Senior Manager, AI Data Engineering

Zendesk

Dublin, Krakow or Lisbon

Who we’re looking for:

We’re seeking a Senior Manager, AI Data Engineering to lead this mission by guiding a team of data engineers who design, deploy, and maintain robust OLAP data models built on Snowflake. In this role, you will ensure the creation of best-in-class, foundational AI datasets curated for internal research and customer-facing reporting. By championing a high quality, comprehensive AI Product data model, you will help solidify Zendesk’s position as an AI-first, data-centric organization, empowering us to deliver exceptional customer experiences rooted in cutting-edge analytics.

What you’ll be doing:

Manage, mentor and grow a team of 4-5 Data Engineers, promoting best practices with DBT/Snowflake data modelling and pipeline development.
Own team outcomes, ensuring delivered solutions are robust, scalable and have appropriate monitoring and operational support.
Own, develop and maintain the AI data models for internal analytics and customer-facing reporting.
Assess data system health and data quality, identifying key areas for investment.
Participate in product and engineering roadmap development and identify key areas for innovation and improvement, and incorporate these into ongoing & future development initiatives
Build and manage relationships with a broad set of cross functional stakeholders including product managers, software engineers, data platform engineers, scientists, data governance and more.

What you bring to the role:

Basic Qualifications:

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science/Information Systems or related field.
10+ years technical work experience
3+ years prior experience in a technology management capacity
Experience leading efforts in designing, building and maintaining data pipelines
Strong understanding of relational database design and proficiency utilizing tools such as Snowflake, PostgreSQL, Aurora or similar
Experience designing scalable OLAP data models - proficiency in dimensional modeling and star/snowflake schema design to optimize reporting and analytics performance.
Experience managing and deploying code using a source control product such as GitHub
Strong proficiency in Python, SQL, DBT and other data engineering technologies. Hands-on experience with cloud platforms (AWS preferred), big data tools (e.g. Spark, Hadoop), and distributed systems.
Proven experience in performance testing, capacity planning, and cost optimization for large-scale, complex data pipelines and systems. This includes identifying bottlenecks, ensuring scalability, and minimizing operational costs in cloud-based data environments.
Ability to work cross-functionally with product teams, data scientists, software engineers, and business leaders. Strong communicator, able to explain technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders.
Familiarity with data governance principles and best practices, including data quality, data lineage, and security standards.
Excellent communication and collaboration skills.