Director, Process Innovation and AI Strategy (Finance)

Job Description

Director Process Innovation and AI Strategy (Finance)

Zendesk is seeking an individual to lead a high-impact transformation agenda across the CFO orgoptimizing end-to-end processes scaling automation (including AI) and elevating service quality and control. You will own the strategy roadmap and delivery of transformation excellence for all CFO org functionspartnering closely with respective SMEs shared services teams IT/Business Systems and cross-functional leaders. This role works directly with the Executive Steering Committee to align priorities govern risk and deliver measurable value.

This is a career defining opportunity where this role will foster ideation AI exploration and drive real transformation across the CFO org.

Key Responsibilities:

Transformation Strategy & Roadmap

• Design execute and deliver an enterprise finance optimization and automation strategy to drive significant time savings and improved output quality.

• Define multi-year roadmaps aligned to Executive Finance priorities OKRs and cost-to-serve targets; report progress to the Executive Steering Committee.

• Define and instrument KPIs/SLAs (e.g. DSO close cycle time CSAT tNPS first-pass yield cost-to-serve); deliver executive-ready dashboards.

• Utilize Gartner and external consultants to set benchmarks and deliver best-in-class capabilities.

End-to-End Process Optimization

• Influence and partner with team SMEs to simplify processes reduce handoffs consolidate systems and standardize global policies playbooks and controls.

AI & Automation Enablement Culture

• Lead a portfolio spanning RPA workflow/orchestration iPaaS and AI/LLM use cases (e.g. intelligent triage classification forecasting anomaly detection).

• Create an AI culture for Finance via training governance and reusable patterns; incubate and scale high-ROI use cases.

• Collaborate with IT Engineering and Business Transformation on architecture integrations and scalable delivery.

• Develop skills of the future across Finance (analytics automation AI literacy continuous improvement).

• Lean into SMEs and process owners to co-design solutions and deliver global results.

Stakeholder & Cross-Functional Partnership

• Partner with key SMEs and teams: Procurement Collections Shared Services Finance & Strategy Strategic Finance Controllership Revenue Recognition Accounting Revenue Operations Finance Operations.

• Influence tooling and vendor decisions to maximize delivery velocity interoperability and cost efficiency.

Position Skills & Requirements:

Experience

• 12 years in Finance transformation/process excellence within SaaS or technology; 3 years leading cross-functional initiatives at Director level or equivalent.

• Deep domain expertise across O2C P2P R2R and FP&A; experience in a global shared services environment and partnering with regional teams.

Technical & Tools

• Hands-on with process mapping/redesign (e.g. BPMN) operating model design and service management.

• Familiarity with ERP (e.g. NetSuite) Billing (e.g. Zuora) CRM (Salesforce) CX (Zendesk) HCM (Workday) Procurement (Coupa) iPaaS (e.g. Workato/MuleSoft) RPA (e.g. UiPath/Automation Anywhere) and analytics (Looker/Tableau/Power BI; Snowflake/SQL a plus).

• Robust understanding of AI/ML and LLM-enabled tools; able to evaluate vendors pilot use cases and scale adoption responsibly.

• Lean/Six Sigma certification (Black Belt preferred) with a record of measurable improvements.

• Strong change management and Agile delivery experience; SOX and audit-ready design expertise.

Leadership & Influence

• Executive presence with exceptional communication; simplifies complexity aligns stakeholders and drives decisions.

• Demonstrated success fostering a culture of AI automation and continuous improvement.

Expected Outputs & Success Measures:

Strategy:

• Build and lead a top-level strategic plan for finance process optimization transformation and automation across the entire Finance organization.

• Bridge strategy through in-process SMEs across functional areas to foster a bottom-up culture of AI and automation.

• Continuously assess best-in-class practices and market offerings; bring high-ROI capabilities into Zendesk with an outcomes-first lens.

• Sequence near-term wins and long-term platform investments; set realistic but ambitious targets and publish transparent progress.

Value Delivery & Productivity

• Deliver immediate value with 25000 FTE hours of savings through AI automation Zendesk products process improvements or other means.

• Repurpose capacity toward higher-value more complex projects that accelerate growth and improve quality.

Roadmap & Culture

• Publish near-term and long-term roadmaps for Finance automation and productivity initiatives with clear deliverables owners and timelines.

• Establish a visible AI culture at all levels of Finance evidenced by adoption training completion and measurable outcomes.

• Influence enterprise tools and vendor selections to ensure maximum delivery interoperability and cost efficiencies.

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 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.