Sr. Software Development Engineer (Controlplane)

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. Software Development Engineer (Controlplane) to join our team. This is a hybrid (in office 3 days a week in San Jose, CA) role, reporting to the Manager, Software Engineering in the Zero Trust Exchange department. In this role, you will lead the design and development of highly scalable, resilient, and secure control plane platform services that power the Zero Trust Exchange. You will drive architecture, influence technical strategy across teams, and deliver platform capabilities that improve reliability, operability, and developer velocity. The ideal candidate pairs deep distributed systems expertise with strong cross-functional leadership and a pragmatic, execution-focused mindset.

What you’ll do (Role Expectations)

• Lead the architecture, design, and delivery of large-scale control plane and platform services with a strong focus on scalability, availability, security, and operational excellence

• Drive complex cross-team technical initiatives, align stakeholders on architecture and execution plans, and ensure high-quality delivery against business and engineering priorities

• Identify and resolve system bottlenecks, reliability risks, and architectural gaps across distributed systems, improving performance, observability, and long-term maintainability

• Set a high technical bar through design reviews, code reviews, engineering best practices, and hands-on mentorship of senior engineers across the organization

• Evaluate and apply emerging technologies, including AI-assisted engineering workflows