Strategic Account Director

Job Description

Strategic Account Director | Zendesk

The Tone:
This is a hybrid role at Zendesk, enabling individuals to connect and collaborate in global offices while also working remotely. Zendesk builds products rooted in AI, automation, and intelligent customer experiences to power exceptional service. This role is crucial for winning new business with large enterprises, growing the customer base, and fostering human connections through advanced service solutions.

The TL;DR
• Role: Full Time
• Type: Full-time
• Location: Hybrid – Global

• Mission: Win new business with large enterprises by connecting their priorities to Zendesk’s service and AI solutions.

What You’ll Actually Do
• Pipeline Management: Build and manage qualified pipeline through targeted prospecting, inbound opportunities, and territory planning.
• Sales Leadership: Lead complex sales processes from initial discovery and qualification through business case development, negotiation, and close.
• Relationship Building: Cultivate trusted relationships across executive, business, technical, finance, security, and procurement teams within client organizations.
• Deal Strategy: Own pursuit strategy, deal progression, and commercial decisions within approved guidelines.
• Collaborative Execution: Bring together Solution Engineers, Product Specialists, Marketing, SDR/BDR teams, partners, and leaders to advance opportunities.

The Must-Haves
• Background: Director-level experience in complex B2B SaaS sales, focused on enterprise accounts and AI/automation solutions.
• Experience: Typically 12+ years of related experience with demonstrated success in complex B2B SaaS sales, including owning new-business opportunities and delivering measurable commercial outcomes like quota attainment or new ARR. Experience includes prospecting, value-based discovery, executive engagement, and complex deal ownership.
• Skills: A strong new-business mindset with disciplined prospecting, consultative discovery for uncovering business problems, commercial judgment for managing deal economics and negotiation, clear communication of platform and AI value, and a collaborative approach to leading cross-functional teams.
• Bonus: Repeated success closing large, complex net-new enterprise deals; strength in ROI storytelling and competitive positioning; experience partnering with channel or ecosystem partners; familiarity with service operations, customer experience, or AI-enabled business transformation; and AI literacy for discussing customer outcomes, adoption, security, and implementation readiness.