Principal Software Development Engineer (Microservices)

Zscaler; Santa Clara (CA); Hybrid; USD 186,000 - 265,000; Full time

Job summary

Zscaler is seeking a Principal Software Development Engineer (Microservices) in Santa Clara, CA to lead the ZIA control plane modernization. You will guide API-first, domain-aligned microservices with active-active multi-region architectures, owning end-to-end delivery from API through storage in a cloud-native setup.

You will drive engineering excellence, collaborate across Product, SRE, Security, Data, and Architecture, and champion GitOps workflows, SLI/SLOs, tracing, and secure

Qualifications

• 12+ years in software development and 4+ years building/operating production microservices at scale.
• Proficiency in Go and distributed systems design.
• Experience with Kubernetes in AWS and Docker fundamentals.
• Strong SQL (PostgreSQL/MySQL) and NoSQL (DynamoDB/MongoDB) data modeling.
• Familiarity with AI/ML technologies is a plus and security practices in cloud environments.

Responsibilities

• Lead the technical roadmap to modernize the ZIA control plane with API-first, multi-region microservices.
• Design, develop, and operate low-latency, event-driven services end to end with modern delivery patterns.
• Ensure reliability with SLOs/SLIs, monitoring, tracing, and secure service-to-service communication.
• Collaborate across Product, SRE, Security, Data, and Architecture; contribute to governance and reviews.
• Embed security, cost optimization, and performance improvements across AWS primitives.

Skills

Go

Distributed systems

Kubernetes in AWS

SQL/NoSQL design

OpenTelemetry

Prometheus

Tools

Kafka

SQS

RabbitMQ

Argo CD

Flux

Docker

Kubernetes

Istio/Linkerd

Jaeger

Tempo

Schema registry

KMS/Vault

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 200+ public data centers globally and thousands of private sites 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

We are looking for a Principal Software Development Engineer (Microservices) to join our team. This is a hybrid role (in Santa Clara, CA office, minimum 3 days per week), reporting to the Senior Director, Software Development Engineering in the Engineering ZIA Core department. You will work on the control plane for the Zscaler Internet Access (ZIA) product, helping evolve the platform to meet massive scale with cloud-native, microservices-based architecture.

What you’ll do (Role Expectations)

• Lead the technical roadmap to modernize the ZIA control plane using API-first, domain-aligned microservices with clear service ownership and multi-region architectures (active-active, failover, disaster recovery)
• Design, develop, and operate low-latency, event-driven services end to end (API through storage) utilizing resilience patterns, progressive delivery (blue/green, canary, feature flags), GitOps workflows (Argo CD/Flux), and safe rollout/rollback strategies
• Drive engineering excellence through standards, code reviews, testing, paved-road patterns, API and event contract governance (versioning, consumer-driven contracts, schema registry, DLQs), and cross-functional partnerships across Product, SRE, Security, Data, and Architecture while representing designs in customer/partner forums
• Own service reliability and operability end to end, including SLI/SLOs (p95/p99 latency, availability), SLO-based alerting, error budgets, incident response, postmortems, and advanced observability with distributed tracing (OpenTelemetry, Jaeger/Tempo) and structured logging
• Embed microservices security (OAuth2/OIDC, mTLS, service-to-service authZ, KMS/Vault), supply-chain integrity (SBOM, SLSA), performance optimization, capacity planning, and cloud spend/autoscaling across AWS primitives

Who You Are (Success Profile)

• You thrive in ambiguity and are comfortable building the path as you walk it, viewing unstructured environments as raw material to build something meaningful.
• You act like an owner with a passion for the mission, operating with integrity, a bias for action, and the agility to navigate between high-level strategy and hands-on execution.
• You are a problem-solver who is energized by complex technical challenges and driven to deliver high-impact solutions.
• You are a high-trust collaborator who builds strong team relationships, embracing continuous feedback, candor, and respect to earn trust and achieve shared goals.
• You are a learner with a growth mindset, constantly seeking feedback and developing your skills with purpose to become a stronger teammate.

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 in software development with 4+ years building and operating production microservices at significant scale, including proficiency in Go
• Deep experience with distributed systems and messaging (Kafka preferred; SQS/RabbitMQ acceptable), alongside patterns such as CQRS and Event Sourcing where fit-for-purpose
• Kubernetes in AWS at scale (EKS preferred), strong Docker fundamentals, Infrastructure-as-Code, and GitOps workflows
• Strong SQL (PostgreSQL/MySQL/Amazon RDS/Aurora) and NoSQL (Cassandra/MongoDB/DynamoDB) design and scaling with familiarity with multi-region data trade-offs, alongside performance engineering and cost optimization in AWS
• Comprehensive reliability and security experience including SLIs/SLOs, error budgets, metrics (Prometheus), tracing (OpenTelemetry), SLO-based alerting, incident management, postmortems, service mesh (Istio/Linkerd), mTLS, OAuth2/OIDC, and secrets management (KMS/Vault)

What Will Make You Stand Out (Preferred Qualifications)

• Proven ability to leverage AI technologies and workflows to drive measurable operational efficiency
• Chaos engineering, advanced load/performance testing, fault injection, and disaster recovery drills combined with multi-region design expertise (active-active, partitioning, replication, eventual consistency) and migration leadership (strangler patterns, domain decomposition)
• Event contract governance (Avro/Protobuf with schema registry), DLQ processing strategies, and data replay tooling
• OSS contributions, technical talks, patents, or published design writing

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.

$185,500—$265,000 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.

Our Benefits program is one of the most important ways we support our employees. Zscaler proudly offers comprehensive and inclusive benefits to meet the diverse needs of our employees and their families throughout their life stages, including:

• 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.