Senior Backend Software Engineer

Zendesk

Senior Full Stack Engineer building Zendesk’s real-time voice AI customer-support platform. Improving latency, reliability, telephony integrations, and conversational experiences.

Posted 8/4/2026full-timeAustin • California, Texas, Wisconsin • 🇺🇸 United StatesSenior💰 $145,000 - $217,000 per yearWebsite

Core Competencies

Role fit

Core Competencies

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Demonstrates expertise in backend engineering with a focus on real-time systems, API design, and scalable integrations. Proficient in optimizing performance and reliability while delivering user-facing features in collaboration with cross-functional teams.

Highest-signal resume keywords

Backend Engineering ExperienceReal-Time Systems ExpertiseAPI Design and DevelopmentProficiency in PythonCross-Functional Collaboration

ATS Keywords

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Applicant Tracking System Keywords

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Hard Skills

Backend EngineeringAPI DesignAsync SystemsReal-Time SystemsWebRTCWebSocketsDebugging and OptimizationPerformance TuningTelephony ProtocolsScalable Integrations

Soft Skills

Product-Driven MindsetCollaborationUser Experience Focus

Tools & Technologies

Telephony StacksSIPMedia ServersSpeech ASRSpeech TTSConversational AI Infrastructure

Industry Keywords

Real-Time Voice ConversationsLatencyReliabilityObservabilityMonitoringTracingAutoscalingFailure RecoveryHuman Voice ExperiencesTurn-Taking

Tech Stack

Tools & technologies

Python

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Design and implement backend services powering real-time voice conversations, focusing on latency, reliability, and observability
Build integrations for telephony, WebRTC, real-time audio processing, and external AI/speech services
Ship end-to-end product features across backend systems and user-facing web experiences when required
Improve platform reliability and performance through monitoring, tracing, autoscaling, and failure recovery
Address turn-taking, interruptions, responsiveness, and graceful handoff to humans in real-time interactions
Partner with product and design to deliver polished, human voice experiences

Requirements

What you’ll need

3+ years building production software, with significant backend engineering experience
Experience designing APIs, async systems, and scalable integrations
Hands-on experience with real-time systems such as WebRTC and WebSockets or telephony protocols
Product-driven engineering mindset with user-facing feature delivery and UX quality focus
Ability to debug and optimize latency and reliability issues in production systems
Cross-functional collaboration with product, design, and ML/speech teams
Proficiency in Python or equivalent backend languages and async architectures
Preferred: experience with telephony stacks, SIP, media servers, or speech/ASR/TTS integrations
Preferred: familiarity with LLMs, speech models, or conversational AI production infrastructure
Preferred: experience shipping backend and frontend user experiences
Preferred: expertise diagnosing performance and reliability issues under real-time constraints

Benefits

Comp & perks

Bonus eligibility
Benefits or related incentives
Hybrid working with flexibility to work remotely for part of the week
In-person collaboration, connection, and learning at Zendesk offices
Reasonable accommodations for applicants with disabilities and disabled veterans