Sr. Production Engineer

Zscaler; San Jose (CA); Hybrid; USD 104,000 - 148,000; Full time

Job summary

Zscaler is seeking a Sr. Production Engineer to join the Cloud Infrastructure & Operations team. The role is a hybrid position with three days on-site in San Jose, CA or Bellevue, WA, reporting to the VP of Site Reliability Engineering.

You will drive an automation-first culture to improve the reliability of our global multi-cloud platform. You will design and implement highly available infrastructure across AWS, Azure, GCP and bare-metal, build self-healing systems, and define observability

Qualifications

• Foundational understanding of AI/ML technologies and their governance in production.
• 4 years of reliability, scalability, and availability experience for large-scale services.
• Strong networking, Linux/UNIX systems, and distributed architectures.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement highly available, scalable infrastructure across cloud and bare-metal environments.
• Drive an automation-first culture by writing code (Python/Go) to reduce toil and enable self-healing systems.
• Implement observability with Prometheus, Grafana, OpenTelemetry; define SLIs/SLOs and error budgets.
• Lead incident response as Commander, develop runbooks, and perform post-incident reviews.
• Partner with engineering to conduct operability reviews.

Skills

AI/ML basics

Reliability engineering

Networking & Linux

On-call incident mgmt

ITIL framework

Tools

Prometheus

Grafana

OpenTelemetry

Ansible

Terraform

Job description

Bellevue, Washington, USA; Remote - USA; San Jose, California, USA

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 Sr. Production Engineer to join our team. This is a hybrid (3 days a week in San Jose, CA) or Bellevue, WA, reporting to the VP, Site Reliability Engineering in the Cloud Infrastructure & Operations department. Join Zscaler to be a force multiplier for the reliability of a global platform protecting over 15 million users. In this role, you will provide the technical vision and hands-on execution to drive an "automation-first" culture across the company. By maturing our observability and architectural standards, you will directly reduce our Mean Time to Mitigate (MTTM) and shape the scalability of our globally distributed, multi-cloud infrastructure.

What you’ll do (Role Expectations)

• Design and implement highly available, scalable infrastructure across AWS, Azure, GCP, and bare-metal environments
• Drive an "automation-first" culture by writing code (Python/Go) to eliminate manual toil and build self-healing systems
• Implement and maintain sophisticated observability (Prometheus, Grafana, OpenTelemetry), define SLIs/SLOs, and establish error budgets
• Act as a lead Incident Commander (TDO on-call), develop response playbooks, and conduct deep-dive post-incident analyses
• Partner with Engineering and partner teams to conduct operability reviews

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
• 4 years of experience managing reliability, scalability, and availability for large-scale production services with deep expertise in programming (e.g., Python, Go, or C/C++)
• Strong background in networking protocols, Linux/FreeBSD systems, and distributed architecture
• Experience in high-stakes incident management and participation in a 24/7 on-call rotation
• Proficiency in leveraging ITIL frameworks and incident data to drive service maturity through systematic problem management and technical operability reviews

What Will Make You Stand Out (Preferred Qualifications)

• Experience implementing AI-driven AIOps tools, machine learning models for anomaly detection, or predictive capacity planning to optimize infrastructure reliability and automate incident response
• Extensive experience with public cloud (AWS, Azure, GCP), Infrastructure-as-Code (Ansible, Terraform), and chaos engineering or disaster recovery planning at scale
• Expertise in global routing (BGP), traffic tunneling (GRE, IPSec), L7 proxy architectures (HAProxy), DNS at scale, and OS networking stack internals

#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, 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

$103,600 - $148,000 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:

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

Learn more about Zscaler's hybrid working model and benefitshere .

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 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.

Voluntary Self-Identification

For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey. Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiring process or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in a confidential file.

As set forth in Zscaler’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy, we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

Disability Status and categories include: Alcohol or other substance use disorder; Autoimmune disorder; Blind or low vision; Cancer; Cardiovascular or heart disease; etc.