Senior Manager, Corporate Strategy & Development

Job Description

What you'll be doing
Our team takes on the challenge of acquiring and integrating companies into Zendesk. We want you to bring your unique strengths to the role and to be willing to build out the skills needed to become a well-rounded corporate development executive. In corporate development, we do a lot of things...

• Work with product teams to understand their strategies, what they're trying to achieve and how acquisitions can help them accelerate and expand the scope of their ambitions.

• Work with GTM teams to understand how our customers become markets and how we can best equip our teams to help our customers meet their goals

• Work with all of the cross-functional teams to understand how an acquired team becomes part of the Zendesk family

• Work with the finance team to translate all of this into dollars and sense.

• Work across the entire corporate development lifecycle to: help define market opportunities; identify companies to acquire; lead deal teams; build business cases; present to our board and executive team and stand up to their scrutiny; advocate for the right decisions; run diligence and negotiations; and prepare the incoming team to succeed and thrive as part of Zendesk. It sounds hard. It is hard, but you can do it. We'll help you.

What you'll bring to the role
If you're applying for this job, you probably have corp dev experience or at least aspirations and some experience that could help you succeed in the role. Experience matters, but we're open to people who have never been in corp dev before. We're open to people who have corp dev or banking/finance experience who've never worked inside a software company. We're open to software people who think they'd be good at corp dev, having seen it succeed and fail. We’re open to strategy people who’ve done more than create slides. Experience matters, but intelligence, humility, hard work and intellectual curiosity matter more. That said, things we'll be looking for...

• Previous experience in corporate development, either in-house or on the advisory side

• Experience building financial models and working with finance to help communicate and fine-tune an acquisition business case

• Software industry experience. Bonus points for SaaS. Extra bonus points for experience in our core or adjacent markets.

• Deal-team relevant skills. We're open to refugees from the legal, financial, integration and program management disciplines.

• Strategic planning. If you can convince us that you're actually good at strategic planning, that's a plus.

• Relevant track record. Be prepared to explain why and how you've been successful - and what you've learned from the mistakes you've made. If you haven't made any mistakes, don't bother applying.

• Proof that you can collaborate, manage conflict and represent our team well within the organization. If you're just a great analyst, that's probably not going to cut it.

• Intellectual curiosity. It bears repeating that you need to be interested in what we're trying to do here. It's a pretty great mission, and you can feel good about being part of it.

• Good old fashioned people skills. It's hard to be great at everything. You need to be analytical to get this job. But M&A is as also about recruiting, communicating and building trust with people.

• Valid passport. We're a global team and a global company. We log a lot of Zoom hours, but we also get on planes to meet each other, our customers, our product teams, and to meet with the companies interested in joining Zendesk.

• You probably have a college degree of some kind, and you have been working long enough to build some of the skills we've listed above.

• If you have experience working in markets outside the US, can speak languages other than English, that's a plus.

If you think this is right opportunity for you, please apply. I hope to speak to you soon

Where We Work
Zendesk is not your average tech company. We have all the stuff you’d expect - competitive pay, benefits, appealing offices, snacks, and more. We also have a culture deeply dedicated to enabling conversations and providing appreciative support. We help our staff keep work-life balance, from flexible hours to remote work, to the most dynamic parental leave plans on the market. Our Social Impact team is actively engaged in our community and enables us to invest thousands of hours with local community groups each year. We invest in diversity and inclusion so that our team reflects the diversity of the world around us. We have a whole crew dedicated to ensuring our workplace experience is top notch and welcoming for all.

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.

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.