Principal Software Development Engineer

Zscaler•Santa Clara, CA

1d•$185,000 - $265,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Zscaler is seeking a Principal Software Development Engineer for its Customer/Cloud Reliability Software Engineering department. This hybrid position is based in Santa Clara, California, and reports to the Senior Director, Software Development Engineering. The role supports the Zero Trust Branch platform and Zscaler’s global cloud security services. The engineer will lead and scale work focused on deep troubleshooting across operating systems, networking, and distributed systems, turning findings into standardized diagnostics and automation. The role also champions AI-based solutions and supportability tools to improve internal detection and reduce triage time. The engineer partners with product and engineering teams to deliver reliable, scalable cloud security solutions for global customers, and provides technical strategy, leadership, and mentorship for reliability engineering.

Requirements

Foundational understanding of AI/ML technologies, with experience leveraging, securing, or positioning AI-driven solutions to optimize outcomes in the relevant functional domain.
Experience leading software development, software sustenance engineering, or customer escalation engineering teams.
Technical proficiency in Python, Go, and Linux systems.
Hands-on experience with network security products, routing, switching, DHCP, and DNS.
Proven track record developing troubleshooting and monitoring automation, driving root-cause resolution, and partnering with product engineering to deliver automated remediation.
Experience as a reliability engineer or developer, partnering with other engineering teams to deliver reliable solutions.
Skill in debugging customer issues and closing root causes, including driving post-incident actions to permanent fixes.
Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or a relevant engineering discipline (listed as a preferred qualification).

Nice To Haves

Experience with SD-WAN, micro-segmentation, and SASE/SSE.
Ability to leverage AI technologies and workflows, including agentic AI-based workflows and LLM frameworks, to drive measurable operational efficiency and partner with technical teams on complex solutions.
Strong interest in troubleshooting complex customer issues and providing technical leadership and vision for cloud and customer reliability tools.
Deep experience building and scaling customer/cloud reliability engineering cultures in comparable large-scale technology environments.
Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or a relevant engineering discipline.

Responsibilities

Lead and scale the engineering team responsible for deep troubleshooting across operating systems, networking, and distributed systems.
Codify troubleshooting learnings into standardized diagnostics and automation for the Zero Trust Branch platform.
Champion development of AI-based solutions and supportability tools focused on internal detection and reducing triage time.
Partner with cross-functional product and engineering teams to drive reliable, scalable cloud security solutions for global customers.
Define and execute strategy for cloud and customer reliability tools.
Align technical strategies with product management to shape a customer-centric product roadmap.
Mentor engineers and help cultivate a high-performing culture centered on learning and collaboration.
Drive customer issue debugging, root-cause closure, post-incident actions, permanent fixes, and automated prevention and remediation in partnership with product engineering.
Develop diagnosable-by-design capabilities, including SDKs, templates, and standards.
Partner with engineering teams to deliver reliable solutions that advance the reliability of the Zscaler Cloud.