Staff Machine Learning Scientist

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Job Description

The Agentic Tribe is revolutionizing the chatbot and voice assistance landscape with Gen3, a cutting‑edge AI Agent system that pushes the boundaries of conversational AI. Gen3 is not a typical chatbot; it is a goal‑oriented, dynamic, and truly conversational system capable of reasoning, planning, and adapting to user needs in real‑time. By leveraging a multi‑agent architecture and advanced language models, Gen3 delivers personalized and engaging user experiences, moving beyond scripted interactions to handle complex tasks and “off‑script” inquiries with ease.

What You Will Do (Responsibilities)

• You’ll be part of a team responsible for designing and testing novel AI solutions for real business problems.
• You’ll own the full research projects end‑to‑end from understanding business requirements to design, implementation, experimentation and reporting.
• You’ll discuss your and others ideas in the research team regularly and provide peer review for your colleagues’ work.
• You’ll keep up with the NLP and ML fields and literature and introduce new concepts discovered as potential solutions to our business problems.
• You’ll work closely with AI engineers helping them implement your designs into our production system.
• You’ll use suitable tools and technologies for rapid implementation and quick testing of your hypotheses while keeping the requirements of future production implementation in mind.
• You’ll collaborate with Product managers and other non‑technical stakeholders to discover product roadmap.

Who You Are

• Degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Statistics, Engineering, Mathematics, etc.
• Proven record of Machine Learning or NLP research, ideally in industry.
• Knowledge of building deep learning neural network architectures, ideally with focus on NLP.
• Ability to implement ideas from research literature into proof‑of‑concept models.
• Practical approach for researching machine learning solutions to business problems.
• Huge bonus if you have experience with LLMs, Prompt Engineering and AI Agent Context Management.
• Ideally have experience with conversational AI and voice technologies, including text‑to‑speech (TTS) and speech‑to‑speech (STS).
• A positive, pro‑active team player who is passionate about their craft, is keen to take part in product discussions and cares about helping the team deliver.
• Great communication skill and fluency in English.

How We Measure Success

• How well your work aligns with the overall product roadmap and strategic goals.
• Effectiveness in collaborating with product managers, engineers, designers, and other stakeholders.
• Discovery and Ideation – ability to identify new opportunities within the product area, prioritize them and champion these ideas.

The Interview Process

• Initial Call with Talent Team – 15 min.
• Interview with one member of the Hiring Team – 45 min.
• Take‑home technical/research challenge.
• Technical interview with two scientists – 1 hour.
• Final interview with 2 of the following: CTO or Engineering Manager/Director – 45 min.

About Zendesk

Zendesk builds software for better customer relationships. It empowers organizations to improve customer engagement and better understand their customers. Zendesk products are easy to use and implement. They give organizations the flexibility to move quickly, focus on innovation, and scale with their growth.

More than 100,000 paid customer accounts in over 150 countries and territories use Zendesk products. Based in San Francisco, Zendesk has operations in the United States, Europe, Asia, Australia, and South America.

Zendesk is an equal opportunity employer, and we’re proud of our ongoing efforts to foster diversity & inclusion in the workplace. Individuals seeking employment 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, physical or mental disability, military or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

Hybrid Work Model

This role is hybrid. The 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.

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement

By submitting your application, you agree that Zendesk may collect your personal data for recruiting, global organization planning, and related purposes. Zendesk's Candidate Privacy Notice explains what personal information Zendesk may process, where Zendesk may process your personal information, its purposes for processing your personal information, and the rights you can exercise over Zendesk’s use of your personal information.

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 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 with your specific accommodation request.

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