Location: San Francisco, California, United States of America | Remote, Washington, United States of America | Austin, Texas, United States of America | Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America

Requisition ID: R34137

Position_Type: Full time

Job DescriptionDirector of Product Management, Zendesk Platform Security

Join us at Zendesk, where we're on a mission to power exceptional service for every person on the planet. We're accelerating that ambition by building products rooted in AI, automation, and intelligent customer experiences, because behind every interaction lies an opportunity to make a human connection.

We’re seeking a seasoned Director of Product Management to lead Platform Security efforts across Zendesk’s Platform — including MCP Server, A2A flows, APIs, Actions, and other endpoints we expose as tools for AI Agentic actions. In this role, you’ll define and drive a bold, practical security roadmap that embeds the latest protocols (FAPI 2.0, mTLS, fine‑grained OAuth scopes, PKI/cryptographic controls), Zero Trust principles, and ML/AI‑powered detection into our platform — delivering enterprise‑grade security, observability, and controls that our customers can trust.

You will play a vital role in partnering closely with the Chief Trust & Security Officer’s organization, cross‑functional engineering teams, and product leaders to turn strategy into shipped features and measurable outcomes.

Role Snapshot

• Job title: Director, Product Management — Platform Security

• Team: Zendesk Platform org (collaborates closely with Chief Trust & Security Officer’s org)

• Why this role matters: Secure, observable, and trustworthy APIs and agentic integrations are foundational for Zendesk’s AI roadmap and enterprise adoption. You’ll be responsible for taking Platform security from strategic vision to production delivery at scale.

What you’ll be doing

• Own the product strategy and roadmap for Product Security across Zendesk Platform and the extended ecosystem, prioritizing features that enable safe AI agentic actions and enterprise adoption.

• Draft detailed technical PRDs for complex security primitives, including FAPI 2.0 implementation, mTLS handshakes, and PKI lifecycles. You won't just 'oversee' these specs; you will be the primary author of the security product logic.

• Lead product design and delivery for ML/AI‑powered security detection, runtime anomaly detection, threat telemetry, and integrations with SIEM/EDR/observability stacks.

• Define the security boundary for AI Agents. You will determine how we safely delegate authority to automated agents through fine-grained scopes, ensuring that 'Agentic' doesn't mean 'Uncontrolled'.

• Partner with the Chief Trust & Security Officer’s organization, Security Engineering, Privacy, Legal, and platform engineering to run threat modeling, security reviews, and ensure compliance and auditability for new capabilities.

• Launch enterprise‑grade controls and monitoring: robust authentication/authorization, fine‑grained RBAC/ABAC, audit trails, telemetry, incident playbooks, and customer configuration/visibility.

• Drive stakeholder alignment and product adoption: work with GTM (sales, technical docs, solutions, customer success) to create messaging, technical enablement, and customer pilots for security features.

• Measure success: define KPIs (security incidents, MTTR, adoption of controls, compliance posture) and iterate quickly to meet enterprise requirements.

• Guide other product talent; ensure high‑quality delivery with rapid cadence while balancing security rigor and developer experience.

What you bring to the role

• 8+ years of product management experience, at least 4+ years focused on platform security, identity, API security, or related security products in a SaaS and recently in the modern AI environment.

• Deep working knowledge of modern security protocols and standards (FAPI 2.0, OAuth2/OpenID Connect, fine‑grained scopes, mTLS), strong understanding of modern cryptographic controls and PKI.

• Practical experience designing Zero Trust architectures, MCP and A2A authentication flows, API gateway protection, and secure agenting/tooling patterns for Agentic AI.

• Proven experience building or shipping ML/AI‑driven security detection/response capabilities (threat detection, anomaly detection, behavioral analytics).

• Demonstrated ability to translate complex security requirements into product requirements, run threat models, and deliver production features with engineering and security teams.

• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills — experience aligning senior security execs and cross‑functional teams to deliver against tight timelines.

• Comfortable in a fast‑moving SaaS & AI environment and motivated to deliver enterprise‑grade solutions at scale.

Basic qualifications

• 8+ years product management experience with 4+ years focused on platform or product security, identity, or API security (or equivalent experience).

• Experience delivering enterprise security capabilities and working with security engineering and trust orgs to achieve production deployments.

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience. (Advanced degree preferred.)

Preferred qualifications

• Direct experience implementing or productizing FAPI 2.0, mTLS, fine‑grained OAuth scopes, PKI/key management, or similar high‑assurance standards in production.

• Ability to read and interpret API documentation, sequence diagrams, and architectural schemas. You should be comfortable discussing the nuances of a JWT vs. an OAuth token with a Senior Principal Engineer.

• Hands‑on with Zero Trust implementations and secure MCP and A2A patterns for microservices and agentic tools.

• Track record building ML‑driven detection, telemetry, SIEM, or incident response workflows.

• Experience working at companies building platform APIs used by third‑party agents or toolchains, and familiarity with the security implications of exposing agentic/automated actions to external tooling.

• Experience performing (or leading) threat modeling sessions (STRIDE/PASTA) for complex distributed systems.

• Prior experience working with security/compliance frameworks (SOC 2, ISO 27001, FedRAMP) and supporting audits is a plus.

The US annualized base salary range for this position is $250,000.00-$374,000.00. 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.

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 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 peopleandplaces@zendesk.com with your specific accommodation request.