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Zscaler is seeking a Staff Software Development Engineer (Backend) to join the Engineering team in Bangalore, reporting to the Director of Threat Research. This is a hybrid role focused on architecting, scaling, and operating complex distributed systems and cloud-native platforms.
In this role, you will own end-to-end technical initiatives across backend services and APIs, setting high standards for reliability, performance, and maintainability. You will lead the design, development, testing, and evolution of services with a focus on scalability and operational excellence. Key responsibilities include:
• Lead the design, development, testing, and evolution of backend services and APIs, making sound architectural trade-offs with focus on scalability, reliability, performance, and maintainability
• Drive services end-to-end—development, deployment, scaling, monitoring, and ongoing production support—and set the standard for operational ownership across the team
• Design and manage services in containerized environments, leading deployment strategy, scaling, and troubleshooting on Kubernetes
• Lead incident response and root-cause analysis across distributed systems, monitor service health, debug complex failures, and drive systemic fixes that improve long-term production reliability
• Work across cloud infrastructure and compute environments to support workload deployment, service configuration, and operational troubleshooting, including multi-environment and capacity considerations
You are an owner with a strong bias for action, operating with integrity and navigating seamlessly between high-level strategy and hands-on execution. You are a high-trust collaborator ambitious for the team, customer-obsessed, and driven by innovation in solving complex technical challenges. You lead with integrity and hold yourself and others to high standards of accountability.
Zscaler is a NASDAQ-listed company that accelerates digital transformation through its Zero Trust Exchange platform, protecting thousands of customers from cyberattacks and data loss. The company operates 200+ public data centers globally and is building an AI-native enterprise where human potential is amplified by machine intelligence.
REQUIREMENTS:
• Foundational understanding of AI/ML technologies and experience leveraging, securing, or positioning AI-driven solutions to optimize outcomes within your functional domain
• 5+ years owning backend or distributed production services, with strong expertise in Python, Go, or Rust and working proficiency in a second language
• Proven experience building, scaling, and troubleshooting high-volume production APIs and backend services using containers and Kubernetes
• Experience with cloud platforms, with Amazon Web Services (AWS) or Google Cloud Platform (GCP) experience preferred
• Strong system design, performance, and reliability fundamentals with proven ability to lead distributed root-cause analysis and make independent architectural decisions
• Experience working with AI-assisted development and engineering workflows, applying AI tools for code generation, code review, testing, debugging, and operational automation to improve engineering velocity and quality
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:
• Proven ability to leverage AI technologies and workflows to drive measurable operational efficiency
• Hands-on expertise deploying, operating, and troubleshooting production Kubernetes workloads across large-scale multi-cloud environments
• Strong, production-level proficiency in two or more of Python, Go, and Rust, or familiarity with C/C++ for systems-level or performance-sensitive components
• Deep understanding of authentication (SSO, OAuth, OIDC) and observability (metrics, logs, traces) to resolve production issues across app and infra layers, with proven ability to leverage AI workflows for operational efficiency
