Sr. Staff Software Development Engineer

Zscaler

About Zscaler Zscaler accelerates digital transformation to ensure our customers can be more agile, efficient, resilient, and secure. As an AI-forward enterprise, we are constantly pushing the envelope, leveraging the world’s largest security data lake to power our cloud-native Zero Trust Exchange platform. This innovation protects our customers from cyberattacks and data loss by securely connecting users, devices, and applications in any location. Here, impact in your role matters more than title and trust is built on results. We say, impact over activity. We seek innovators who actively use AI to amplify their impact and who thrive in an environment where we leverage intelligent systems to stay ahead of evolving threats. We believe in transparency and value constructive, honest debate—we’re focused on getting to the best ideas, faster. We build high-performing teams that can make an impact quickly and with high quality. To do this, we are building a culture of execution centered on customer obsession, collaboration, ownership, and accountability. We value high-impact, high-accountability with a sense of urgency where you’re enabled to do your best work and embrace your potential. If you’re driven by purpose, thrive on solving complex challenges, and want to be part of the team that’s helping to secure the AI age, we invite you to bring your talents to Zscaler and help shape the future of cybersecurity.      Role We are looking for a Sr. Staff Engineer to join our team. This is a Hybrid role, reporting to the Senior Manager, Software Engineering in the Federal and Sovereign Clouds department. As a passionate engineer you will work with a team of cloud architects in building scalable, high performance backend applications for our cloud engineering org. You will play a pivotal role in enhancing our multitenant architecture and global footprint for the world’s largest cloud security platform. What you’ll do (Role Expectations) * Designing and implementing scalable, high-performance backend services and APIs * Ensuring code quality by writing and maintaining unit, integration, and performance tests; monitor, debug, and optimize system performance * Mentoring junior engineers, fostering their growth, and upholding best practices through active participation in code reviews * Collaborating with cross-functional teams to deliver integrated solutions and contribute to Agile/Scrum processes like sprint planning and retrospectives * Participating in on-call rotation to support a highly available engineering platform and ensure compliance with federal guidelines Who You Are (Success Profile) * You thrive in ambiguity. You're comfortable building the path as you walk it. You thrive in a dynamic environment, seeing ambiguity not as a hindrance, but as the raw material to build something meaningful. * You act like an owner. Your passion for the mission fuels your bias for action. You operate with integrity because you genuinely care about the outcome. True ownership involves leveraging dynamic range: the ability to navigate seamlessly between high-level strategy and hands-on execution. * You are a problem-solver. You love running towards the challenges because you are laser-focused on finding the solution, knowing that solving the hard problems delivers the biggest impact. * You are a high-trust collaborator. You are ambitious for the team, not just yourself. You embrace our challenge culture by giving and receiving ongoing feedback—knowing that candor delivered with clarity and respect is the truest form of teamwork and the fastest way to earn trust. * You are a learner. You have a true growth mindset and are obsessed with your own development, actively seeking feedback to become a better partner and a stronger teammate. You love what you do and you do it with purpose. What We’re Looking for (Minimum Qualifications) * Foundational understanding of AI/ML technologies and experience leveraging, securing, or positioning AI-driven solutions to optimize outcomes within your functional domain * 8+ years of experience with proficiency coding in Java / Golang or similar * Hands-on experience with Docker, Kubernetes, and one or more major cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure) * Expertise in designing and maintaining large-scale distributed systems with strong fundamentals of scaling, availability and design trade offs * Exceptional problem-solving skills for creating robust solutions and resolving complex issues with root cause analysis What Will Make You Stand Out (Preferred Qualifications) * Experience leveraging LLMs or AI code-assistance platforms to accelerate distributed systems development, code refactoring, and automated testing pipelines * Strong understanding of DevOps automation workflows and CI/CD pipelines * Excellent communication and cross-team collaboration skills, with the ability to navigate ambiguity, make high-impact technical decisions, and deliver results with minimal oversight #LI-RM6 #LI-Hybrid At Zscaler, we are committed to building a team that reflects the communities we serve and the customers we work with. We foster an inclusive environment that values all backgrounds and perspectives, emphasizing collaboration and belonging. Join us in our mission to make doing business seamless and secure. Our Benefits program is one of the most important ways we support our employees. Zscaler proudly offers comprehensive and inclusive benefits to meet the diverse needs of our employees and their families throughout their life stages, including: * Various health plans * Time off plans for vacation and sick time * Parental leave options * Retirement options * Education reimbursement * In-office perks, and more! Learn more about Zscaler's hybrid working model and benefits here. By applying for this role, you adhere to applicable laws, regulations, and Zscaler policies, including those related to security and privacy standards and guidelines. Zscaler is committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all individuals. We strive to create a workplace where employees are treated with respect and have the chance to succeed. All qualified applicants will be considered for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy or related medical conditions), age, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetic information, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local laws. See more information by clicking on the Know Your Rights: Workplace Discrimination is Illegal link. Pay Transparency Zscaler complies with all applicable federal, state, and local pay transparency rules. Zscaler is committed to providing reasonable support (called accommodations or adjustments) in our recruiting processes for candidates who are differently abled, have long term conditions, mental health conditions or sincerely held religious beliefs, or who are neurodivergent or require pregnancy-related support.

Zscaler

About Zscaler Zscaler accelerates digital transformation to ensure our customers can be more agile, efficient, resilient, and secure. As an AI-forward enterprise, we are constantly pushing the envelope, leveraging the world’s largest security data lake to power our cloud-native Zero Trust Exchange platform. This innovation protects our customers from cyberattacks and data loss by securely connecting users, devices, and applications in any location. Here, impact in your role matters more than title and trust is built on results. We say, impact over activity. We seek innovators who actively use AI to amplify their impact and who thrive in an environment where we leverage intelligent systems to stay ahead of evolving threats. We believe in transparency and value constructive, honest debate—we’re focused on getting to the best ideas, faster. We build high-performing teams that can make an impact quickly and with high quality. To do this, we are building a culture of execution centered on customer obsession, collaboration, ownership, and accountability. We value high-impact, high-accountability with a sense of urgency where you’re enabled to do your best work and embrace your potential. If you’re driven by purpose, thrive on solving complex challenges, and want to be part of the team that’s helping to secure the AI age, we invite you to bring your talents to Zscaler and help shape the future of cybersecurity.    Role We are looking for a Sr Staff Software Development Engineer (Datapath) to join our team. This is a hybrid role based in Bangalore, India, reporting to the Sr. Manager Development Engineering in the VSE Engineering department. We are looking for a software engineer to help add more features and functionality of our core systems. You will play a critical role in expanding the capabilities of our VSE datapath technology to drive the next level of product impact. What you’ll do (Role Expectations) * Define software design specifications and implement bug-free code using test-driven methodology * Identify opportunities to refactor existing code for maintainability and reusability while owning the resolution of complex customer issues * Collaborate closely with cross-functional engineering teams including security, UI, platform, analytics, and quality assurance * Partner with Product Management to drive detailed product requirements * Lead a group of junior engineers by providing technical guidance, mentoring, and assisting in development details Who You Are (Success Profile) * You thrive in ambiguity. You're comfortable building the path as you walk it. You thrive in a dynamic environment, seeing ambiguity not as a hindrance, but as the raw material to build something meaningful. * You act like an owner. Your passion for the mission fuels your bias for action. You operate with integrity because you genuinely care about the outcome. True ownership involves leveraging dynamic range: the ability to navigate seamlessly between high-level strategy and hands-on execution. * You are a problem-solver. You love running towards the challenges because you are laser-focused on finding the solution, knowing that solving the hard problems delivers the biggest impact. * You are a high-trust collaborator. You are ambitious for the team, not just yourself. You embrace our challenge culture by giving and receiving ongoing feedback—knowing that candor delivered with clarity and respect is the truest form of teamwork and the fastest way to earn trust. * You are a learner. You have a true growth mindset and are obsessed with your own development, actively seeking feedback to become a better partner and a stronger teammate. You love what you do and you do it with purpose. What We’re Looking for (Minimum Qualifications) * Foundational understanding of AI/ML technologies and experience leveraging, securing, or positioning AI-driven solutions to optimize outcomes within your functional domain * Extensive experience developing large-scale cloud networking and security applications, with expertise in software design and programming in C/C++, Go, or Python * Deep knowledge of networking protocols and services such as DNS, HTTP, TCP/IP, and SSL/TLS, ideally with an understanding of firewall policy enforcement * Proven experience working with AWS/Azure/GCP networking components, including transit gateway, IGW, NATGW, NACL, security groups, GWLB, ILB, and Route53 * Hands-on experience with AWS/Azure/GCP database services, PubSub mechanisms, and SDKs What Will Make You Stand Out (Preferred Qualifications) * Experience incorporating AI/ML models for intelligent traffic routing, real-time network anomaly detection, or predictive load balancing within high-throughput datapaths * Familiarity or direct experience with developing security Firewall features * Prior experience building solutions for SaaS platforms and leveraging cloud-native infrastructure or auto-scaling groups for dynamic workload traffic profiles #LI-Hybrid #LI-AN4 At Zscaler, we are committed to building a team that reflects the communities we serve and the customers we work with. We foster an inclusive environment that values all backgrounds and perspectives, emphasizing collaboration and belonging. Join us in our mission to make doing business seamless and secure. Our Benefits program is one of the most important ways we support our employees. Zscaler proudly offers comprehensive and inclusive benefits to meet the diverse needs of our employees and their families throughout their life stages, including: * Various health plans * Time off plans for vacation and sick time * Parental leave options * Retirement options * Education reimbursement * In-office perks, and more! Learn more about Zscaler's hybrid working model and benefits here. By applying for this role, you adhere to applicable laws, regulations, and Zscaler policies, including those related to security and privacy standards and guidelines. Zscaler is committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all individuals. We strive to create a workplace where employees are treated with respect and have the chance to succeed. All qualified applicants will be considered for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy or related medical conditions), age, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetic information, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local laws. See more information by clicking on the Know Your Rights: Workplace Discrimination is Illegal link. Pay Transparency Zscaler complies with all applicable federal, state, and local pay transparency rules. Zscaler is committed to providing reasonable support (called accommodations or adjustments) in our recruiting processes for candidates who are differently abled, have long term conditions, mental health conditions or sincerely held religious beliefs, or who are neurodivergent or require pregnancy-related support.

Zscaler

About Zscaler Zscaler accelerates digital transformation to ensure our customers can be more agile, efficient, resilient, and secure. As an AI-forward enterprise, we are constantly pushing the envelope, leveraging the world’s largest security data lake to power our cloud-native Zero Trust Exchange platform. This innovation protects our customers from cyberattacks and data loss by securely connecting users, devices, and applications in any location. Here, impact in your role matters more than title and trust is built on results. We say, impact over activity. We seek innovators who actively use AI to amplify their impact and who thrive in an environment where we leverage intelligent systems to stay ahead of evolving threats. We believe in transparency and value constructive, honest debate—we’re focused on getting to the best ideas, faster. We build high-performing teams that can make an impact quickly and with high quality. To do this, we are building a culture of execution centered on customer obsession, collaboration, ownership, and accountability. We value high-impact, high-accountability with a sense of urgency where you’re enabled to do your best work and embrace your potential. If you’re driven by purpose, thrive on solving complex challenges, and want to be part of the team that’s helping to secure the AI age, we invite you to bring your talents to Zscaler and help shape the future of cybersecurity.    Role We are looking for a Sr Staff Software Development Engineer to join our team. This is a hybrid role based in Hyderabad, reporting to the Senior Manager of Software Engineering. You will join the Engineering team that built the world’s largest cloud security platform from the ground up. As a leader in our multitenant architecture, you will bring your vision and passion to help organizations worldwide harness speed and agility with a cloud-first strategy. What you’ll do (Role Expectations) * Understand how to build and operate high scale systems * Provide service and product wide architectural guidance, and drive impactful technical decisions * Establish and enforce best practices for coding, testing, observability, and CI/CD pipelines to maintain high-quality, production-ready services * Drive cross-team collaboration and lead initiatives in performance optimization, reliability improvements, and adoption of new technologies/tools to accelerate feature velocity Who You Are (Success Profile) * You thrive in ambiguity. You're comfortable building the path as you walk it. You thrive in a dynamic environment, seeing ambiguity not as a hindrance, but as the raw material to build something meaningful. * You act like an owner. Your passion for the mission fuels your bias for action. You operate with integrity because you genuinely care about the outcome. True ownership involves leveraging dynamic range: the ability to navigate seamlessly between high-level strategy and hands-on execution. * You are a problem-solver. You love running towards the challenges because you are laser-focused on finding the solution, knowing that solving the hard problems delivers the biggest impact. * You are a high-trust collaborator. You are ambitious for the team, not just yourself. You embrace our challenge culture by giving and receiving ongoing feedback—knowing that candor delivered with clarity and respect is the truest form of teamwork and the fastest way to earn trust. * You are a learner. You have a true growth mindset and are obsessed with your own development, actively seeking feedback to become a better partner and a stronger teammate. You love what you do and you do it with purpose. What We’re Looking for (Minimum Qualifications) * Foundational understanding of AI/ML technologies and experience leveraging, securing, or positioning AI-driven solutions to optimize outcomes within your functional domain * 7+ years of experience in Java/Go coding in a highly distributed and enterprise-scale environment * Working knowledge of cloud infrastructure services on AWS or Azure * Strong experience with distributed systems and microservices architecture * Strong database knowledge of SQL constructs and data modeling * Bachelor's degree in computer science or equivalent experience What Will Make You Stand Out (Preferred Qualifications) * Experience building full CI/CD systems leveraging Kubernetes, web service frameworks, and streaming data infrastructure like Apache Spark, Kafka, Druid, or ElasticSearch * Experience building reliable data tiers using Postgres, Redis, Terraform, Ansible, graph databases like Neo4j or AWS Neptune, and developing GraphQL APIs * Deep knowledge of identity and access management systems (Okta, SAML, OAuth), test automation, Python programming, and designing fault-tolerant distributed systems for networking or cloud security products #LI-Hybrid #LI-AN4 At Zscaler, we are committed to building a team that reflects the communities we serve and the customers we work with. We foster an inclusive environment that values all backgrounds and perspectives, emphasizing collaboration and belonging. Join us in our mission to make doing business seamless and secure. Our Benefits program is one of the most important ways we support our employees. Zscaler proudly offers comprehensive and inclusive benefits to meet the diverse needs of our employees and their families throughout their life stages, including: * Various health plans * Time off plans for vacation and sick time * Parental leave options * Retirement options * Education reimbursement * In-office perks, and more! Learn more about Zscaler's hybrid working model and benefits here. By applying for this role, you adhere to applicable laws, regulations, and Zscaler policies, including those related to security and privacy standards and guidelines. Zscaler is committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all individuals. We strive to create a workplace where employees are treated with respect and have the chance to succeed. All qualified applicants will be considered for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy or related medical conditions), age, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetic information, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local laws. See more information by clicking on the Know Your Rights: Workplace Discrimination is Illegal link. Pay Transparency Zscaler complies with all applicable federal, state, and local pay transparency rules. Zscaler is committed to providing reasonable support (called accommodations or adjustments) in our recruiting processes for candidates who are differently abled, have long term conditions, mental health conditions or sincerely held religious beliefs, or who are neurodivergent or require pregnancy-related support.