Senior Staff Ruby Software Engineer

Join Zendesk and Shape the Future of IT Service Management

Zendesk is building a next-generation IT Service Management (ITSM) platform to help organizations streamline internal operations, modernize IT workflows, and enhance service delivery across the enterprise. As part of this initiative, we are assembling a new Change Management team that will design, build, and evolve the change request and approval framework that drives IT process reliability and compliance.

We are looking for a Senior Staff Software Engineer to serve as the technical anchor for this team. This role offers the opportunity to define the technical vision and architecture for our change management capabilities and lead the development of highly scalable, automated workflows that integrate seamlessly across the Zendesk ecosystem. If you are passionate about building impactful service management features, enabling operational excellence, and driving platform extensibility, this is the role for you.

What You’ll Do

Lead Engineering Excellence & Innovation

• Independently lead the system design, development, testing, and deployment of high-quality, efficient software solutions.

• Work across multiple teams and disciplines to architect reliable, secure, performant, extensible, and scalable solutions for enterprise customers.

• Make high-impact technical decisions and effectively communicate rationale to engineering teams and stakeholders.

• Ensure code quality, maintainability, and scalability, adhering to best practices and industry standards.

• Contribute to the evolution of Zendesk’s architecture, helping to modernize our custom data platform while improving extensibility and performance.

• Develop and integrate event-driven architectures, ensuring real-time service execution tracking, automation processing, and rule-based workflow execution.

Collaborate & Deliver High-Impact Solutions

• Work closely with Product Managers, Designers, and Engineering Leaders to define and execute on technical strategy.

• Proactively identify and mitigate potential issues in development, testing, or delivery stages.

• Participate in application improvement discussions, project initiatives, and feature design to drive continuous enhancements.

• Build reusable components and code that improve development efficiency and consistency.

• Participate in code reviews, providing constructive feedback to maintain high engineering standards.

• Own end-to-end delivery, ensuring features are shipped with high quality, reliability, and performance.

Mentor, Guide, and Strengthen the Team

• Mentor, pair with, and train team members to foster continuous learning and growth.

• Promote a learning culture within the team, ensuring equal opportunities for skill development.

• Conduct research and introduce best practices to enhance team efficiency and innovation.

• Participate in on-call rotations after an initial training period, ensuring system reliability and uptime.

• Lead common agile development ceremonies, contributing to process improvements.

• Show strategic forward-thinking and provide technical leadership to drive long-term success.

What We’re Looking For

Required Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in backend or full-stack software engineering, with expertise in enterprise-scale service request workflows, structured service automation, or approval-driven orchestration engines.

• 8+ years of experience working with Ruby on Rails and relational databases such as MySQL/Aurora designing high-performance, API-driven service management architectures.

• Strong backend expertise in Ruby on Rails, with experience designing high-scale API-driven service management architectures.

• Strong expertise in JavaScript and TypeScript, as well as frameworks like React and Redux.

• Experience with testing libraries such as Cypress, Jest, and React Testing Library.

• Deep experience working with GraphQL and REST APIs, designing and implementing scalable data layers.

• Deep knowledge of data modeling for hierarchical service catalogs, structured service request processing, and catalog-driven workflow automation.

• Experience designing workflow orchestration engines, integrating service automation, approval rules, and fulfillment triggers.

• Proven ability to architect, design, and deliver large-scale, enterprise-grade software solutions.

• Strong experience with version control tools, CI/CD pipelines, and modern development workflows.

• Experience leading and mentoring teams of engineers while collaborating closely with Design, Product, and Engineering counterparts.

• Expertise in multi-tenant SaaS architecture, ensuring backend scalability, data integrity, and structured service workflow extensibility.

• Ability to operate autonomously and drive projects forward with minimal oversight.

• Excellent problem-solving, critical thinking, and collaboration skills.

• Strong verbal, written, and interpersonal communication skills in English.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with ITSM systems or ITIL-aligned change management practices.

• Experience designing GraphQL and REST APIs from the ground up.

• Contributions to enterprise change control or automation tooling.

• Previous experience with Zendesk’s platform and ecosystem.

Tech Stack You’ll Work With

• Backend: Ruby, Ruby on Rails, MySQL

• Frontend: JavaScript, TypeScript, React, Redux, GraphQL

• DevOps & Monitoring: DataDog, CI/CD tools

• Cloud & Infrastructure: AWS, Kubernetes (nice-to-have)

Why You Should Apply

• Make a real impact. Your work will power thousands of businesses and millions of customer interactions worldwide.

• Work with a top-tier engineering team. We solve complex problems at a global scale.

• Lead a critical initiative. Drive the modernization of Zendesk’s Employee Service platform.

• Grow your career. We invest in leadership development, mentorship, and learning opportunities.

• Enjoy flexibility. Hybrid-friendly culture with strong work-life balance.

Ready to Lead and Innovate?

We’d love to hear from you. Apply now and help us shape the future of customer experience.