Sr. Software Development Engineer - Network, Security, LLM

Zscaler•San Jose, CA

4h•Hybrid

About The Position

Zscaler is a pioneer and global leader in zero trust security. The world’s largest businesses, critical infrastructure organizations, and government agencies rely on Zscaler to secure users, branches, applications, data & devices, and to accelerate digital transformation initiatives. Distributed across more than 160 data centers globally, the Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange platform combined with advanced AI combats billions of cyber threats and policy violations every day and unlocks productivity gains for modern enterprises by reducing costs and complexity. 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 champion an “AI Forward, People First” philosophy to help us accelerate and innovate, empowering our people to embrace their 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 to help shape the future of cybersecurity. We are looking for a Senior Software Development Engineer to join us as a founding member of our AI Security Team. This is a hybrid role for San Jose, CA, reporting to the Director of Software Engineering within the Emerging Tech org. You will build a high-reliability, low-latency AI security solution capable of scaling to hundreds of millions of users. In this role, you will be crucial in enhancing security capabilities for the AI within the world's largest cloud security platform by designing and implementing core infrastructure components and distributed systems while collaborating closely with stakeholders throughout the development lifecycle.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in computer science, engineering, or a related field
8+ years of software engineering experience with deep expertise in the Rust programming language and familiarity with lower-level languages such as C/C++
Strong knowledge of system and network programming including firewalls, VPNs, protocols, TCP/IP, UDP, DNS, QUIC, H/3, and proxies
Familiarity with system concepts such as virtual memory, multi-threading, and system APIs, and familiarity with SLM and LLM models
Excellent debugging and problem-solving skills in both networking and system-level contexts

Nice To Haves

Familiarity with kernel-mode programming, VPN technologies, and a strong understanding of security protocols and standards
Experience writing testable, low-complexity code with dependency injection and thorough documentation
Proficiency in additional programming languages like Swift, Python, or comparable technologies; direct experience in validating AI-driven products, including understanding of model performance metrics and MLOps principles

Responsibilities

Develop high-performance networking code for multiple desktop platforms using the Rust language and platform-native APIs
Improve code quality through building solid, testable, and well-documented software foundations
Design and implement major development projects with a focus on scalability, security, and performance
Collaborate with product managers and cross-functional teams to deliver customer-impacting features
Debug and solve complex network-related problems and enhance system functionality