Sr. Staff Platform Engineer

Zscaler•Bellevue, WA

19h•Hybrid

About The Position

About Zscaler 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. Role We are looking for a Sr. Staff Platform Engineer to join our team in Bellevue, WA (3 days in office), reporting to the Sr. Director, Software Development Engineering in the Zero Trust Exchange department. In this role, you will design scalable, high-performance backend services and APIs while mentoring junior engineers and ensuring system reliability within a highly available engineering platform. What you’ll do (Role Expectations) You thrive in ambiguity, are comfortable building the path as you walk it, and see ambiguity not as a hindrance but as the raw material to build something meaningful. You act like an owner, operate with integrity, adapt to what’s needed, and navigate seamlessly between high-level strategy and hands-on execution. You are a problem-solver who seeks out challenges and is energized by finding solutions, knowing that solving the hard problems delivers the biggest impact. You are customer-obsessed, build deep empathy for internal and external customers, and anchor your decisions in solving their real-world problems. You operate with urgency, have a relentless focus on execution and a bias for action, and deliver high-impact results quickly to win for the customer and the team.

Requirements

8+ years of experience with proficiency coding in a modern Object-Oriented language
Expertise in designing, analyzing, and resolving issues in large-scale distributed systems
Demonstrated exceptional problem-solving skills and attention to detail for designing robust solutions
Hands-on experience with Docker, Kubernetes, and one or more major cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure)
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related field (or equivalent professional experience), coupled with strong adaptability and the ability to work independently in a fast-paced Agile environment

Nice To Haves

Demonstrate excellent leadership, communication, and cross-team collaboration skills, with the ability to navigate ambiguity, make high-impact technical decisions, and drive initiatives with minimal oversight
Proficiency with one or more AI code-assistance tools (e.g., Windsurf, Cursor, Claude) to accelerate development, refactoring, unit test creation, and troubleshooting
Exposure to DevOps automation workflows and CI/CD pipelines

Responsibilities

Designing and implementing scalable, high-performance backend services and APIs
Ensuring code quality by writing and maintaining unit, integration, and performance tests; monitor, debug, and optimize system performance
Mentoring junior engineers, fostering their growth, and upholding best practices through active participation in code reviews
Collaborating with cross-functional teams to deliver integrated solutions and contribute to Agile/Scrum processes like sprint planning and retrospectives
Participating in on-call rotation to support a highly available engineering platform and ensure compliance with federal guidelines