Staff Software Development Engineer

Role

We are looking for a Staff Software Development Engineer to join our team.This is a Santa Clara, CA or Remote - USA role, reporting to the Director, Software Development Engineering in the Zero Trust Exchange department. We’re looking for a Staff Engineer to join our Zscaler Client Connector team. You will be working on the Client Connector, which protects corporate devices by securely and privately sending traffic from those devices to Zscaler’s global network, which can apply advanced web filtering and advanced Zero Trust policies. In your role, you will predominantly be using Rust along with platform-native languages & APIs to implement high-performance networking code that runs on multiple desktop platforms. You’ll be expected to improve the code quality and to build solid, testable, and well-documented foundations. You will be most successful in this role if you have a good understanding of System Programming (virtual memory, multi-threading, process lifecycle, kernel programming, system APIs, etc.) and networking protocols (TCP/IP, UDP, DNS, QUIC, H/3, proxying, etc.). You will also have to interact with other languages, such as Swift, C++, and Python. As a Staff Engineer, you will be expected to make significant contributions to the design and implementation of major development projects, working closely with our product managers and other teams to implement customer-impacting features. You will work on stimulating problems born out of the scale of our deployment, and the stringent quality, performance, and security requirements of our product.

What you’ll do (Role Expectations)

• Design and implement high-performance, low-complexity networking code for the Zscaler Client Connector predominantly using Rust
• Build solid, easily-testable, and well-documented foundations to improve code quality across multiple desktop platforms
• Debug complex network-related problems and implement solutions using systems programming and security protocols
• Contribute significantly to the design of major development projects and collaborate closely with product managers and cross-functional teams
• Communicate proactively and constructively to solve stimulating scale, quality, performance, and security problems

Who You Are (Success Profile)

• Thrive in ambiguity by comfortably building paths forward in a dynamic environment, viewing uncertainty as an opportunity to create meaningful impact.
• Act like an owner with a strong bias for action, navigating seamlessly between high-level strategy and hands-on execution to deliver high-quality outcomes.
• Foster high-trust collaboration, welcoming candor, respect, and constructive feedback to drive collective success for the entire team.
• Bring a positive force to the team, approaching complex challenges with constructive energy and a contagious 'can-do' spirit.
• Build pragmatically by balancing a drive for technical excellence with a passion for iteratively creating, testing, and shipping high-value solutions.

What We’re Looking for (Minimum Qualifications)

• Demonstrated curiosity and active exploration of AI tools, with a proven history of integrating new technologies to enhance daily workflows and augment problem-solving
• Minimum of 5+ years of experience with hands-on software development, in languages like C++ 
• Minimum of 3+ years of experience coding with Rust, particularly in systems programming and async frameworks like Tokio and Reqwest
• Deep experience with networking, particularly tunneling applications and IPv4/IPv6 transport mechanisms

What Will Make You Stand Out (Preferred Qualifications)

• Proven ability to leverage AI technologies and workflows to drive measurable operational efficiency
• Experience using AI coding tools throughout the software development life cycle (SDLC)
• Cross-platform development experience across multiple client operating systems, including macOS, Windows, iOS, and Android
• Experience with software development in Swift and Objective-C

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