Job Description

Who we're looking for

Zendesk is looking for a motivated Machine Learning Science Manager to join our ML organization.

Zendesk’s people have one goal in mind: to make Customer Experience better. Our products help more than 125,000 global brands (AirBnb, Uber, JetBrains, Slack, among others) make their billions of customers happy, every day.

Our team is responsible for helping Customer Experience teams to achieve their best, by solving repetitive work, so they can shift their focus to solving more sophisticated problems. We use the latest trends in AI algorithms to help us on that mission, and we're passionate about empowering our customers.

As a Data & Analytics Manager, you will be responsible for expanding and leading a distributed team of data annotators, fostering healthy relationships, collaboration and engagement, while overseeing the development of AI capabilities. Your role will also involve mentoring and coaching team members, conducting performance evaluations, and identifying opportunities for process improvements and innovation. The ideal candidate has a keen analytical mind, problem-solving skills and an understanding of machine learning. The successful candidate will supervise and manage our team of data annotators and ensure that all ML models are trained with the highest quality data as possible.

What you’ll be doing

• Lead the recruitment, health, engagement and development of your teams. You will have regular, open, action-orientated 1:1s with your reports and set goals that will bring them to the next level and further their careers.

• Supervise and lead our team of Data Annotators to ensure that data is annotated accurately and efficiently so it can be used to train machine learning models.

• Create, update, and maintain guidelines and processes for data annotators, ensuring these are understood and followed.

• Manage the daily operations of the data annotation process and guarantee that data is handled properly in line with data protection regulations

• Periodically audit annotated data to identify errors and inefficiencies and devise strategies to improve label accuracy.

• Collaborate with other teams and other functional areas, including product management, data science and engineering, to understand business requirements and translate them into technical solutions.

• Manage and help prioritize the team’s work to ensure timely delivery of high-quality solutions that meet business requirements.

• Continuously evaluate annotation processes to identify opportunities for improvement.

• Develop concise and clear reports on data annotation projects’ progress and quality for stakeholders and upper management.

• Develop data analysis to evaluate the impact of annotations in downstream talks and adjust annotation strategy accordingly

• Mentor and coach team members to develop their skills and capabilities and encourage continuous learning .

What you bring to the role

Required experience:

• Proven past experience in managing data annotation teams.

• Minimum 3 years' experience in data analysis or data annotation management.

• Experience or desire in building a team, managing its morale, developing hiring strategies and the career aspiration of the members

• Ability to lead the discovery of solutions, leveraging the expertise of the team members and peers to look for the optimal path.

• The energy and drive to move discussions/projects forward, exhibiting a balanced appetite for risks and the courage to make decisions.

• Keen attention to detail with a focus on data accuracy and quality.

• Experience with quality assurance processes related to data.

• Good communication and interpersonal skills, being able to collaborate effectively with cross-functional teams.

• Track record of coaching/mentoring individual contributors, as well as crafting a culture and team valuing diversity and inclusion.

• Familiarity with Agile methodologies and development practices.

Preferred requirements:

• Proven history of leading large scale annotation projects

• Proven track record of leading, developing, and growing a team within a fast-paced environment.

• Experience with globally distributed teams

• Strong background in machine learning methodologies, terminology and data annotation tools.

• Deep understanding of complex data structures and databases, along with demonstrated experience in data manipulation.

• Proficiency in programming languages commonly used in data science such as Python

• Experience working in the customer support or service industry.

• Experience with natural language processing (NLP).

Our stack

• Our codebase is mainly written in Python and Spark;

• Our annotation tools are Amazon SageMaker Ground Truth and Label Studio.

• Our servers live in AWS.

• Our models are developed in PyTorch;

• Our data is stored in S3, RDS MySQL, Redis, ElasticSearch, and Aurora.

The intelligent heart of customer experience
Zendesk software was built to bring a sense of calm to the chaotic world of customer service. Today we power billions of conversations with brands you know and love. We advocate for digital first customer experiences—and we stick with it in our workplace. Over 5,000 employees worldwide are collaborating from kitchen tables, home offices, coworking spaces, and Zendesk workspaces to make one team.

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 peopleandplaces@zendesk.com with your specific accommodation request.