Applied AI Architect, People & Culture

Zscaler•Santa Clara, CA

22h•Hybrid

About The Position

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. We are looking for an Applied AI Architect, People and Culture to join our team. This is a Santa Clara based hybrid role (in office Tuesday-Thursday), reporting to the AI Transformation Director in the Global HR department. HR is being transformed around Human + AI optimization, and you will be the driving force behind this transformation. Part builder, part co-builder, and part teacher, you will spearhead our transition to an AI-native HR function by encoding the judgment of our best practitioners into safe, governed agents that seamlessly integrate with human ingenuity to unlock unprecedented outcomes.

Requirements

6+ years across HR technology, people operations, solutions, or business transformation roles
Demonstrated hands-on experience building AI agents, automations, or tools that changed how real work gets done
Technical fluency sufficient to design agents architecture and instructions, work with MCPs and governance systems, and evaluate outputs at the system level without needing engineering handholding.
Track record of taking solutions from problem identification through real adoption while simultaneously upskilling others through training, enablement, or sustained co-working
Highly autonomous, self-directed, and comfortable operating as a senior individual contributor in a domain being invented in real time

Nice To Haves

Sit at the rare intersection of engineering depth and HR practice, ensuring we avoid both technically correct agents that the field ignores and HR prototypes that do not scale
Possess a deep understanding of how to balance cutting-edge agent building with the practical realities, risks, and sensitivities of HR operations
Drawn to early-stage, high-impact opportunities and eager to be a primary author of the playbook for AI-native HR

Responsibilities

Design, deploy, and continuously improve the most impactful and high-risk agents using Gemini agent builder, Claude, Codex, and MCP integrations, owning the full maturity path from initial prototype to a hardened, governed product
Pair deeply with subject matter experts—from compensation analysts to recruiters—to build domain-specific agents, transferring your technical craft so they can independently maintain and evolve their own tools
Redesign workflows from the inside out to ensure we solve fundamental process issues rather than simply automating a broken system
Operate what you ship as a true product owner by monitoring adoption, diagnosing failures, and guiding stakeholders to turn skeptics into sponsors
Partner closely with the AI Center of Excellence and Forward Deployed Engineering team to solve the hardest technical integration challenges on shared rails, as well as co-create mature governance standards