Senior Principal Software Engineer - Remote Cloud & AI

EngRadar; San Jose (CA); Hybrid; USD 217,000 - 310,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health plans

Time off

Parental leave

Retirement options

Education reimbursement

In-office perks

Job summary

Zscaler is seeking a Senior Principal Software Engineer to define technical vision for broad software domains and lead cross-functional initiatives in a hybrid/remote setup in the US. This role emphasizes architecture leadership, high availability, and automation-first culture across a globally distributed, multi-cloud infrastructure.

You will drive design standards, champion performance optimization, and mentor engineers while ensuring reliability and long-term impact across products that

Qualifications

• 12 years of experience in software engineering with focus on architecting large-scale distributed systems.
• Experience designing scalable, high-performance software in cloud-native distributed environments.
• Deep expertise in one or more backend languages: Java, Go, C, or Python.
• Foundational understanding of AI/ML technologies and experience applying AI-driven solutions.
• Experience leveraging ITIL frameworks and conducting high-stakes incident management.

Responsibilities

• Lead design and development of scalable, performant distributed systems in cloud and hybrid environments.
• Architect major software components and review critical design proposals for performance and maintainability.
• Promote engineering excellence through strong design practices, observability, and operational readiness.
• Mentor senior engineers and attract top technical talent to Zscaler.
• Act as lead Incident Commander and develop response playbooks; conduct post-incident analyses.

Skills

Distributed systems design

Cloud-native architectures

Java

Go

C

Python

AI/ML awareness

Incident management

Tools

Kubernetes

Job description

Zscaler is seeking a Senior Principal Software Engineer to define technical vision for broad software domains and lead cross-functional initiatives in a hybrid/remote setup in the US. This role emphasizes architecture leadership, high availability, and automation-first culture across a globally distributed, multi-cloud infrastructure.

You will drive design standards, champion performance optimization, and mentor engineers while ensuring reliability and long-term impact across products that