Principal Software Engineer- Backend (Python/Golang)

Confirmed live in the last 24 hours

Zscaler

San Jose, California, USA

Hybrid

Posted March 31, 2026

Job Description

About Zscaler

Zscaler accelerates digital transformation to ensure our customers can be more agile, efficient, resilient, and secure. As an AI-forward enterprise, we are constantly pushing the envelope, leveraging the world’s largest security data lake to power our cloud-native Zero Trust Exchange platform. This innovation protects our 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 say, impact over activity. We seek innovators who actively use AI to amplify their impact and who thrive in an environment where we leverage intelligent systems to stay ahead of evolving threats. 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 be part of the team that’s helping to secure the AI age, we invite you to bring your talents to Zscaler and help shape the future of cybersecurity.

Role

We are looking for a Principal Software Engineer to join our Emerging Tech Dept team. This is a Hybrid role based onsite in San Jose three days a week, reporting to the Architect of Software Development Engineering.

As a key player in building the next-generation Zero Trust Networking Services, you will architect Zero Trust networking services and highly distributed system components. You will focus on algorithm efficiency and memory optimization to process packets at high speeds, ensuring low latency and system responsiveness during high loads. Collaborating closely with operations, you will drive the deployment, monitoring, and scaling of systems to identify hotspots and maintain performance as our customer base grows.

What you’ll do (Role Expectations)

Architect scalable database schemas and data models for a multi-tenant control plane, ensuring strict consistency across distributed relational and NoSQL stores
Design and implement secure, high-performance APIs to orchestrate complex provisioning workflows and integrate seamlessly with existing management platforms
Engineer high-throughput systems using distributed caching and messaging patterns to ensure low-latency signaling between control and data planes
Build resilient, auto-scaling microservices for lifecycle management and zero-touch provisioning, ensuring seamless deployment within cloud-native environments
Mentor engineers and collaborate cross-functionally to drive end-to-end product delivery, while leading advanced troubleshooting to ensure successful customer deployments

Who You Are (Success Profile)

You thrive in ambiguity. You're comfortable building the path as you walk it. You thrive in a dynamic environment, seeing ambiguity not as a hindrance, but as the raw material to build something meaningful.
You act like an owner. Your passion for the mission fuels your bias for action. You operate with integrity because you genuinely care about the outcome. You adapt to what’s needed, navigating seamlessly between high-level strategy and hands-on execution.
You are a problem-solver. You seek out challenges because you are energized by finding solutions, knowing that solving the hard problems delivers the biggest impact.
You are customer-obsessed. You build deep empathy for the customer—both internal and external—and anchor your decisions in solving their real-world problems. You champion their needs from start to finish, knowing their success is our success.
You operate with urgency. You understand that in a high-growth environment, speed and quality are not mutually exclusive. You have a relentless focus on execution and a bias for action, delivering high-impact results quickly to win for the customer and the team.

What We’re Looking for (Minimum Qualifications)

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