Zendesk

IT Principal Enterprise Delivery Lead

Zendesk$193K — $289K *
Information Technology
8 - 10 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 10+ years in Software Quality Engineering, with 5+ years in QA leadership or Program Delivery
  • Proven experience in QA process implementation for large-scale programs
  • Expertise in managing and influencing Business and Product stakeholders
  • Deep understanding of test execution governance
  • Hands-on experience with QA Automation, particularly Playwright and Jenkins
  • Skilled in defect lifecycle management and Root Cause Analysis
  • Proficient in using X-Ray and Jira for test management and traceability
  • Experience with AI-enabled test frameworks and predictive analytics

Responsibilities

  • Monitor readiness for release cycles, raising enterprise-level risks proactively
  • Ensure compliance with Quality Gates and Definition of Done standards
  • Drive QA execution and technical leadership in major release cycles
  • Expand and mature testing platforms, focusing on tool adoption
  • Design and implement tactical plans to enhance QA capacity using AI
  • Lead the End-to-End strategy for transforming programs with minimal business disruption
  • Conduct Requirement Review Sessions to prevent requirement leakage
  • Ensure thorough defect management and maintain audit trails

Benefits

  • Eligibility for bonus and benefits
  • Focus on quality and stakeholder collaboration
  • Opportunity to lead QA governance at an enterprise level
  • Work in a diverse and collaborative environment
  • Take part in major transformation initiatives utilizing cutting-edge technologies
Full Job Description
Job Description

The IT Principal Enterprise Delivery Lead is responsible for the large-scale orchestration of testing across complex integrations and major transformation programs, such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). A critical responsibility of this role will be to serve as the primary Quality Assurance (QA) engineering delivery lead for enterprise-wide initiatives. Acting as a strategic partner to Business and Product leads to ensure critical, high-investment projects do not fail, this role brings strong QA engineering leadership to execution teams. By operationalizing and scaling the frameworks, platforms, and tooling built by the QA COE, this role drives the execution of QA governance, quality gates, and defect management discipline across the enterprise to ensure predictable, high-quality delivery outcomes.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

1. Release Cycle Quality Governance

  • Monitor the transformation's release readiness across multiple squads, proactively raising enterprise-level risks to avoid late-stage defects in critical integrations.

  • Ensure Quality Gates, Entry Criteria, and Exit Criteria are met as a mandatory part of the Definition of Done.

  • Support compliance with QA standards across the squad or delivery team.

  • Drive operational QA execution and technical engineering leadership within each release cycle for major programs.

  • Lead the hands-on expansion and maturity of core testing platforms, driving the enterprise adoption of Playwright, Jenkins, and SA utils across delivery teams.

2. Scaling QA Capacity & Functionality Through AI

  • Design and execute tactical plans to scale and extend overall QA capacity and testing functionality through the practical application of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

  • Implement AI-driven efficiencies to optimize test generation, accelerate release cycles, and scale test coverage without increasing manual overhead.

  • Leverage predictive capabilities and AI tooling to proactively identify hotspot areas in complex codebases and integration points.

3. Requirement Review & QA Transformation Leadership

  • Lead the cross-functional End-to-End (E2E) strategy for complex transformation programs, ensuring zero business disruptions during major go-lives.

  • Operationalize the CoE’s automated "rules of the road" across complex integrated ecosystems to modernize legacy testing practices.

  • Participate in and drive Requirement Review Sessions at the start of each release or feature.

  • Conduct structured walkthroughs of test scenarios with IT Business Systems Analysts ("BSAs") and Business teams before testing begins to prevent requirement leakage.

4. Defect Management and Auditability

  • Ensure every defect includes a verified Root Cause Analysis (RCA).

  • Maintain strict bi-directional traceability between test cases and defects to provide a complete audit trail.

  • Actively participate in bug triage calls and ensure defects are reviewed, prioritized, and tracked to closure.

  • Own enterprise-level test management, utilization, and tracking within X-Ray to ensure structured and transparent execution visibility.

  • Maintain strict bi-directional traceability between test cases in X-Ray and Jira defects to provide a complete audit trail

5. Reporting and Data Hygiene

  • Maintain high data hygiene across QA reporting tools and trackers.

  • Ensure test execution status, defect status, and release metrics are updated in real time to support decision-making

6. QA Ceremony Ownership

  • Take full ownership of QA ceremonies and drive active participation from senior stakeholders to ensure quality goals align with business priorities.

  • Operationalize standardized QA ceremonies across the delivery lifecycle (daily connections, status reviews, bug triage)

7. Stakeholder Management

  • Act as the primary QA liaison to streamline the delivery of objective, data-driven test results to Business and Product leads, providing the visibility needed for core team release decisions.

  • Coordinate directly with Business Systems Analysts (BSAs), Product Owners, and Engineers to orchestrate structured test scenario walkthroughs, directly mitigating requirement leakage before testing execution begins.

REQUIRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE
  • Minimum of 10 years of experience in Software Quality Engineering, including at least 5 years demonstrating strong QA engineering leadership or managing Program QA Delivery.

  • Proven track record of driving the operational implementation of QA processes across large-scale, complex release cycles and transformation programs.

  • Expert-level ability to manage and influence business and product stakeholders.

  • A deep understanding of test execution governance.

  • Strong hands-on experience in QA Automation and framework extension, specifically utilizing Playwright and CI/CD pipelines via Jenkins.

  • Expert-level experience in defect lifecycle management, including the ability to conduct verified Root Cause Analysis (RCA) and leakage analysis.

  • Expert-level experience with enterprise test management tools, specifically X-Ray and Jira, including the enforcement of bi-directional traceability and data hygiene.

  • Proven ability to lead purposeful, outcome-driven QA ceremonies, bug triage calls, and structured walkthroughs with cross-functional teams.

  • Demonstrated experience implementing and utilizing AI-enabled test frameworks, predictive analytics, or self-healing automation tools to extend testing capacity.

PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE
  • Experience managing end-to-end testing for complex, integrated ecosystems involving multiple vendor platforms and diverse technical stacks is an advantage.

  • The ideal candidate can align QA scope with business priorities during requirement review sessions to proactively prevent requirement leakage.

  • A demonstrated ability to influence cross-functional teams and drive compliance with enterprise standards without impeding delivery velocity.

#LI-WO1

The US annualized base salary range for this position is $193,000.00-$289,000.00. 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.

About Zendesk

Zendesk is a customer service software company headquartered in San Francisco, California, USA. It is listed on the New York Stock Exchange with the symbol ZEN and is a constituent of the Russell 2000 Index. The company provides a cloud-based customer support platform which allows quicker and easier interaction between businesses and customers. Zendesk has over 4,000 employees and serves 150,000 customers in 160 countries. The company was founded in 2007 by Mikkel Svane, Morten Primdahl, and Alexander Aghassipour.
Learn more about Zendesk
Size
2,570 employees
Market Cap
$10.3 billion
Industry
Net Income
-$218.1 million
Founded
2007
5 Year Trend
+33.7%
Revenue
$1 billion
NASDAQ

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