Senior Manager, Software Development Engineering (Backend - Java)

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.

About the Role

We are looking for a Senior Manager, Software Development Engineering to lead our Common Platform Services team within the Zero Trust Exchange division. This team spans across all Zscaler products, driving core platforms such as Zscaler Workflow Automation, the Unified Authorization service, and other critical shared enterprise services.

In this role, you will play a pivotal part in delivering scalable, secure, and high-performing platforms and developer tooling to empower engineering teams across the organization. You will focus on enhancing platform efficiency, scalability, and developer experience while managing, mentoring, and growing senior technical talent.

What You’ll Do

• Drive Technical Roadmap & Execution: Lead the workflow engineering team to drive the technical roadmap, scale engineering talent, and guarantee flawless operational execution
• Foster Cross-Team Collaboration: Demonstrate strong cross-team collaboration and communication skills to align stakeholders and enable seamless roadmap execution
• Pioneer AI-Native SDLC Transformation: Bring modern transformation through the entire Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) to modernize the team and execute a completely AI-native engineering approach
• Provide Strategic Technical Leadership: Deliver deep technical leadership and decision-making to shape strategy and execution for common platform services across the organization
• Build Enterprise-Scale Web Services: Build enterprise-scale web service products for workflow automation and notification channels with deep integrations into Salesforce, AWS, and GCP

Who You Are (Success Profile)

• The Ideal Leader for This Role: You are an innovative, forward-thinking tech leader driven by complex problem-solving and modern software paradigms. You thrive at the intersection of team development, architecture, and developer enablement
• Driven by Innovation: Deeply curious about emerging tech, passionate about accelerating transformation, and constantly seeking better, more secure, and scalable solutions
• AI & Modernization Champion: Eager to leverage AI and automated tooling to reimagine how engineering teams build and deliver software
• High-Trust Collaborator: Ambitious for the team, creating an environment of candid feedback, clarity, and deep trust to achieve shared goals.
• Scale-Minded Strategist: Capable of connecting day-to-day execution to global business objectives, designing architectures and teams built for high-growth resilience

What We’re Looking For (Minimum Qualifications)

• AI & Tooling Curiosity: Demonstrated curiosity and active exploration of AI tools, with a proven history of integrating new technologies to enhance daily workflows and augment problem-solving
• Leadership & Delivery Experience: 12+ years of overall software engineering experience, including 5+ years of technical people management and end-to-end product/service delivery across public and private clouds
• Core Technical Expertise: 12+ years of hands-on software development experience, with solid expertise in AWS, GCP, Docker, Kubernetes, and Java/Spring frameworks
• Hyperscaler Leadership: Strong technical leadership in designing and building products on hyperscalers (AWS or GCP)
• Massive-Scale Resiliency: Extensive experience building cloud services engineered for high availability, massive scale, and fault tolerance

What Will Make You Stand Out (Preferred Qualifications)

• Executive Presence: Exceptional organizational leadership capabilities and communication skills tailored for executive visibility and stakeholder management Domain Expertise: Deep product domain experience in cybersecurity, networking, or enterprise workflow software (e.g., ServiceNow)
• AI Transformation Track Record: Proven ability to guide engineering teams through a comprehensive technical transformation journey utilizing modern AI tooling

#LI-SK3

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At Zscaler, we are committed to building a team that reflects the communities we serve and the customers we work with. We foster an inclusive environment that values all backgrounds and perspectives, emphasizing collaboration and belonging. Join us in our mission to make doing business seamless and secure.

Our Benefits program is one of the most important ways we support our employees. Zscaler proudly offers comprehensive and inclusive benefits to meet the diverse needs of our employees and their families throughout their life stages, including:

• Various health plans
• Time off plans for vacation and sick time
• Parental leave options
• Retirement options
• Education reimbursement
• In-office perks, and more!

Learn more about Zscaler's hybrid working model and benefits here.

By applying for this role, you adhere to applicable laws, regulations, and Zscaler policies, including those related to security and privacy standards and guidelines.

Zscaler is committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all individuals. We strive to create a workplace where employees are treated with respect and have the chance to succeed. All qualified applicants will be considered for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy or related medical conditions), age, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetic information, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local laws. See more information by clicking on the Know Your Rights: Workplace Discrimination is Illegal link.

Pay Transparency

Zscaler complies with all applicable federal, state, and local pay transparency rules.

Zscaler is committed to providing reasonable support (called accommodations or adjustments) in our recruiting processes for candidates who are differently abled, have long term conditions, mental health conditions or sincerely held religious beliefs, or who are neurodivergent or require pregnancy-related support.