Senior Manager - Software Development Engineering

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 Senior Manager, Software Development Engineering to join our team. This is a hybrid India role, reporting to the Engineering Director in the ZIA Platform Engineering department. You will lead a high-performing engineering team for our flagship Zscaler Internet Access (ZIA) platform. Your focus will be on delivering key components, driving execution excellence, and building a strong engineering culture centered on quality, scalability, and customer impact. What you’ll do (Role Expectations) - Lead and develop a team of Engineers, fostering a culture of accountability, empathy, and technical excellence - Drive end-to-end delivery of features and services for the ZIA platform, ensuring scalability, reliability, and performance - Collaborate with Product Management and Architecture to translate roadmap priorities into execution plans - Partner with global engineering teams to ensure seamless integration and alignment across distributed systems - Champion engineering best practices and drive operational excellence through metrics, SLAs, and continuous improvement 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 - 10+ years of software engineering experience, including 4+ years in people management delivering production-grade software - Strong experience building and operating high-performance datapath, networking, or large-scale distributed systems - Deep understanding of network security fundamentals, including SWG, L4–L7 proxies, firewalls, and packet processing - Proven ability to deliver complex projects on time with high quality across geographically distributed teams What Will Make You Stand Out (Preferred Qualifications) - Experience implementing AI-assisted engineering workflows, predictive performance modeling, or utilizing intelligent automation to optimize high-throughput distributed systems - Prior experience with cloud-native architectures, high-throughput, low-latency systems, and exposure to Zero Trust security models or large-scale network security platforms - Proven track record of leading India-U.S. collaboration in a global delivery model #LI-Hybri