Senior Zendesk Developer | AI, Automation & Chatbot Development | Long-Term Contract

**Location:** Remote **Contract Type:** Ongoing Contractor ## About Us We are an established eCommerce company operating across multiple sales channels and processing approximately 100 customer support tickets per day through Zendesk. Over the past few years, we have heavily customised our Zendesk environment and built several internal tools that integrate with our operational systems. We are now looking for an experienced Zendesk developer to help us expand these capabilities, improve automation, and play a key role in our long-term AI customer service strategy. **We are looking for an individual contractor, not an agency.** ## Existing Environment Our current setup includes: * A highly customised Zendesk instance * Custom-built application integrated with our sales channels, inventory management, and order management platform (Linnworks) * Direct access to order information, courier tracking, product data, and operational information within Zendesk * AI-powered QA assistant currently using Gemini to: * Suggest customer replies * Recommend suitable macros * Follow internal support rules and guidance * More than 150 Zendesk macros * Custom workflows linking tickets, orders, and side conversations where required ## What We Need We are looking for someone who can continuously improve and expand our support platform. ### Immediate Priorities * Improve and extend existing Zendesk integrations * Develop additional workflow automation * Enhance AI-generated reply suggestions * Improve macro recommendation accuracy * Build and refine SLA management and reporting * Improve agent productivity through better tooling and automation ### Medium-Term Projects * Expand AI capabilities throughout the support process * Improve knowledge retrieval and contextual response generation * Enhance customer self-service functionality * Create deeper integrations between Zendesk, Linnworks, and other internal systems ### Long-Term Vision * Design and implement an AI-powered customer service chatbot * Leverage existing macros, business rules, order data, and historical ticket knowledge * Reduce ticket volume while maintaining excellent customer service standards * Build a scalable customer support automation framework ## Required Skills * Strong Zendesk administration and development experience * Zendesk API and app development * Experience building custom integrations * AI / LLM experience (OpenAI, Gemini, Claude, or similar) * Workflow automation experience * REST APIs and webhooks * JavaScript and/or TypeScript * Experience with customer service platforms and eCommerce operations ## Desirable Skills * Linnworks experience * Order management and inventory system integrations * AI chatbot development * RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation) implementations * Zendesk Sunshine platform experience * Experience supporting high-volume customer service teams ## What We're Looking For The ideal candidate will be: * An excellent communicator * Proactive and solution-focused * Comfortable challenging assumptions and recommending improvements * Able to understand business processes, not just technical requirements * Interested in building a long-term working relationship * Reliable, responsive, and capable of working independently ## Application Requirements To be considered, please answer the following questions: ### 1. Zendesk Experience Describe the most advanced Zendesk implementation you have personally built or managed. Please include: * Number of agents/users * Key customisations * Integrations developed * Measurable business outcomes ### 2. AI Experience Describe an AI or LLM project you have personally delivered. Please include: * Technologies used (OpenAI, Gemini, Claude, etc.) * How AI was integrated into workflows * Results achieved ### 3. Customer Service Automation Provide an example of a support automation project that significantly reduced manual work or improved customer experience. ### 4. Chatbot Experience Have you built a customer service chatbot before? If yes, please describe: * The platform used * Data sources connected * AI model used * Outcomes achieved ### 5. Individual Contractor Confirmation Please confirm: * You are applying as an individual contractor * The work will not be outsourced to an agency or subcontractor ## Long-Term Opportunity We are looking for a technical partner rather than someone to complete a single task. There is a substantial roadmap of Zendesk, AI, automation, and customer service improvement projects planned over the coming years. If you enjoy solving operational problems, building practical AI solutions, and making a measurable impact on a growing eCommerce business, we would love to hear from you.