Zscaler (NASDAQ: ZS) accelerates digital transformation so customers can be more agile, efficient, resilient, and secure. The Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange platform protects thousands of customers from cyberattacks and data loss by securely connecting users, devices, and applications in any location. Distributed across 200+ public data centers globally and thousands of private sites at the edge, the SASE-based Zero Trust Exchange is the world’s largest in-line cloud security platform.
We believe the future of work is Human + AI and are building an AI-native enterprise where human potential is amplified by machine intelligence to solve the world’s hardest security challenges. Driven by deep customer obsession, we are committed to the mission, outcome, and to each other. We bring these commitments to life through three core behaviors: ownership and collaboration, trust through outcomes and impact, and a challenge culture with ongoing feedback. Ready to make an impact at the company pioneering security transformation in the AI era? Join us at Zscaler.
Role
We are looking for a Senior Staff AI Engineer to join our Information Technology Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Engineering team, reporting directly to the Senior Manager, AI Engineering, based out of our Santa Clara, CA office on a 3-day hybrid schedule. In this hands-on leadership role, you will serve as the technical lead across two high-impact organizations—the AI Platform group and the AI Solutions and Support group—defining architectural vision, establishing core enterprise infrastructure, such as model gateways and context management, and driving production-grade AI applications and operational workflows across global teams.
What you'll do
Architect and scale enterprise AI platform capabilities, including model gateways, intelligent routing, cost governance, LLM observability, evaluation pipelines, and long-term agent memory
Direct technical execution for AI solutions and support, spearheading enterprise AI platform administration, intelligent search experiences, and scalable L2 operational support frameworks
Lead distributed engineering teams across the US and India, aligning roadmap priorities, conducting technical reviews, and fostering seamless communication across time zones
Establish engineering excellence and production AI quality gates, overseeing hands-on code development, CI/CD pipelines, regression suites, and latency and cost optimization
Partner with cross-functional stakeholders in Security, Legal, Privacy, and enterprise business units to ensure compliant, secure, and impactful AI enablement
Who You Are
You are a seasoned technical leader who thrives at the intersection of enterprise architecture, distributed team leadership, and hands-on software engineering.
You possess deep technical breadth in architecting production-grade LLM applications, retrieval-augmented generation systems, and comprehensive AI evaluation frameworks.
You are an operational driver with a proven track record of reducing systemic friction, resolving production incidents, and automating support processes.
You excel at bridging time zones and cultures, empowering both internal engineers and external partners through empathetic mentorship and clear technical guidance.
You are an articulate communicator and collaborative partner who seamlessly aligns technical strategy with executive stakeholders across business, security, and governance functions.
What We're Looking for
Demonstrated hands-on experience building and deploying production-grade AI/LLM applications, including prompt engineering, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), agents, function calling/MCP, and model evaluation or observability frameworks
8+ years of professional software engineering experience, with a Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience
3+ years of technical leadership experience guiding distributed engineering teams and external contractors…