Sr. Staff Software Engineer (Service Platform & Orchestration)

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 (Service Platform & Orchestration) to join our team. This is a Hybrid (3 days in office) role reporting to the VP Engineering in the Zero Trust Exchange this high-ownership position you will engineer the management plane and reliability systems that govern ZIAs fleet lifecycle at massive scale.

This is a hands-on building role where you will lead the transformation of our infrastructure from legacy automation into a stateful durable management plane (built on Temporal) to achieve deterministic one-touch provisioning and lifecycle operations. You will treat infrastructure as a distributed system developing self-healing capabilities and AI-driven SRE practices for a global fleet of 100k instances.

What youll do (Role Expectations)

• Lead the hands-on development and migration to a workflow-as-code platform (Temporal) building replay-safe idempotent workflows that ensure deterministic operations across a global scale
• Move the organization beyond scripted automation toward a robust management plane that treats the entire global fleet as a single eventually-consistent distributed system
• Design and implement services that leverage LLMs and ML for intelligent signal correlation automated triage and self-correcting fleet operations
• Develop framework-level services and internal APIs that ensure all new products are delivered orchestration-ready with reliability hooks built directly into the code
• Build deep telemetry (metrics traces and events) into the management plane so that every fleet-wide action is fully explainable auditable and replayable

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. You adapt to whats needed navigating seamlessly between high-level strategy and hands-on execution.
• You operate with urgency. You understand that in a high-growth environment speed and quality are not mutually exclusive. You have a relentless focus on execution and a bias for action delivering high-impact results quickly to win for the customer and the team.
• You think at scale. You connect your day-to-day work to the larger company mission and think globally. You build solutions processes and teams that are not just effective today but are built to last and support a high-growth global organization.
• You are resilient and adaptable. You view change as an opportunity and setbacks as temporary. You maintain composure and focus in high-pressure situations guiding yourself and your team through complexity with a steady positive hand.

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
• Demonstrated curiosity and active exploration of AI tools with a proven history of integrating new technologies to enhance daily workflows and augment problem-solving
• BS/MS in Computer Science or a related technical field with 7 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
• Strong experience designing and operating complex distributed systems with a focus on solving systemic challenges in concurrency failure handling and performance optimization
• Proven track record of developing Platform APIs (REST/gRPC) with strong guarantees for idempotency verification and safe rollout patterns

What Will Make You Stand Out (Preferred Qualifications)

• Proficiency with AI code-assistance tools (e.g. Cursor Windsurf) to accelerate legacy refactoring and system development
• Proficiency in PostgreSQL or other relational stores used for high-scale stateful management-plane services
• Direct experience building or operating systems with Cadence or similar workflow engines

#LI-YC2 #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:

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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