Director, Leadership Development

Job Description

Welcome to the Revolution.

Zendesk doesn’t play by the old rules — and neither should you. We’re a global force rewriting the way customer and employee experiences come to life. We aren’t here to polish leadership — we’re here to ignite it. And we’re calling in a Director of Leader Development who’s got the guts to challenge legacy thinking, design for complexity, and deliver at speed.

This isn’t a job. It’s a movement.
This isn’t about competencies. It’s about capacity.
And this role? It’s mission-critical.

The Opportunity

You’ll be the architect of leadership transformation across our global ranks — not by tweaking what’s broken, but by building what doesn’t exist yet. You’ll work shoulder-to-shoulder with our CPO and executive stakeholders, rethinking leadership through the lens of velocity, adaptability, and business impact.

This isn’t theoretical. It’s visceral.
We don’t want another binder. We want a battle plan.

You will travel. You will stretch. You will be uncomfortable.
That’s how transformation works.

What You’ll Lead

Strategic Disruption & Influence

• Own the global leadership agenda. Integrate it deeply with Zendesk’s growth trajectory and organizational ambition.

• Collaborate with HRBPs and senior leaders to spot risk and opportunity — then build breakthrough solutions that shift outcomes, not just perspectives.

• Translate complexity into clarity for our Board and C-Suite. Use data to provoke action, not just inform it.

Designing What’s Next

• Imagine, design, and deploy the leadership development experiences of the future — bold, globally scalable, relentlessly human.

• Own full-cycle program execution with precision and agility. Our leaders won’t wait — and neither will you.

• Treat measurement as a leadership discipline. Test. Learn. Adapt. Scale.

• Stay on the pulse of what’s emerging — trends, feedback, disruption — and use it all as fuel.

What You Bring

• A restless mindset — you don’t just build leaders, you unleash them.

• A record of designing enterprise-wide programs in high-growth, high-complexity technology first environments.

• Strategic edge and operational depth — you can dream big and deliver.

• Data fluency — you can measure what matters and pivot with purpose.

• Gravitas and facilitation skills that hold the room and elevate the conversation.

• An adaptive leader who thrives in motion — change is your oxygen.

• Global agility — you’ve led across borders, cultures, and worldviews, and you know how to make leadership stick anywhere.

• You’ve got a suitcase and you’re not afraid to use it — travel is part of the gig.

• Hogan certified? Even better. We speak that language.

Why Now. Why You. Why Zendesk.

Leadership at Zendesk isn’t about hierarchy — it’s about velocity. We don’t want more of the same. We want a provocateur, a builder, and a truth-teller. Someone who sees the system and dares to rewire it.

This is your stage. This is your lab. This is your legacy.

Ready to disrupt what leadership means and redefine what it delivers?
Then let’s go.

The US annualized base salary range for this position is $166,000.00-$250,000.00. 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.

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 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.