Sr. Operations Manager

Zendesk; Madison (WI); Hybrid; USD 174,000 - 262,000; Full time

Job summary

Zendesk is seeking a Senior Operations Manager for Product Development Operations in the US. The role focuses on strengthening planning, execution, and delivery rigor across cross-functional teams to deliver customer value with clarity and predictability.

You will drive scalable, AI-first processes in a SaaS environment, lead Scrum-based delivery, and collaborate with Product, Engineering, and Design to build repeatable operating rhythms and metrics that reduce toil and improve speed.

Qualifications

• 7+ years in Product Development Operations or similar in a SaaS company.
• Experience supporting product development life cycles across Product, Engineering, and Design.
• Demonstrated success leading quarterly and annual planning, including roadmap operationalization.
• Strong working knowledge of Scrum and agile delivery practices.
• Experience using Jira to manage and track work with adoption and operational hygiene.
• Strong critical thinking and problem-solving skills with ability to turn ambiguity into structured plans.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management with influence without authority.

Responsibilities

• Partner with Product, Engineering, and Design leaders to improve end-to-end product delivery operations.
• Support roadmap and portfolio execution by establishing clear operating mechanisms for prioritization, sequencing, dependency management, and progress visibility.
• Drive quarterly and annual planning processes, translating strategy into achievable plans and measurable outcomes.
• Improve cross-team ways of working by reinforcing Scrum practices while adapting to team maturity.
• Identify operational friction and implement AI-first process improvements that reduce ambiguity and shorten feedback loops.
• Define and socialize lightweight delivery health metrics and reporting mechanisms to support decision-making.
• Use Jira to support consistent execution and collaborate with tooling owners to improve configurations and usage patterns.
• Facilitate alignment across cross-functional stakeholders with shared understanding of scope, timelines, risks, and dependencies.
• Create documentation, templates, and playbooks to enable consistency and scale.

Skills

Jira

Scrum

Cross-functional

Roadmap planning

Stakeholder mgmt

Tools

Jira Advanced Roadmaps

Job description

Job Description

About us

We are looking for a Senior Operations Manager to support the Product Development Operations team. You will work cross‑functionally to strengthen operational rigor across Product Development—improving planning, execution, and ways of working so teams can deliver customer value with greater clarity, predictability, and impact. The Product Development Operations team at Zendesk enables the Product Development org to accelerate the value they deliver and help employees do their best work. In this role, you will bring strong operations and process design experience in a SaaS environment, a practical understanding of product development life cycles, and the ability to guide teams toward effective Scrum‑based execution. While experience with Jira is required, the cornerstone of the role is building scalable, AI‑first operational mechanisms that improve how teams plan and deliver.

You will be a critical thinker and problem solver who can identify friction, simplify complexity, and implement solutions that scale—from planning and roadmap operating rhythms to day‑to‑day operational excellence. A key part of this role is leveraging AI thoughtfully and pragmatically to improve processes and reduce operational toil. You will help teams adopt AI‑enabled workflows (including concepts like multi‑agent orchestration) to automate repetitive work, improve decision support, and increase the quality and speed of operational execution.

What You’ll Do

• Partner with Product, Engineering, and Design leaders to improve end‑to‑end product delivery operations, including planning, execution, and delivery tracking.
• Support roadmap and portfolio execution by establishing clear operating mechanisms for prioritization, sequencing, dependency management, and progress visibility.
• Drive quarterly and annual planning processes, improving how teams translate strategy into achievable plans, milestones, and measurable outcomes.
• Improve ways of working across teams by reinforcing effective Scrum practices (e.g., sprint planning, backlog health, retrospectives, iteration goals) while adapting approach to team maturity and context.
• Identify operational friction and implement AI‑first process improvements that reduce ambiguity, shorten feedback loops, and increase delivery predictability.
• Define and socialize a lightweight set of delivery health metrics and reporting mechanisms that support decision‑making without creating overhead.
• Use Jira to support consistent execution (e.g., clean intake, clear work definitions, reporting views), and partner with tooling owners/admins as needed to improve configurations and usage patterns.
• Facilitate alignment across cross‑functional stakeholders, ensuring teams have shared understanding of scope, timelines, risks, and dependencies.
• Create documentation, templates, and playbooks that enable consistency and scale across the Product Development organization.

What You Bring To The Role

Basic Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience in Product Development Operations or similar roles within a SaaS company.
• Experience supporting product development life cycles and cross‑functional delivery across Product, Engineering, and Design.
• Demonstrated success leading quarterly and annual planning processes, including roadmap operationalization and execution tracking.
• Strong working knowledge of Scrum and agile delivery practices, with the ability to coach or guide teams toward pragmatic, effective execution.
• Required: Experience using Jira to manage and track work (boards, backlogs, workflows, reporting), with the ability to drive consistent adoption and operational hygiene.
• Strong critical thinking and problem‑solving skills, with a track record of turning ambiguous problems into structured plans and scalable processes.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, including the ability to influence without authority.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience operating in scaled delivery environments (multiple teams, shared platforms, cross‑team dependencies).
• Familiarity with portfolio and roadmap tooling (e.g., Jira Advanced Roadmaps) and methods for balancing capacity, investment themes, and delivery risk.
• Experience designing operating rhythms and templates that increase visibility while minimizing process burden.
• Exposure to automation and/or AI‑enabled workflows that reduce operational toil (e.g., status reporting, request triage, documentation support).

The US annualized base salary range for this position is $174,000.00-$262,000.00. 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.

Hybrid: In this role, our hybrid experience is designed at the team level to give you a rich onsite experience packed with connection, collaboration, learning, and celebration - while also giving you flexibility to work remotely for part of the week. This role must attend our local office for part of the week. The specific in‑office schedule is to be determined by the hiring manager.

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 [e-mail] with your specific accommodation request.