Forward Deployed Engineer - AI & Solutions

ZENDESK SINGAPORE PTE. LTD.; Singapore; On-site; SGD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Zendesk Singapore PTE. LTD. is seeking a Forward Deployed Engineer to join our Technical Presales team.

You will be an elite hybrid of software engineer and strategic consultant, embedding with strategic customers to design and deliver production-grade AI solutions that unlock ROI. In this role you’ll translate customer needs into robust integrations, architect LLM-powered workflows, and collaborate across teams to turn real-world friction into product improvements.

Qualifications

• 5+ years software engineering experience delivering production systems.
• Proficient in Python and JavaScript/TypeScript; experience with a backend language (Java, Ruby, or Go) preferred.
• Hands-on experience deploying or integrating LLM-based solutions in production (RAG, vector DBs, model evaluation).
• Practical experience with cloud platforms (AWS/GCP/Azure) and containerized deployments (Docker, Kubernetes).
• Willingness to travel up to 50% as required.

Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end technical delivery of AI agent and LLM-powered solutions: discovery, scoping, system design, PoC, production rollout, and handoff.
• Build production-grade integrations and custom connectors (APIs, data pipelines, RAG systems) to surface signals into Zendesk AI workflows.
• Troubleshoot and resolve escalated blockers across data, infra, and model behavior; act as the final line of defense.
• Collaborate with Sales engineering and product teams to map systems, define integration patterns, and implement solutions.
• Translate customer learnings into product feedback and prioritized roadmap items; work with Product and Engineering to reduce deployment friction.

Skills

Founder mindset

Engineering rigor

Full-stack fluency

AI/LLM expertise

Systems integrator

Excellent communicator

Travel readiness

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

LangChain

LlamaIndex

Haystack

Job description

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.

Were hiring a Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) to join our Technical Presales team. Where youll be an elite hybrid: part software engineer, part strategic consultant. Youll do more than just sell the dream, youll execute whats possible.

In this role youll be embedded with strategic customers to design, build, and deliver production-grade AI solutions that unlock measurable ROI. Youll translate customer needs into robust integrations, architect LLM-powered workflows, and collaborate cross-functionally to turn real-world friction into product improvements.

You will play a vital role in growing Zendesks enterprise footprint by delivering high-impact, scalable AI deployments. Building trusted technical partnerships, delivering crisp, production-ready solutions, and amplifying Zendesks AI capabilities within complex, high-value accounts.

What youll be doing

• Lead end-to-end technical delivery of AI agent and LLM-powered solutions: discovery, scoping, system design, PoC, production rollout, and operational handoff.
• Build production-grade integrations and custom connectors (APIs, data pipelines, RAG systems) to surface high-quality signals into Zendesk AI workflows.
• Troubleshoot and resolve escalated technical blockers across data, infra, and model behavior. Act as the fields final line of defense for complex issues.
• Collaborate closely with Sales engineering and product teams to map undocumented systems, define integration patterns, and implement solutions.
• Translate customer learnings into product feedback and prioritized roadmap items; partner with Zendesk Product and Engineering to reduce future deployment friction.

What you bring to the role

• Founder mindset: comfortable navigating ambiguity, mapping unknown systems, and delivering results without a predefined playbook.
• Engineering rigor: 5+ years building production systems; strong software engineering fundamentals and attention to quality.
• Full-stack fluency: experience across frontend (React/TypeScript), backend (Python / Node / Java / Ruby), REST/GraphQL APIs, and cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP, or Azure).
• AI/LLM expertise: practical experience with LLMs, prompt engineering, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), vector stores, and evaluation/guardrails for model safety and reliability.
• Systems integrator: proven ability to design secure data ingestion, ETL/data pipelines, and work with diverse data stores and message systems.
• Excellent communicator: able to present trade-offs to executives and pair-program with customer engineers; strong written runbooks and documentation skills.
• Travel readiness: willing to travel as needed to customer sites (typical range 25–50%).

Basic qualifications

• 5+ years software engineering experience delivering production systems.
• Proficient in Python and JavaScript/TypeScript; experience with at least one backend language (Java, Ruby, or Go) preferred.
• Hands-on experience deploying or integrating LLM-based solutions in production (RAG, vector DBs, model evaluation).
• Practical experience with cloud platforms (AWS/GCP/Azure) and containerized deployments (Docker, Kubernetes).
• Comfortable working onsite with customers and traveling up to 50% as required.

Preferred qualifications

• Prior FDE, Professional Services, Solutions Engineering, or Technical Account Management experience delivering enterprise AI or SaaS deployments.
• Experience with specific LLM tooling and frameworks (LangChain, LlamaIndex, Haystack, or similar).
• Familiarity with Zendesk products and APIs, or experience integrating customer support/contact-center platforms.
• Background in observability and operationalization of ML/AI (monitoring, SLOs, cost controls, retraining pipelines).
• Experience with data governance, PII handling, and enterprise security/compliance constraints.