Senior Staff Software Engineer

Job Description

Join Zendesk and Shape the Future of IT Service Management

Zendesk is building a next-generation IT Service Management (ITSM) platform to help organizations streamline internal operations modernize IT workflows and enhance service delivery across the enterprise. As part of this initiative we are assembling a new Change Management team that will design build and evolve the change request and approval framework that drives IT process reliability and compliance.

We are looking for a Senior Staff Software Engineer to serve as the technical anchor for this team. This role offers the opportunity to define the technical vision and architecture for our change management capabilities and lead the development of highly scalable automated workflows that integrate seamlessly across the Zendesk ecosystem. If you are passionate about building impactful service management features enabling operational excellence and driving platform extensibility this is the role for you.

What Youll Do

Lead Engineering Excellence & Innovation

• Independently lead the system design development testing and deployment of high-quality efficient software solutions.

• Work across multiple teams and disciplines to architect reliable secure performant extensible and scalable solutions for enterprise customers.

• Make high-impact technical decisions and effectively communicate rationale to engineering teams and stakeholders.

• Ensure code quality maintainability and scalability adhering to best practices and industry standards.

• Contribute to the evolution of Zendesks architecture helping to modernize our custom data platform while improving extensibility and performance.

• Develop and integrate event-driven architectures ensuring real-time service execution tracking automation processing and rule-based workflow execution.

Collaborate & Deliver High-Impact Solutions

• Work closely with Product Managers Designers and Engineering Leaders to define and execute on technical strategy.

• Proactively identify and mitigate potential issues in development testing or delivery stages.

• Participate in application improvement discussions project initiatives and feature design to drive continuous enhancements.

• Build reusable components and code that improve development efficiency and consistency.

• Participate in code reviews providing constructive feedback to maintain high engineering standards.

• Own end-to-end delivery ensuring features are shipped with high quality reliability and performance.

Mentor Guide and Strengthen the Team

• Mentor pair with and train team members to foster continuous learning and growth.

• Promote a learning culture within the team ensuring equal opportunities for skill development.

• Conduct research and introduce best practices to enhance team efficiency and innovation.

• Participate in on-call rotations after an initial training period ensuring system reliability and uptime.

• Lead common agile development ceremonies contributing to process improvements.

• Show strategic forward-thinking and provide technical leadership to drive long-term success.

What Were Looking For

Required Qualifications

• 10 years of experience in backend or full-stack software engineering with expertise in enterprise-scale service request workflows structured service automation or approval-driven orchestration engines.

• 8 years of experience working with Ruby on Rails and relational databases such as MySQL/Aurora designing high-performance API-driven service management architectures.

• Strong backend expertise in Ruby on Rails with experience designing high-scale API-driven service management architectures.

• Strong expertise in JavaScript and TypeScript as well as frameworks like React and Redux.

• Experience with testing libraries such as Cypress Jest and React Testing Library.

• Deep experience working with GraphQL and REST APIs designing and implementing scalable data layers.

• Deep knowledge of data modeling for hierarchical service catalogs structured service request processing and catalog-driven workflow automation.

• Experience designing workflow orchestration engines integrating service automation approval rules and fulfillment triggers.

• Proven ability to architect design and deliver large-scale enterprise-grade software solutions.

• Strong experience with version control tools CI/CD pipelines and modern development workflows.

• Experience leading and mentoring teams of engineers while collaborating closely with Design Product and Engineering counterparts.

• Expertise in multi-tenant SaaS architecture ensuring backend scalability data integrity and structured service workflow extensibility.

• Ability to operate autonomously and drive projects forward with minimal oversight.

• Excellent problem-solving critical thinking and collaboration skills.

• Strong verbal written and interpersonal communication skills in English.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with ITSM systems or ITIL-aligned change management practices.

• Experience designing GraphQL and REST APIs from the ground up.

• Contributions to enterprise change control or automation tooling.

• Previous experience with Zendesks platform and ecosystem.

Tech Stack Youll Work With

• Backend: Ruby Ruby on Rails MySQL

• Frontend: JavaScript TypeScript React Redux GraphQL

• DevOps & Monitoring: DataDog CI/CD tools

• Cloud & Infrastructure: AWS Kubernetes (nice-to-have)

Why You Should Apply

• Make a real impact. Your work will power thousands of businesses and millions of customer interactions worldwide.

• Work with a top-tier engineering team. We solve complex problems at a global scale.

• Lead a critical initiative. Drive the modernization of Zendesks Employee Service platform.

• Grow your career. We invest in leadership development mentorship and learning opportunities.

• Enjoy flexibility. Hybrid-friendly culture with strong work-life balance.

Ready to Lead and Innovate

Wed love to hear from you. Apply now and help us shape the future of customer experience.

#LI-KM7

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 were 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 with your specific accommodation request.