Principal Software Development Engineer- Go/Java

Zscaler, Santa Clara, California +1

The role

We are looking for a Principal Software Development Engineer (Service Platform & Orchestration) to join our team. This is a Hybrid (3 days in office) role, reporting to the Director, Software Engineering in the Zero Trust Exchange department. In this high-ownership position, you will engineer the management plane and reliability systems that govern ZIA’s fleet lifecycle at massive scale. This is a hands-on building role where you will lead the transformation of our infrastructure from legacy automation into a stateful, durable management plane (built on Temporal) to achieve deterministic “one-touch” provisioning and lifecycle operations.

You will treat “infrastructure as a distributed system,” developing self-healing capabilities and AI-driven SRE practices for a global fleet of 100k+ instances.

What you will do

Lead the hands-on development and migration to a workflow-as-code platform (Temporal), building replay-safe, idempotent workflows that ensure deterministic operations across a global scale

All jobs

Principal Software Development Engineer- Go/Java

Zscaler, Santa Clara, California +1

The role

You will treat “infrastructure as a distributed system,” developing self-healing capabilities and AI-driven SRE practices for a global fleet of 100k+ instances.

What you will do

Lead the hands-on development and migration to a workflow-as-code platform (Temporal), building replay-safe, idempotent workflows that ensure deterministic operations across a global scale

What you need

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 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.
You think at scale. You connect your day-to-day work to the larger company mission and think globally. You build solutions, processes, and teams that are not just effective today but are built to last and support a high-growth, global organization.
You are resilient and adaptable. You view change as an opportunity and setbacks as temporary. You maintain composure and focus in high-pressure situations, guiding yourself and your team through complexity with a steady, positive hand.

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
BS/MS in Computer Science or a related technical field with 12+ years of experience in hyperscale systems, with a deep understanding of the unique failure modes and technical hurdles that only emerge at massive scale
Mastery of backend systems languages with a strong preference for Go (or deep expertise in Java, C++, or Python with a demonstrated ability to rapidly adopt Go), along with a proven track record of setting the bar for code quality and distributed system correctness.
Strong experience designing and operating complex distributed systems, with a focus on solving systemic challenges in concurrency, failure handling, and performance optimization
Proven track record of developing Platform APIs (REST/gRPC) with strong guarantees for idempotency, verification, and safe rollout patterns

Principal Software Development Engineer- Go/Java

The role

What you will do

Principal Software Development Engineer- Go/Java

The role

What you will do

What you need

Who You Are (Success Profile)

What We’re Looking for (Minimum Qualifications)

Nice to have

Pay and benefits

Base Pay Range

Pay Transparency

About Zscaler

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