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Zscaler

Staff Machine Learning Engineer - Data Lake, Anomaly Detection

Santa Clara, California, USA
Salary
$152,000 - $190,000
Level
Staff
Work type
Hybrid · Santa Clara

Not stated in the posting: visa.

Open. First seen 2 October 2026.

Apply on the company's site →

About the role

Zscaler's standard text

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 Staff Software Engineer to join our team. This is a Hybrid role, reporting to the Sr. Manager, Software Engineering in the Zscaler Digital Experience (Core Intelligence and Data) department. You will join the team responsible for building the world’s largest cloud security platform, helping us enhance services and increase our global footprint. You will play a pivotal role in enabling organizations worldwide to harness speed and agility through a cloud-first strategy, leveraging our multitenant architecture that serves over 15 million users.

What you’ll do (Role Expectations)

Own agentic troubleshooting framework, framing high-impact use cases, designing workflows and playbooks, and building processes for all products

Evaluate and integrate state-of-the-art GenAI advances to deliver reliable and cost-efficient production features, utilizing LLMs, various machine learning models, data processing, fine-tuning, and inference optimization

Work with the world class cloud platform and data lakes for feature exploration and generation

Handle volume data with the real time pipeline for data processing and aggregation

Design, implement, and operate scalable production systems, specifically focusing on microservices, data pipelines, orchestration, and caching

Who You Are (Success Profile)

Thrive in ambiguity, comfortably building the path as you walk it and viewing dynamic environments as opportunities to construct meaningful solutions.

Operate with a strong ownership mindset, combining a passion for the mission with high integrity and the ability to navigate seamlessly between high-level strategy and hands-on execution.

Demonstrate a proactive problem-solving focus, eagerly running toward challenges and remaining laser-focused on delivering high-impact outcomes.

Build high-trust collaboration, prioritizing team success, welcoming constructive feedback, and practicing clear and respectful candor to establish strong partnerships.

Maintain a continuous growth mindset, actively seeking feedback and development to grow as a partner, teammate, and purpose-driven leader.

What We’re Looking for (Minimum Qualifications)

Zscaler's standard text

Foundational understanding of AI/ML technologies and experience leveraging, securing, or positioning AI-driven solutions to optimize outcomes within your functional domain

BS in Computer Science with 6+ years of experience, or MS/PhD with 5+ years of experience solving real-world problems using AI/ML and distributed systems

Proficiency in programming, data structures, algorithms, and machine learning, with exceptional problem-solving skills driven by first-principles thinking

Hands-on experience with AI modeling, including feature generation, prompt engineering, evaluations, and productionization

Experience in the full lifecycle of ML models (building, deployment, monitoring, optimization) alongside expertise in designing and operating distributed microservices using Kubernetes and Docker in Python, Go, or Java

What Will Make You Stand Out (Preferred Qualifications)

Proven ability to leverage AI technologies and workflows to drive measurable operational efficiency

Experience designing and scaling autonomous AI agents, agentic orchestration workflows, and advanced large language model (LLM) tooling to automate complex cloud infrastructure troubleshooting or incident response

Experience fine-tuning and deploying proprietary SLMs/LLMs at scale, with a focus on optimizing latency, cost, safety, and evaluations

Experience delivering production-ready AI systems, including expertise in anomaly detection, event correlation, incident investigation, and resilient systems with well-defined service-level objectives

#LI-CM3

#LI-Hybrid

Zscaler’s salary ranges are benchmarked and are determined by role and level. The range displayed on each job posting reflects the minimum and maximum target for new hire salaries for the position across all US locations and could be higher or lower based on a multitude of factors, including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training.

The base salary range listed for this full-time position excludes commission/ bonus/ equity (if applicable) + benefits.

Base Pay Range

$152,000—$190,000 USD

Zscaler's standard text

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.

Zscaler's standard text

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's standard text

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.

What this role asks for

Particular to this role

Docker · Golang · Java · Microservices · Prompt Engineering

Rare in Zscaler's other 221 open postings.

Standard for data science / ML roles

LLM · Machine Learning · Python

Common in data science / ML postings at any company.

In most of Zscaler's ads

Zero Trust

Named in most of its open postings, whatever the role.

58% of this description is written for the role. The rest is Zscaler's standard text, folded away below.

Read against Zscaler's other open postings on this site.

The team: Zero Trust Exchange HIRES STEADILY

This role is one of 46 open in Zero Trust Exchange. 18 were posted in the last 30 days and the oldest in November: a team that hires all year rather than one being built.

WHAT THE TEAM WORKS WITH, ACROSS ITS POSTINGS

Zero Trust (46 of 46), AWS (24 of 46), Python (23 of 46), Kubernetes (22 of 46), Golang (20 of 46), CI/CD (16 of 46), Linux (16 of 46)

OTHER ROLES ON THIS TEAM

From the team and dates on Zscaler's own job board.

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