Sr. Staff Software Engineer (Reliability)

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 worlds 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 debatewere 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 youre enabled to do your best work and embrace your potential. If youre driven by purpose thrive on solving complex challenges and want to be part of the team thats 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 Engineer to join our team. This is a Hybrid (three days a week onsite) in San Jose CA role reporting to the VP of Engineering in the Service Platform Automation this high-ownership position you will build and operate the orchestration and reliability automation that manages ZIAs fleet lifecycle at massive scale. You will initially focus on leading the architectural transformation of legacy scripts into a safe deterministic Temporal-based orchestration platform to achieve one-touch provisioning. As you scale the platform you will expand the teams mission into AI SRE practices applying software engineering to identify and solve systemic inefficiencies and build self-healing capabilities across our global fleet.

What youll do (Role Expectations)

• Drive the migration from legacy scripts to a Temporal-based platform engineering replay-safe workflows with built-in retries idempotency and safe rollback designs for one-touch fleet operations

• Identify and solve systemic inefficiencies across our global fleet engineering technical solutions needed to make our operations more autonomous

• Build systems that leverage LLMs and ML for intelligent triage global signal correlation and automated runbooks to eliminate manual toil

• Develop framework-type services for feature teams ensuring all new products are delivered automation-ready with reliability hooks built directly into the code

• Ensure every fleet-wide action is fully explainable replayable and auditable by implementing comprehensive metrics traces and event logging

Who You Are (Success Profile)

• You thrive in ambiguity. Youre 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 feedbackknowing 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 Were 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

• BS or MS in Computer Science or a related technical field with 10 years of experience in hyperscale systems with a deep understanding of the unique failure modes and technical hurdles that only emerge at massive scale

• Mastery of backend systems languages (Go Java Python or others) with a proven ability to set the bar for code quality maintainability and distributed system correctness

• Experience designing and operating complex distributed systems with a focus on solving systemic challenges in concurrency failure handling and performance optimization

• Expertise in building automation using REST APIs and Swagger with strong guarantees for idempotency verification and safe rollout patterns

• Expertise in engineering and operating hybrid infrastructure across cloud platforms (AWS/GCP GKE) and on-premise environments ensuring consistent container orchestration and CI/CD safety

What Will Make You Stand Out (Preferred Qualifications)

• Experience building or operating AI-enabled developer/ops tooling leveraging large language models to achieve measurable improvements in triage speed and autonomous operational efficiency

• Experience in testing orchestration systems including determinism verification fault injection and chaos engineering

• Proficiency in PostgreSQL including SQL development and schema management to power high-scale stateful management-plane services

#LI-Hybrid #LI-YC2

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:

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.

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