Senior Product Manager - AI Agents (Forethought) at Zendesk · San…

Senior Product Manager - AI Agents (Forethought) Location: San Francisco, California, United States of America Job Description Location: San Francisco, CA (Hybrid) At Zendesk, we believe in offering our people a fulfilling and inclusive experience. Our hybrid way of working enables us to purposefully come together in person to connect, collaborate, and learn, while also giving our people the flexibility to work remotely for part of the week. We are looking for a Senior Product Manager to own the AI agent infrastructure that powers the Forethought platform. Our customers deploy many AI Agents — each configured to handle specific user intents across chat, email, voice, and messaging. You will own the platform capabilities that make this possible: the reasoning engine, the configuration and authoring tools, the self-improvement mechanisms, and the multi-channel infrastructure. This is an individual contributor role reporting to the Group Product Manager, working alongside a dedicated engineering team and designer. What You Get To Do Drive roadmap development and prioritization for Forethought's core AI agent infrastructure — the reasoning, resolution, and self-improvement capabilities that power every AI agent deployed on the platform — within the strategic context set by the Director of Product. Drive the authoring and configuration experience that allows customers to build, customize, and deploy AI agents. This is the primary interface between customers and the platform's AI capabilities — it must be powerful for sophisticated users and accessible for new ones. Define what "quality" means for AI agent interactions — not just model accuracy, but the thoughtfulness, nuance, and polish of the total experience. Hold the bar for shipping product that enterprise customers trust. Design for multiple personas — end customers seeking help, support agents working alongside AI, operations leaders configuring agents, and executives measuring ROI — ensuring the platform delivers distinct, well-crafted experiences for each. Lead hypothesis-driven product development: identify customer problems through deep research and direct engagement, articulate clear hypotheses, and validate them — including through AI Proof of Concepts — before committing to full-scale builds. Conduct ongoing customer research and interviews to deeply understand how enterprises deploy, configure, and measure AI agents, using those insights alongside quantitative data to define the roadmap in the context of organizational initiatives. What You Bring to the Role 5+ years in B2B SaaS product management, with direct experience shipping AI/ML-powered products. Deep understanding of how language models, classification systems, and agentic architectures work — enough to have strong opinions about tradeoffs and push back on engineering when needed. Track record of defining and tracking quantitative success metrics for AI systems (not just feature delivery milestones). Strong product design sensibility — you understand that configuration UX is just as important as underlying AI capability. Demonstrated ability to design for multiple user personas with different needs, technical sophistication, and success criteria. Excellent communication skills — you can explain a model performance tradeoff to a VP and a customer in the same afternoon. Preferred Domain Knowledge Experience with agentic AI products, workflow automation, or conversational AI platforms. Experience navigating post-acquisition or large-org integration environments. Familiarity with enterprise customer support operations and the challenges of deploying AI at scale. The US annualized base salary range for this position is $182,000.00-$274,000.00. 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. 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. Zendesk believes in offering our people a fulfilling and inclusive experience. Our hybrid way of working, enables us to purposefully come together in person, at one of our many Zendesk offices around the world, to connect, collaborate and learn whilst also giving our people the flexibility to work remotely for part of the week. 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 peopleandplaces@zendesk.com with your specific accommodation request. Additional Locations: Remote, California, United States of America