Head of Talent Agility

Zscaler; Santa Clara (CA); On-site; USD 175,000 - 250,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Various health plans

Time off plans for vacation and sick

Parental leave options

Retirement options

Education reimbursement

In-office perks, and more!

Job summary

Zscaler's Head of Talent Agility will architect a dynamic talent operating system focused on AI-powered inferred skills, self-directed career pathing, vibrant marketplaces, and talent intelligence that informs mobility and development across the enterprise.

You will champion agile talent strategies, workforce mobility, and succession readiness, partnering with People Strategy, TA and HRBPs to translate insights into action.

Qualifications

• 10+ years in Talent Strategy or Organizational Development with at least 5 years in a leadership role.
• Proven disruption: reimagining legacy talent practices with agile, tech-enabled approaches.
• Expertise in Talent Tech & AI: internal talent marketplaces and skills inference.
• Strategic execution with hands-on program building in a leadership context.
• Agility, ownership and matrix leadership in a hyper-growth environment.

Responsibilities

• Design and launch a modern AI-native talent architecture and governance.
• Develop AI-powered profiling with inferred, self-declared, and peer skills.
• Create internal talent marketplace aligning career interests with business needs.
• Provide talent and capability intelligence for workforce planning and succession.
• Translate talent insights into leadership and development interventions.

Skills

Talent strategy

Organizational development

Leadership

Talent technology

AI skills inference

Agile workforce

Job description

Zscaler (NASDAQ: ZS) accelerates digital transformation so customers can be more agile, efficient, resilient, and secure. The Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange platform protects thousands of customers from cyberattacks and data loss by securely connecting users, devices, and applications in any location. Distributed across 160+ public exchanges globally and thousands of private exchanges at the edge, the SASE-based Zero Trust Exchange is the world’s largest in-line cloud security platform.

We believe the future of work is Human + AI and are building an AI-native enterprise where human potential is amplified by machine intelligence to solve the world’s hardest security challenges. Driven by deep customer obsession, we are committed to the mission, outcome, and to each other. We bring these commitments to life through three core behaviors: ownership and collaboration, trust through outcomes and impact, and a challenge culture with ongoing feedback. Ready to make an impact at the company pioneering security transformation in the AI era? Join us at Zscaler.

Role Overview

Are you ready to dismantle traditional, administrative HR and build the future of talent management?

We are seeking a visionary Head of Talent Agility to join our People & Culture team. Traditional job architecture and legacy talent designations and processes are too structured and plodding for the age of AI. At Zscaler, we are building an AI-Native P&C organization, and we need a disruptive leader to architect the talent operating system that brings our enterprise talent strategy to life.

In this role, you will architect a dynamic "talent operating system" focused on AI-powered inferred skills, self-directed career pathing, robust talent intelligence, and vibrant job marketplaces. You will champion a talent philosophy that is agile, technology-driven, and centered on uncovering emergent skillsets, and aspirations to enable seamless employee mobility, workforce agility, and next-generation succession planning.

Business Outcomes You Are Responsible For

• Enterprise Talent Intelligence: Establish an actionable, dynamic view of enterprise talent and capabilities to identify and close critical skill gaps before they impact business velocity.
• Talent Fluidity & Deployment: Create the intelligence and mechanisms that enable leaders and HRBPs to identify and deploy talent against the highest-priority business and capability needs.
• Accelerated Internal Mobility: Significantly increase the percentage of roles filled internally by seamlessly matching employee skills and aspirations to open opportunities via the talent marketplace in partnership with Talent Acquisition and HRBPs.
• Enhanced Retention & Engagement: Increase career growth and internal opportunity for high-performing and critical talent, contributing to stronger retention and engagement.
• Robust Succession Readiness: Build a demonstrable, data-backed succession system for leadership and critical-role pipeline integrating performance, potential, skills and readiness to ensure business continuity and organizational agility.

Key Responsibilities

• Build the Talent Architecture & Intelligence Engine: Design and launch a comprehensive, modern talent architecture, intelligence and mechanisms purpose-built for an AI-native, hyper-growth enterprise purpose-built for an AI-native, hyper-growth enterprise rather than constrained by traditional talent management practices, including our talent philosophy, operating principles, performance indicators, processes, and tools across talent intelligence, career architecture, mobility, talent reviews and succession integrated with Zscaler’s performance and development ecosystem.
• AI-Powered Talent Profiling: Partner with People Strategy & Operations/People Science to translate workforce data into actionable talent intelligence to build dynamic profiles based on inferred, self-declared, and peer/manager-declared skills, moving beyond static job descriptions to map true organizational capability. Uncover emergent skillsets both internally and externally to proactively design development plans to meet future talent needs.
• Self-Directed Career Pathing & Mobility: In partnership with TA, HRBPs and People Technology, conceptualize and deploy an internal talent marketplace that dynamically matches employees' self-declared career interests and evolving skills with Zscaler's business needs and strategic initiatives.
• Strategic and Proactive Talent & Succession Intelligence: Provide talent and capability intelligence that informs enterprise and functional workforce planning, succession and development strategies.
• Translate Talent Intelligence into Action: Partner across People Success to translate talent insights into leadership, learning, performance, career and team interventions that build priority capabilities and strengthen the talent pipeline.

The Skills You Bring

• 10+ years of high-impact experience in Talent Strategy, or Organizational Development, with at least 5 years in a leadership capacity (Director level or equivalent).
• Proven track record of disruption: Demonstrated experience reimagining legacy talent practices and replacing them with simpler, agile, technology-enabled approaches centered on skills and mobility.
• Expertise in Talent Tech & AI: Deep understanding of internal talent marketplaces, skills-ontology platforms, and talent intelligence tools. A strong appetite for utilizing AI to infer skills and drive workforce planning.
• Strategic execution: Ability to operate with the strategic foresight of an executive advisor while remaining deeply involved in the daily craft of program building (a true player-coach).
• Agility & Ownership: An "impact over activity" mindset, coupled with high diplomatic acumen and the ability to thrive in a matrixed, hyper-growth environment.
• Respect the Past to Innovate the Future: Innovate by learning from the past, not being limited by it. Embrace curiosity, balance new ideas with practical application, and have the courage to challenge old ways to find simpler, more effective solutions. True innovation demands a curious mind that questions everything and applies a simplified, practical lens to discover what is essential.

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, and relevant education or training.

The base salary range listed for this full-time position excludes commission/ bonus/ equity (if applicable) + benefits.

Base Pay Range

$175,000—$250,000 USD

At Zscaler, we are committed to building a team that reflects the communities we serve and the customers we work with. We foster an inclusive environment that values all backgrounds and perspectives, emphasizing collaboration and belonging. Join us in our mission to make doing business seamless and secure.

Benefits

• Various health plans
• Time off plans for vacation and sick time
• Parental leave options
• Retirement options
• Education reimbursement
• In-office perks, and more!

Learn more about Zscaler's hybrid working model and benefits here.

By applying for this role, you adhere to applicable laws, regulations, and Zscaler policies, including those related to security and privacy standards and guidelines.

Zscaler is committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all individuals. We strive to create a workplace where employees are treated with respect and have the chance to succeed. All qualified applicants will be considered for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy or related medical conditions), age, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetic information, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local laws. See more information by clicking on the Know Your Rights: Workplace Discrimination is Illegal link.

Pay Transparency

Zscaler complies with all applicable federal, state, and local pay transparency rules.

Zscaler is committed to providing reasonable support (called accommodations or adjustments) in our recruiting processes for candidates who are differently abled, have long term conditions, mental health conditions or sincerely held religious beliefs, or who are neurodivergent or require pregnancy-related support.