Zendesk SVP of Engineering on Building High-Trust Teams in the Age of AI

In this episode of Tech Teams Today, we talk with Nan Guo, SVP of Engineering at Zendesk, for a candid, deeply insightful conversation on scaling engineering organizations in the AI era.

Nan shares what it takes to build autonomous, high-performing teams—starting with psychological safety, blameless culture, and clear ownership. She opens up about Zendesk’s approach to AI infrastructure, including why they never rely on a single AI model, how they operationalize fallback systems, and what “trust” really means in the context of customer data and machine learning.

This episode is for engineering leaders who care about more than just velocity—who want to build resilient orgs, hire for adaptability, and lead with clarity through change.