Job Details

Overview

Zendesk's Digital CX team is building the future of how customers connect, learn, and grow with Zendesk — and our global community is at the center of that mission. With thousands of active users, our community is where customers, partners, and prospects exchange knowledge, share best practices, and shape the future of customer experience.

What You'll Do

We're looking for a strategic, customer-obsessed Senior Manager of Community Programs to take ownership of our most important community initiatives. This role offers the chance to shape a large-scale, global community function, work directly with senior leaders across Product, Marketing, and CX, and showcase Zendesk's innovation in customer engagement. It's a high-visibility, business-critical role with measurable impact on retention, growth, advocacy, and value realization.

• Lead with vision. Own and scale Zendesk's global community strategy, ensuring our programs directly contribute to company priorities around retention, adoption, advocacy, and growth.
• Build our Super User movement. Establish and operationalize a global Super User program that recognizes, nurtures, and empowers top contributors — turning expertise into advocacy and impact.
• Shape the roadmap. Define and manage the Community team's roadmap, aligning with Digital CX and enterprise-wide goals. Share regular readouts with executive stakeholders to highlight impact and insights.
• Elevate programs. Provide oversight for community programming, including: Online forums and user groups; Global community events and meetups; Product feedback and ideation channels; Content, recognition, and advocacy initiatives.
• Lead a high-performing team. Develop and mentor a team of Community specialists and engagement managers. Create career pathways, competency models, and clear measures of success.
• Drive cross-functional collaboration. Partner with Product, Marketing, CX, and Social teams to amplify community voices, surface customer insights, and integrate community into broader company motions.
• Innovate continuously. Modernize community methodology, with a sharp eye on how AI and digital innovation are reshaping peer-to-peer engagement.
• Prove impact. Measure engagement, health, and business impact of community programs. Use insights to influence strategy and keep Zendesk at the forefront of digital-first customer experience.

What You Bring

• Strategic leadership: 5+ years in senior Community roles, ideally in B2B SaaS, with a track record of scaling programs globally.
• People leadership: 3+ years leading teams, including remote and distributed teams.
• Cross-functional influence: Proven ability to partner with Product, Marketing, and CX, and to communicate insights up to senior executives.
• Operational rigor: Experience building roadmaps, driving disciplined execution, and measuring outcomes through clear KPIs.
• Customer-first mindset: Passion for building meaningful digital experiences and amplifying customer voices.
• Excellent communicator: Skilled at tailoring messaging across audiences — from executives to community members.
• Adaptability: Comfort navigating multiple projects, shifting priorities, and a fast-paced, global environment.

The US annualized base salary range for this position is $134,000.00-$202,000.00. 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.

Zendesk is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to fairness and transparency. We encourage applicants from all backgrounds and do not discriminate on 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.

For accommodations, please contact ...@zendesk.com.