Staff Software Engineer (C / Dataplane)

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 Staff Software Development Engineer (Datapath) to join our team. This is a hybrid role based in San Jose, CA, reporting to the Senior Manager Software Development Engineering in the Engineering department. You will play a critical role in expanding the capabilities of our datapath technology to drive the next level of product impact. Your work will directly add essential features and functionality to our core systems, ensuring scalable, high-performance, and robust software design. What you’ll do (Role Expectations) - Define software design specifications and implement bug-free code using test-driven methodology - Identify opportunities to refactor existing code for maintainability and reusability while owning the resolution of complex customer issues - Collaborate closely with cross-functional engineering teams including security, UI, platform, analytics, and quality assurance - Partner with Product Management to drive detailed product requirements - Lead a group of junior engineers by providing technical guidance, mentoring, and assisting in development details 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 - Extensive experience developing large-scale cloud networking and security applications, with expertise in software design and programming in C/C++, Go, or Python - Deep knowledge of networking protocols and services such as DNS, HTTP, TCP/IP, and SSL/TLS, ideally with an understanding of firewall policy enforcement - Proven experience working with AWS/Azure/GCP networking components, including transit gateway, IGW, NATGW, NACL, security groups, GWLB, ILB, and Route53 - Hands-on experience with AWS/Azure/GCP database services, PubSub mechanisms, and SDKs What Will Make You Stand Out (Preferred Qualifications) - Experience leveraging AI/ML technologies to optimize network datapath efficiency, automate routing performance, or improve intelligent threat-detection features - Familiarity or direct experience with developing security Firewall features - Prior experience building solutions for Software as a Service platforms and leveraging cloud-native infrastruc