Sr. Staff Software Development Engineer

Zscaler•Santa Clara, CA

7h•$180,000 - $225,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Zscaler is seeking a Sr. Staff Software Development Engineer to join its Zero Trust Exchange department in a hybrid role at the Santa Clara, California headquarters. Reporting to the Senior Manager, Software Development Engineering, this position serves as a key technical leader who contributes to architectural direction, designs high-performance systems-level subsystems, and leads engineering execution for next-generation inspection capabilities. The engineer will help shape technology direction and collaborate across teams to deliver services. The role focuses on designing and implementing high-performance Data Loss Prevention (DLP) engines, dictionary compilers, and distributed incident-processing pipelines using optimized systems-level C. It includes leading the technical design and execution of DLP libraries, inspection engines, and backend infrastructure, maintaining architectural standards for multithreaded C daemons on FreeBSD/Linux, and resolving complex production issues through system analysis and profiling.

Requirements

Advanced hands-on proficiency in C programming on Linux or FreeBSD runtime environments.
Deep architectural expertise in inter-process communication (IPC) and shared-memory architectures.
At least 8 years of systems software engineering experience, including a track record of driving the design and delivery of high-performance backend platforms.
Demonstrated curiosity and active exploration of AI tools, with a history of integrating new technologies to enhance workflows and problem-solving.

Nice To Haves

Ability to leverage AI technologies and workflows to drive measurable operational efficiency.
Familiarity with DLP technologies, including regex evaluation engines, custom dictionary compilers, EDM (Exact Data Match), and IDM (Indexed Document Matching).

Responsibilities

Design and implement core components of high-performance DLP engines, dictionary compilers, and distributed incident-processing pipelines in optimized systems-level C.
Lead technical design and engineering execution for DLP libraries, inspection engines, and high-performance backend infrastructure.
Maintain high architectural standards for multithreaded C daemons on FreeBSD/Linux, including shared-memory structures, high-performance inter-process communication, and lockless concurrency.
Serve as a primary technical escalation point for complex production issues, using core dump analysis, system profiling, and memory-leak detection to resolve system bottlenecks.
Contribute to architectural direction and lead engineering execution for next-generation inspection capabilities.
Collaborate across teams to deliver services and drive technology innovation.