Lead Zendesk Systems Engineer

Live Nation; Manchester; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Live Nation is seeking a Lead Zendesk Systems Engineer in Manchester, hybrid role within the Global Fan Experience team. You will drive architecture, deployment, and integration of contact center platforms like Zendesk and Five9 across 100+ brands worldwide.

You will mentor engineers, own system boundaries, ensure security and resilience, optimize performance and cost, and work with cross-functional teams to align with business needs and data governance.

Qualifications

• Proven track record leading design of scalable, secure CX/CRM platforms.
• Experience configuring and leading Zendesk/Five9 based contact center environments.
• Strong collaboration across engineering, product, and operations teams.

Responsibilities

• Provide technical leadership and ownership of architecture, configuration framework, and complex changes for SaaS contact center platforms (Zendesk, Five9).
• Lead scalable, secure system design and ensure alignment with business requirements.
• Mentor engineers and drive improvements in performance, incident response, and cost optimization.
• Own deployment automation and integrations using APIs to other systems.
• Monitor availability and troubleshoot incidents, ensuring data protection and governance.
• Support and optimize contact center channels and workflows across markets.

Skills

Technical leadership

System architecture

Problem solving

Communication

Mentoring

Cross-functional teamwork

Project management

Tools

Zendesk

Five9

JIRA

Confluence

HTML/CSS/JavaScript

Python

RESTful APIs

Job description

Job Summary

JOB DESCRIPTION - Lead Zendesk Systems Engineer

Location: Manchester, United Kingdom (hybrid)

Division: Fan Support Technology

Line Manager: Melba Rodriguez

Contract Terms: Permanent, Full-time

The Team

Live Nation Entertainment is the largest live entertainment company in the world, consisting of five businesses: concert promotion and venue operations, sponsorship, ticketing solutions, ecommerce, and artist management. Live Nation seeks to innovate and enhance the live entertainment experience for artists and fans: before, during and after the show.

At Ticketmaster Fans come first. We care passionately about our fans' interaction with our service channels and as the world's leading ticketing company, we are committed to setting the standard for a great fan experience. Our technology and services help make it easier for fans to connect with their favorite events and performers.

The Job

As a Lead Systems Engineer within the Global Fan Experience team, you will be the technical leader within your team for the design, configuration, and maintenance of contact center technology platforms serving 100+ different Ticketmaster & Live Nation brands around the world. You will lead cross-functional problem-solving, mentor and guide junior engineers, and coordinate resources across multiple teams to deliver complex, multi-team initiatives. Balancing competing priorities, you will drive alignment on system-level decisions, shape medium-term technical planning, and ensure our agent workspace platforms are scalable, secure, resilient, and well integrated with the wider ecosystem - while ensuring customer data is properly managed and protected.

What You Will Be Doing

• Providing technical leadership within the team and owning the architecture, global configuration framework, reusable workflow patterns, and complex engineering changes for SaaS contact center platforms such as Zendesk and Five9. Establishing standards and guardrails for business administrators, while routine administration and local macros, views, and workflow configuration remain business-owned.
• Leading the design of scalable, performant, secure, and resilient systems and integrations - defining clear system boundaries and ensuring alignment with both business and technical requirements.
• Leading cross-functional problem-solving, coordinating resources across teams, and driving alignment on system-level decisions and trade-offs.
• Mentoring and coaching junior engineers, sharing knowledge, and raising the technical bar across the team.
• Leading improvements in system performance, incident resolution processes, and cost optimization, balancing operational efficiency with stability and proactively identifying risks.
• Owning deployment automation and modular development practices, and building and maintaining custom integrations with other systems and applications using APIs.
• Monitoring performance, ensuring availability, and leading troubleshooting and root-cause resolution of complex incidents as they arise.
• Supporting, implementing, and optimizing contact center channels and workflows across markets.
• Establishing and maintaining operating procedures, documentation, code review, and QA standards for the administration of the platforms in line with company policies and processes.
• Applying AI tools appropriately to explore data, code, and processes that accelerate delivery and decision-making, validating outputs carefully for accuracy and bias.

What You Need To Know (or Technical Skills)

• Proven years of experience managing and configuring CX/CRM and contact center platforms, including a track record of acting as a technical leader within a team.
• Proven experience leading the design of scalable, resilient, and secure systems and architectures, including defining system boundaries and planning for long-term scalability.
• Strong operational excellence background: deployment automation, monitoring, incident resolution, and cost optimization.
• Experience with multi-channel environments, including voice, email, social, chat/chatbots, and automations.
• Experience mentoring junior engineers and coordinating work across cross-functional teams.
• Strong problem-solving, analytical, and data analysis skills, with the ability to balance competing objectives and drive alignment on system-level decisions.
• Ability to lead projects and manage workload and multi-team initiatives within predefined time windows.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, and the ability to work both independently and as part of a team.
• Working familiarity with AI tools and their appropriate application, including validating outputs for accuracy and bias.
• Experience with HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Python, Microsoft 365, Google Analytics, RESTful APIs, JIRA, Confluence, Zendesk, Five9, Decagon AI or equivalent contact center technologies preferred.
• Experience with large contact centers is a plus.
• Zendesk Certification Preferred.

YOU (BEHAVIOURAL SKILLS)

Working Professionally: You set a