passionate people who love what they do!




• Exciting features, ability to implement your own ideas and improvements




• Opportunity to learn and grow!




• Possibility to specialise in areas like security, performance and reliability

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

• Flexible working hours




• Professional development funds




• Comfortable office and a remote setup




• Premium Medical Insurance as well as Private Life Assurance

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.

About Zendesk - Champions of Customer Service

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. We advocate for digital first customer experiences—and we stick with it in our workplace. Over 5,000 employees worldwide.

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 [email protected] with your specific accommodation request.

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.

The US annualized base salary range for this position is $274,000.00-$410,000.00. This position may also be eligible for bonus, benefits, or related incentives. While this range reflects the minimum and maximum value for new hire salaries for the position across all US locations, the offer for the successful candidate for this position will be based on job related capabilities, applicable experience, and other factors such as work location. Please note that the compensation details listed in US role postings reflect the base salary only (or OTE for commissions based roles), and do not include bonus, benefits, or related incentives

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. We advocate for digital first customer experiences—and we stick with it in our workplace. Over 5,000 employees worldwide are collaborating from kitchen tables, home offices, coworking spaces, and Zendesk workspaces to make one team.

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 [email protected] with your specific accommodation request.