Senior Analyst, R&D Strategy & Operations

Zscaler•San Jose, CA

32d•Hybrid

About The Position

Zscaler accelerates digital transformation so our customers can be more agile, efficient, resilient, and secure. Our cloud native Zero Trust Exchange platform protects thousands of 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 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 make a positive difference on a global scale, we invite you to bring your talents to Zscaler and help shape the future of cybersecurity. Our Engineering team built the world’s largest cloud security platform from the ground up, and we keep building. With more than 100 patents and big plans for enhancing services and increasing our global footprint, the team has made us and our multitenant architecture today's cloud security leader, with more than 15 million users in 185 countries. Bring your vision and passion to our team of cloud architects, software engineers, security experts, and more who are enabling organizations worldwide to harness speed and agility with a cloud-first strategy. We're looking for an experienced Senior Analyst, R&D Strategy & Operations to join our R&D Analytics & Insights team. This role is hybrid and based in our San Jose, CA or Bellevue, WA office three days a week. Reporting to the Sr. Manager, Engineering Strategy, Planning & Analytics, you will: Evaluate engineering operations, identify / refine excellence metrics, and deliver exec-ready, actionable insights to engineering leadership to produce business results Lead R&D business operations: headcount planning, budget allocation, SaaS spend tracking and optimization, and scenario modeling Analyze investment asks / new initiatives: build governance around success metrics, develop ROI frameworks and iteratively drive metrics & measurement at scale Perform structured analysis across the Software Development LifeCycle (Design, CI/CD, tests, bugs and incidents) to generate insights, pinpoint process bottlenecks, and enable Engineering Systems to drive measurable improvements Partner with engineering leaders to evaluate key metrics, proactively identify risks, propose actions to navigate ambiguity, and recommend changes in order to land outcomes

Requirements

3+ years management consulting or 4+ years in SaaS Ops/Engineering Ops/BizOps with a Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience
Structured problem solving; ability to define and pursue next steps amid ambiguity; attention to detail
Expert level data analytics and transformation: SQL and advanced Excel/Sheets; proficiency in data validation and metric governance
Financial modeling, budgeting, spend optimization, and scenario planning
Familiarity with developer pain points within the modern SaaS SecDevOps stack: (e.g., GitHub/GitLab, CI/CD, testing, Jira etc.)

Nice To Haves

Skills: Alteryx/Python/R for analysis; dbt or similar transformations; data quality tooling
Familiarity with ROI frameworks, measurement design, and business case development
Demonstrable experience with an AI-enabled workstyle, stakeholder management, and executive presence

Responsibilities

Evaluate engineering operations, identify / refine excellence metrics, and deliver exec-ready, actionable insights to engineering leadership to produce business results
Lead R&D business operations: headcount planning, budget allocation, SaaS spend tracking and optimization, and scenario modeling
Analyze investment asks / new initiatives: build governance around success metrics, develop ROI frameworks and iteratively drive metrics & measurement at scale
Perform structured analysis across the Software Development LifeCycle (Design, CI/CD, tests, bugs and incidents) to generate insights, pinpoint process bottlenecks, and enable Engineering Systems to drive measurable improvements
Partner with engineering leaders to evaluate key metrics, proactively identify risks, propose actions to navigate ambiguity, and recommend changes in order to land outcomes