Job Description

Director, Process Innovation and AI Strategy (Finance)

Zendesk is seeking an individual to lead a high-impact transformation agenda across the CFO org—optimizing end-to-end processes, scaling automation (including AI), and elevating service quality and control. You will own the strategy, roadmap, and delivery of transformation excellence for all CFO org functions—partnering closely with respective SME’s, shared services teams, IT/Business Systems and cross-functional leaders. This role works directly with the Executive Steering Committee to align priorities, govern risk, and deliver measurable value.

This is a career defining opportunity where this role will foster ideation, AI exploration and drive real transformation across the CFO org.

Key Responsibilities:

Transformation Strategy & Roadmap

Design, execute, and deliver an enterprise finance optimization and automation strategy to drive significant time savings and improved output quality.
Define multi-year roadmaps aligned to Executive Finance priorities, OKRs, and cost-to-serve targets; report progress to the Executive Steering Committee.
Define and instrument KPIs/SLAs (e.g., DSO, close cycle time, CSAT, tNPS, first-pass yield, cost-to-serve); deliver executive-ready dashboards.
Utilize Gartner and external consultants to set benchmarks and deliver best-in-class capabilities.

End-to-End Process Optimization

Influence and partner with team SME’s to simplify processes, reduce handoffs, consolidate systems, and standardize global policies, playbooks, and controls.

AI & Automation Enablement Culture

Lead a portfolio spanning RPA, workflow/orchestration, iPaaS, and AI/LLM use cases (e.g., intelligent triage, classification, forecasting, anomaly detection).
Create an AI culture for Finance via training, governance, and reusable patterns; incubate and scale high-ROI use cases.
Collaborate with IT, Engineering, and Business Transformation on architecture, integrations, and scalable delivery.
Develop “skills of the future” across Finance (analytics, automation, AI literacy, continuous improvement).
Lean into SMEs and process owners to co-design solutions and deliver global results.

Stakeholder & Cross-Functional Partnership

Partner with key SMEs and teams: Procurement, Collections, Shared Services, Finance & Strategy, Strategic Finance, Controllership, Revenue Recognition, Accounting, Revenue Operations, Finance Operations.
Influence tooling and vendor decisions to maximize delivery velocity, interoperability, and cost efficiency.

Position Skills & Requirements:

Experience

12+ years in Finance transformation/process excellence within SaaS or technology; 3+ years leading cross-functional initiatives at Director level or equivalent.
Deep domain expertise across O2C, P2P, R2R, and FP&A; experience in a global, shared services environment and partnering with regional teams.

Technical & Tools

Hands-on with process mapping/redesign (e.g., BPMN), operating model design, and service management.
Familiarity with ERP (e.g., NetSuite), Billing (e.g., Zuora), CRM (Salesforce), CX (Zendesk), HCM (Workday), Procurement (Coupa), iPaaS (e.g., Workato/MuleSoft), RPA (e.g., UiPath/Automation Anywhere), and analytics (Looker/Tableau/Power BI; Snowflake/SQL a plus).
Robust understanding of AI/ML and LLM-enabled tools; able to evaluate vendors, pilot use cases, and scale adoption responsibly.
Lean/Six Sigma certification (Black Belt preferred) with a record of measurable improvements.
Strong change management and Agile delivery experience; SOX and audit-ready design expertise.

Leadership & Influence

Executive presence with exceptional communication; simplifies complexity, aligns stakeholders, and drives decisions.
Demonstrated success fostering a culture of AI, automation, and continuous improvement.

Expected Outputs & Success Measures:

Strategy:

Build and lead a top-level strategic plan for finance process optimization, transformation, and automation across the entire Finance organization.
Bridge strategy through in-process SMEs across functional areas to foster a bottom-up culture of AI and automation.
Continuously assess best-in-class practices and market offerings; bring high-ROI capabilities into Zendesk with an outcomes-first lens.
Sequence near-term wins and long-term platform investments; set realistic but ambitious targets and publish transparent progress.

Value Delivery & Productivity

Deliver immediate value with 25,000+ FTE hours of savings through AI, automation, Zendesk products, process improvements, or other means.
Repurpose capacity toward higher-value, more complex projects that accelerate growth and improve quality.

Roadmap & Culture

Publish near-term and long-term roadmaps for Finance automation and productivity initiatives with clear deliverables, owners, and timelines.
Establish a visible AI culture at all levels of Finance, evidenced by adoption, training completion, and measurable outcomes.
Influence enterprise tools and vendor selections to ensure maximum delivery, interoperability, and cost efficiencies.

The US annualized base salary range for this position is $178,000.00-$266,000.00. 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.

Hybrid: In this role, our 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.

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.

Director, ​​Process Innovation and AI Strategy (Finance)

Job Description

Director, Process Innovation and AI Strategy (Finance)