Principal Software Development Engineer

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 Development Engineer to join our team. This is a hybrid (3 days/week) or remote (within the Pacific Timezone) role, reporting to the Senior Manager, Software Engineering in the Zero Trust Exchange department. As a Principal Software Engineer you will build the backend systems that keep the product fast, reliable, and able to scale as usage grows. You will create microservices and event-driven workflows, and ensure data can be ingested and queried efficiently across relational, graph, and time-series databases. You will also drive cross-team execution by collaborating closely with multiple groups to deliver high-quality results on tight timelines. What you’ll do (Role Expectations) Architect and deliver scalable microservices on EKS (GoLang): design, build, and operate production services that meet uptime, latency, and scale goals Build event-driven pipelines with Kafka and MQTT: implement asynchronous workflows that are resilient, observable, and easy to evolve as product needs change Design high-performance data models and access patterns: optimize ingest and querying across RDS MySQL, Neo4J, and ElasticSearch for correctness, speed, and cost efficiency Harden production readiness and operational excellence: establish monitoring, alerting, tracing, and on-call standards; drive root-cause fixes and reliability improvements Lead cross-team delivery and technical direction: align stakeholders, break down complex work, and execute quickly while maintaining a high bar for quality and security 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. True ownership involves leveraging dynamic range: the ability to navigate seamlessly between high-level strategy and hands-on execution. You are a problem-solver. You love running towards the challenges because you are laser-focused on finding the solution, knowing that solving the hard problems delivers the biggest impact. You are a high-trust collaborator. You are ambitious for the team, not just yourself. You embrace our challenge culture by giving and receiving ongoing feedback—knowing that candor delivered with clarity and respect is the truest form of teamwork and the fastest way to earn trust. You are a learner. You have a true growth mindset and are obsessed with your own development, actively seeking feedback to become a better partner and a stronger teammate. You love what you do and you do it with purpose. What We’re Looking for (Minimum Qualifications) Foundational understanding of AI/ML technologies and experience leveraging, securing, or positioning AI-driven solutions to optimize outcomes within your functional domain 12+ years of experience in backend engineering designing and shipping highly scalable microservices in production developed in Go Proven experience with event-driven, asynchronous architectures using messaging/streaming platforms such as Kafka Strong data engineering and persistence skills building efficient ingest and query patterns across relational databases (MySQL) plus at least one of ElasticSearch or Neo4J Hands-on experience running services on Kubernetes (ideally EKS), including deployment, troubleshooting, and operational ownership What Will Make You Stand Out (Preferred Qualifications) Experience leveraging AI-driven development tools, predictive performance modeling, or intelligent microservice telemetry to optimize high-throughput distributed systems Proven ability to profile and optimize distributed systems end-to-end (latency, throughput, resource usage), including performance tuning across services, databases, and messaging Strong track record designing debuggability/observability for distributed applications alongside experience defining, operationalizing, and driving product decisions based on SLIs/SLOs #LI-Hybrid #LI-CM3 Zscaler’s salary ranges are benchmarked and are determined by role and level. The range displayed on each job posting reflects the minimum and maximum target for new hire salaries for the position across all US locations and could be higher or lower based on a multitude of factors, including job-related skills, experience, an